Surprisingly, jicama is reportedly not starchy, despite being a (legume) tuber. Man do the little ones ever taste good. Yum, yum! Thanks for reminding me to buy some more!
It's apparently rich in inulin, rather than RS, and is thus a good complement to starchy raw Paleo foods like chestnuts, green or semi-ripe plantains, green bananas, chuño
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%C3%B1o, chufas and others that Iguana generously shared with us.
Jicama (prounounced HIH-ka-ma) (sometimes called "yam bean") is a root vegetable which is not at all starchy. The texture is somewhere between an apple and a raw potato. It has a mild, refreshing flavor. It is usually eaten raw, but can also be used in cooked dishes.
Carbs in Jicama
by Laura Dolson
lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/carbcounts/a/jicama.htm
One of the interesting things about jicama is that this one food single-handedly dispels the notion that all tubers and legumes are inedible raw. No one who tries a small, fresh jicama will ever believe that Paleofantasy again.
OMG, you mentioned figs too. MMMMM, fresh figs, yum, yum.
Ah, so you had the dry eyes too, eh? I didn't know that so many folks were experiencing that. I guess I lucked out in that department.
I think what we are all realizing and have been leaning towards is to not attach to any dogmas and to understand that health and diet, like life, are dynamic and in constant flux. its a learning process to know what is best for you and how to adjust in relation to who you are, what you have been through, what has worked before, what hasn't, but also not be to stubborn in any direction.
Amen to that!
Thanks for sharing, Jessica.
Van, You could answer all your own questions if you did one of the gut microbiome tests, like the American Gut Project one. If it comes out great then you could become a raw VLC hero, maybe internationally famous!
Yup, meat-heavy cultures tended to eat things like high meat (which, as Eric pointed out, was prepared in a mostly anaerobic way, not aerobic like Aajonus thought, and thus the bacteria could survive in the mostly anaerobic colon) stomach contents, intestines, cultured fish, and other unusual foods that most VLCers do not eat, and do not even consider necessary, unfortunately. Like it or not, when it comes down to a choice between those foods and traditional starchy plant foods, most people will go with the latter.
Are you aware that all predators eat fresh raw stomach contents, brains, liver and hides that contain starch, including somewhat resistant animal starch that can apparently make it to the colon, and glycans? If not, read DuckDodgers' fascinating articles on that (they discuss humans, but apply to all predators), which I think I linked to before but maybe didn't sufficiently highlight:
Disrupting Paleo: Inuit and Masai Ate Carbs and Prebiotics, Part 1
http://freetheanimal.com/2014/03/disrupting-carbs-prebiotics.html"as I mentioned above, glycans tend to be resistant to digestion and can act as prebiotics with all sorts of health benefits that are just beginning to be discovered."
Disrupting Paleo: Inuit and Masai Ate Carbs and Prebiotics, Part 2
http://freetheanimal.com/2014/03/disrupting-masai-carbs-prebiotics.htmlSo, yeah, someone can feed their gut bugs if they hunt all their own meat and eat well-fed fresh raw animals, nose-to-tail, but how many people can do that year-round nowadays? Wouldn't it be easier to do what the inland Inuit did and eat some raw Eskimo potato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_potato, or the closest thing we can get to that, at least now and then? You're right that there's so much more to learn about all this and I'm all ears.
Slainte!