Melissa McEwen, host of the Hunt.Gather.Love blog and a commenter here, has a recap of the Weston A. Price Foundation’s recent Wise Traditions conference.
A few of her observations with my comments:
Stephan Guyenet and Chris Masterjohn are gentlemen as well as scholars. None of us will be surprised to hear this.
The Inuit eat a lot of plants. This was a finding by researcher Anore Jones, who has a book out called Plants that We Eat. (Thanks, Gary.) If you would like a flavor of Anore’s writing, check out an earlier report Anore did for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006 called Fish that We Eat, available here. It has interesting information, like the fact that freezing fish for 2 weeks kills the parasites that infect humans. Maybe we should eat frozen fish instead of fresh fish!
A lot of healthy cultures used steaming and boiling. This is one of our recommendations in the book: cook at low temperatures. Very high temperatures generate toxins. It’s never a surprise that traditional cultures developed health-maximizing practices. It is a surprise how quickly we lost their knowledge.
Check out Melissa’s blog for the rest!
via this link:
I would love to meet all of them. 🙂
Hehe thanks! I love this site!
Some of my commenter felt my appraisal of the breads and sugar were unfair, but I stand by my opinion. I don’t think there should be any desserts at a health conference besides fruit. And next year I’d like to see healthier Asiatic carbs featured here rather than gluten-full breads.
I am in the midst of reading a rather interesting book about Asian horticulturalists whose diet is pretty much the diet presented here and hope to post on that soon.
You know I’m with you on breads and sugar, Melissa.
Will look forward to the Asian post!
And another must read blogpost by gentleman/scholar Chris Masterjohn : http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2010/11/is-insulin-resistance-really-making-us.html right up your alley. (Safe starches is NOT the problem, it is food quality and its derived micro-nutrient deficiencies and/or inappropriate volumes and/or inappropriate combinations)
Very Low to Zero Carb seems to be under scrutiny lately with Mark Sisson even talking yams (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/difference-yams-sweet-potatoes/) and Gary Taubes sceptic blogs sprouting (http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/)
Hi Ahrand,
Yes, 6 months it seemed I was distinctive in the Paleo blogosphere talking up safe starches, now everyone is doing it!
im confused about the fish comment- sushi-grade fish is almost always frozen by a good fish monger or at a decent sushi restaurant before eating it raw, no? if you are going to eat raw fish on a regular basis, yes, by all means freeze for a couple weeks, but fresh fish that is cooked is still very nutritious.
Hi emily,
Yes, I expect cooked fish should be parasite free also (if it is well cooked).
I know sushi grade fish is kept on ice from killing to preparation, but I don’t believe it is allowed to freeze — freezing leads to dehydration and changes the taste. The lack of freezing is what makes it so expensive. Even if “sushi-grade” fish was frozen, is the freezing thorough enough and long enough to kill parasites? Anore seems to suggest that 2 weeks frozen may be needed.
When I wrote that line I was thinking of people I’ve known who prize fresh fish and would never buy frozen fish from the supermarket, because of the taste. But if it’s flash frozen on the factory ship that caught it, and kept frozen all the way through the supply chain, it might be much safer than “fresh” fish.
We eat sashimi fairly regularly, or did until our local Japanese sushi vendor closed 3 months ago. We also sometimes make, e.g., pan-seared tuna with the inside uncooked or lightly cooked. So parasite contamination is a bit of a concern for us.
my dad’s a fishmonger and runs a specialty seafood shop and he has told me that 2 weeks is needed to be certain that parasites are killed. i thought some sushi restaurants do freeze fish for this time but maybe not?
just fyi, spoke w/ my father on the issue of possible parasites in rare/raw tuna. he says it is extremely unlikely to get parasites in tuna,they dont really contract them, but more common in wild salmon and swordfish. farmed salmon do not get parasites, according to my dad. there are also a handful of other types of fish that never get parasites. if you need more specific info he can be contacted at http://www.coastalseafoods.com, ask for Tim. also, he said to avoid most sushi restaurant fish even though it is frozen prior to serving, as almost every sushi place, even the expensive/fancy ones, use carbon-monoxide treated fish as its cheap, and has become an industry standard. this causes the fish to turn a bright, fresh-looking, fake red colour. the scary thing about this process is it masks natural aging in the dead fish and a totally rotten fish can appear and smell fresh.
Thanks, emily. I didn’t know about carbon monoxide treatment.