Nourishing Traditions for Y2K

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Book Review: Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

Here's one of those books that turns your dietary world on its ear. After decades of the diet dictocrats telling us that saturated fats and cholesterol are going to kill us, Sally Fallon sallies forth and says, Bah!

This nutrition work is based on research on indigenous diets done earlier this century by Drs. Price and Pottenger (see the Web site at www.price-pottenger.org). In a nutshell, they found that the diets of the healthiest indigenous populations around the world have several things in common. They always contain at least some animal protein, if only in the form of eggs, milk, or insects (Sorry, you vegans out there. Fallon contends that it is not possible for a vegan to get a proper amino acid balance. That's not the way human physiology works; we are omnivores.) These populations highly prize certain fish products rich in Omega-3 oils (cod's heads, fish roe, dried shrimp pastes, etc.), especially for pregnant women. They tend to lacto-ferment many of their foods, for both preservation and digestibility; this is true especially for whole grain products which are frequently soaked overnight in a warm, mild yogurt culture. (Lacto-fermentation is the process by which lactophilic [milk-loving] bacteria are cultured into the food and encouraged to increase until their production of lactic acid kills the culture, along with all other harmful bacteria, and preserves the food for long-term storage.) They consume saturated fats as a matter of course; in fact, these fats are necessary for absorption of certain vitamins in human beings. And these cultures don't concern themselves about cholesterol intake; it's a moot point.

Fallon contends that the rampant heart disease and cancer rates in the West (and now increasingly in the East) have nothing to do with our consumption of red meat, saturated fat, and cholesterol as we have been told. Rather, they coincide with our heavy adoption of such processed foods as hydrogenated vegetable oils, all other heat-pressed oils, heat-processed soy products, refined flours, and our lack of whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, and lacto-fermented whole grains.

Her book contains numerous recipes drawn from various ethnic cultures and provides a fascinating cultural -- as well as scientific, nutritional, and culinary -- education. You probably won't agree with everything in this book (I don't either, but a lot of it makes darn good sense to me) but it's a fascinating read. Highly recommended for Y2K prep.

-- David Palm (djpalm64@yahoo.com), September 03, 1999

Answers

Thanks Dave

I'll take a look at this. Always trying to find good nutrition information now that junk science has run rampant.

Keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.net), September 03, 1999.


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