Most of you reading this post (including me, the one who wrote it) hail from a modern culture with broken food traditions and minimal dietary wisdom. At the same time, we all descend from cultures with deep connection to the land and diets with high nutritional content. These facts are often unseen, kept as ungraspable wisps of lore by a society that is convinced it is at the pinnacle of everything human. Yet, there are so many examples of poor dietary wisdom that could be highlighted from this country. Here are just a few.
1. Blue corn. Many have seen different corn in an array of colors—though that which we eat tends to be quite pale (often a yellowish color). Blue corn, which has been present for many 1000s of years, is made darker by a group of plant pigments called anthocyanins. These pigments, or plant chemicals, have a host of benefits, including antioxidant ability, anti-cancer actions, assisting with metabolic syndromes, lower inflammation, benefit the eyes, reduce elevated blood pressure, and slows aging by protecting DNA from mutation. In fact, one study demonstrated that the antioxidant ability of blue corn was 14 times that of yellow corn. All those anthocyanins preventing cancer from proliferating throughout your body. Now think—where do you see blue (and other cultivars of corn with brightly colored kernels) most often? Not on our plates. They are most often used as autumn decorations on porches. People love the colors (and they are wonderful), but they are used like a harvest-time wreath, and we consume the high-carbohydrate, low anthocyanin kinds that can be rightly said to do little in the way of protecting us from cancer and chronic disease.
2. Chia. Salvia hispanica, the plant that produces chia seeds, is a species in the mint family native to South America. This food is rich in a number of constituents that tremendously benefit human health. They are extremely rich in the plant form of omega-3 fatty acids (called Alpha Linolenic Acid, or ALA). These fats, which are essential in our diet because our body can’t manufacture, are an important aspect of a healthy diet. About 75% of the fats in chia are ALA, and a diet high in omega-3 fats (relative to omega-6 fats) improves the functioning of our immune system and reduces inflammation. Chia is also rich in antioxidants soluble fiber, polyphenols, and micronutrients. Collectively, these support cardiovascular health, manage weight, reduce blood sugar levels, increase bone health, and protect from cancer. And what does the American culture do with chia seeds—chia pets! We spread them on ceramic shapes and sprout them to create silly figurines. Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia! If we are going to ship them to the United States, we should be consuming them, not making pretend pets out of them.
3. Grain-fed animals. I have seen more than once advertisements for corn-fed beef or corn-fed pork, as if this was the premier version of these animal foods. They aren’t—in fact they are not nearly as supportive to your health as is the meat from animals consuming a biologically normal version of their diet (the ancestors of cows and pigs don’t didn’t eat solely grain). Pastured animals have a variety of health benefits (when their flesh and organs are consumed) compared with grain-fed ones. Using the flesh of the cow for examples, pastured-beef has five-times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (remember: better immune system function and less inflammation). Pastured beef has more vitamin A and vitamin E (which also benefit your immune system and protect you from cancer). Another one that many people aren’t aware of is conjugated linoleic acid (or CLA). This fatty acid is 300–500% higher is grass-fed vs. grain-fed cows. This fat helps to lower weight (yes, you read that correctly) and protects against type-2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. It is something that used to be present in the meats consumed by Americans but as the industrial food system transitioned to CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operation), it was easier to just feed the livestock corn (and blood and newspaper and all sorts of things cows shouldn’t have to consume). In the end, the cow’s health suffered and so did ours (we are connected through our diet).
Where am I going with all of this? I’m trying to make the point that if you are tired of watching loved ones suffer from chronic disease that takes away their enjoyment of life (or worse, die of these ailments), you can at least change what you and your family consume. Your diet is the single most important piece of health that you have control over (at least for a significant proportion of the people reading this right now). But, to prompt change, you first have to understand that what you have learned about diet (if anything) and what this government promulgates as a healthy lifestyle should be largely ignored in favor or study about traditional diets and ancestral health. It is life-changing information, and it is empowering knowledge. You can free yourself of an industrial diet and the industrial treatment-care system by feeding your human body what it actually needs.
Postscript. In any other society, personal responsibility alone would create a social pressure that would direct people to take care of themselves to prevent becoming burden to the collective group of humans (be that a tribe, village, or society). But we don’t have that. In America, we favor privileges a thousand times over responsibilities. So, people can choose a diet and lifestyle that knowingly robs them of their health and costs massive amounts of money to remaining people and resources from the land. This is something that needs to change, but it will require a shift from an individualistic viewpoint to one that incorporates a very simple idea: this existence isn’t all about you.