Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: PaleoPhil on April 27, 2011, 05:31:23 am
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Lex, I don't know if you want tangents like this in your journal, so I'm creating a separate thread for it.
I'd like to play devil's advocate re: your views on simplicity and not treating food as entertainment. Do you think there's much value for a substantial number of people in the "special" foods advocated by Weston Price, Stephan Guyenet, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the Inuit and others, beyond the meat/fat/organs you eat (ex: raw fermented cod liver oil or mammal brains or fatty wild fish, raw fermented foods, easily-digested foods--especially for the sick and elderly, making sure one gets enough K2/iodine/Mg/etc., omega-3-rich foods like fish eggs for infants and pregnant women, ...), or is this unnecessary complexity for nearly everyone? I lean toward the former view, though maybe my own experience biases me and I'd like to run my amateur thoughts on this through a good skeptical filter.
AFAIK, you don't like to spend a lot of time reading and puzzling over such things, so I've kept this short, but if you need or want more explanatory details, let me know. And if you'd rather not delve into this, I understand. Thanks.
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I'm into healing people.
In my experience, special foods make healing sick people faster.
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in addition to the list paleophil started in the op, can we list out these specialty foods?
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I think there is not ENOUGH value placed on healthy, nutrient dense foods. ZIOH is a prime example.
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Some additional special food examples recommended by the above people include shellfish, EVCO, coconut cream, blood, seaweed, raw honey (and some foods considered non-Paleo by most like butter oil and unpasteurized cultured butter).
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Some additional special food examples recommended by the above people include shellfish, EVCO, coconut cream, blood, seaweed, raw honey (and some foods considered non-Paleo by most like butter oil and unpasteurized cultured butter).
"special" may be a point of view
Blood, coconut cream is not special where I live. It's everywhere.
As are shellfish and sea weed.
But raw wild honey is that very much special here.
Live oysters are dirt cheap here, 40 pesos per kilo with the shell on. And they're special for us men. Bring on the "jing."
Healthy raw beef and goat liver is special.
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In USA, any type of animals' organs are special, 'cause you usually don't see them. US considers organs are dirty things...
Markets are loaded with "D" grade food.
Raising our own animals is
special!
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Do any people drink cups of blood where you are, GS, like the Nenets do? That reminds me of another less common "special" food. The Nenets claim that reindeer velvet antler blood is a special food. It contains stem cells (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Deer-Antlers-for-Regenerating-Lost-Limbs-72448.shtml). I saw a video where a Nenets man ate some and said that it gives energy.
And speaking of seaweed, the Irish, Jamaicans and others claim that Irish moss is a particularly healthful seaweed (it's a red algae; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrus_crispus#Uses). It's claimed to be "a cure for male impotence."
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Do any people drink cups of blood where you are, GS, like the Nenets do? That reminds me of another less common "special" food. The Nenets claim that reindeer velvet antler blood is a special food. It contains stem cells (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Deer-Antlers-for-Regenerating-Lost-Limbs-72448.shtml). I saw a video where a Nenets man ate some and said that it gives energy.
And speaking of seaweed, the Irish, Jamaicans and others claim that Irish moss is a particularly healthful seaweed (it's a red algae; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrus_crispus#Uses). It's claimed to be "a cure for male impotence."
Northern Philippines goat's blood straight from the neck.
The honey gatherers eat live bee larvae.
And the ants eggs gatherers eat ants eggs and ants.
Where the river, stream is clear and pristine, jumping shrimp salad.
Where oysters are farmed, fresh raw oysters all the time.
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In USA, any type of animals' organs are special, 'cause you usually don't see them. US considers organs are dirty things...
Markets are loaded with "D" grade food.
May be due to the fact that factory animals have damaged organs particularly livers.
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Insect larvae is a good one, GS. That's another food that is fed to children, apparently because it's easy to digest and perhaps also because it contains lots of healthful fats for growing brains. I wish we had markets that sold larvae in this country.
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I was thinking of raising some kind of grub. Does anyone know what kinds are good to eat, and fatty?
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Phil,
I don’t think there is any magic in “special” foods. Food is either biologically appropriate for us or it is not. My gut feeling is that most of these special foods became special through filling some immediate need but then carried on through tradition long after the need passed, often taking on mystical importance. Just look at the way some people worship pemmican as some sort of wonder food.
I imagine that most of these foods were eaten when the normal food supply was scarce, or was the result of attempting to store food over the long term, and over time these foods became embedded in the culture. Along comes some researcher (Weston Price et. al.) and they find that each culture has among its traditions some special food that is ascribed magical powers – the real reason for having started consuming these foods long lost in antiquity.
Of course this is just my own opinion, but I see this sort of thing happening all around me today. Pemmican is one example, and you can look at much of what AV does (not to mention the host of other dietary gurus) and see the roots of one food or another taking on mystical importance with little evidence supporting the magical claims. It seems to be human nature to want to believe in mystical magical things and there is no shortage of those willing to fill this basic human need. When the guru touting this stuff is gone, tradition takes over until it is deeply imbedded in the culture.
Some modern examples:
Wheat grass, green juice, cranberry juice, coral calcium, ionized water, high meat, vitamin supplements, red and purple vegetable juice, coconut oil, CoQ10, triple distilled fish oil, yogurt, pro-biotics, tofu, & etc. There’s plenty of special foods ascribed with magical powers. At best, some may provide a benefit if eating an inappropriate diet in the first place, and at worst I expect many are modern day snake oil and possibly down right harmful.
Now grubs, that's real food!
Lex
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Perhaps nutrient dense foods are slightly more important if your food supply is irregular, but not so much if you can eat when you want.
I remember that tidbit I found that the male lion eats the fatty hindquarters of an animal, and the female eats the internal organs.
I suppose you could see it as the female getting the nutrient dense foods for pregnancy, or the male taking what it wants and leaving the rest.
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Males and females have different nutritional requirements. Their bodies are different. Your nutritional requirements are manifested in your tastes and hunger. This natural propensity of course can be fooled by manufactured or cooked foods and imported foods.
Nutrient dense depends on what you need, not what is contained therein. If you don't need vitamin A then who cares if the food is full of it.
As far as taking a blood sample to determine if you need a certain vitamin, I suspect that there is a bit of snake-oil in that method because your levels of various components in your blood vary during the day/week/month depending on a multitude of factors. Weather/emotions/sun/moon/sex/season/available food etc.
Paleos had no choice. They ate what was near them and lived according to the weather and season.
I follow AV up to a point and have only had one problem. I ate a bit too much fruit for a long period which aggravated my throat and gave me a series of colds. Stopped that and colds went away. It doesn't matter how much nutrition was in the fruit, it was making me sick.
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Thanks Lex, that's the sort of skeptical input I was looking for to balance out the many magical claims one encounters on the Internet. I agree that there's lots of overhyping of overpriced "superfoods". When I think of special foods, I think more in terms of nutrient-rich foods that fill a need for a certain nutrient(s) and maybe the occasional use of herbs and other natural materials for medicinal purposes, although that might be considered a special category of its own.
I'll throw out one example from nature that suggests some utility to special foods--at least the medicinal type and at least for elephants. Wild elephants reportedly travel for miles on a fairly regular basis to consume certain clays which apparently reduce the toxin load from all the vegetation they consume.