Tag: Food and Related Products

Asafoetida

[amazon_link asins=’B006POH22Y,B000JMFEL4,B000JMDJ52,B00K2TD5NI,B000MP6XIG,B01BWLZLTA’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’75b3ace6-f737-11e6-9328-3358084d7270′]

Botanical Name : Ferula asafoetida
Family:   Apiaceae
Genus:   Ferula
Species:   F. assa-foetida
Kingdom:   Plantae
Order:   Apiales
Common Names : Asafoetida , devil’s dung, food of the gods, hing, narthex

It has several Names
Asafetida, Assafetida, Assafoetida, Devil’s Dung, Devil’s Durt, Food of the Gods (Persian), Laser (Roman), Stinking Gum
French: assa foetida, ferulr perisque
German: Asafotida, Stinkender Asant
Italian: assafetida
Spanish: asafetida

Ferula foetida (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Afghan: kama-i-anguza
Indian: hing, hingu, heeng
Tamil: perunkaya, Bengali :Hing

Asafoetida gets its name from the Persian aza, for mastic or resin, and the Latin foetidus, for stinking. It is a gum that is from the sap of the roots and stem of the ferula species, a giant fennel that exudes a vile odour. Early records mention that Alexander the Great carried this â€œstink fingerâ€ west in 4 BC. It was used as a spice in ancient Rome, and although not native to India, it has been used in Indian medicine and cookery for ages. It was believed that asafoetida enhanced singers voices. In the days of the Mughal aristocracy, the court singers if Agra and Delhi would eat a spoonful of asafoetida with butter and practice on the banks of the river Yamuna.

Plant Details and it’s Cultivation
Asafoetida is grown chiefly in Iran and Afghanistan from where it is exported to the rest of the world. In India it is cultivated in Kashmir. It is a perennial fennel that grows wild to 3.6 metres (12 ft) high, in large natural forests where little else grows. It bears fine leaves and yellow flowers. The roots are thick and pulpy and also yield a similar resin to that of the stems. All parts of the plant have the distinctive fetid smell. In March and April, just before flowering, the stalks are cut close to the root. A milky liquid oozes out, which dries to form a resin. This is collected and a fresh cut is made. This procedure lasts for about three months from the first incision, by which time the plant has yielded up to two pounds of resin and the root has dried up.

click to see the pictures..>.…..(01)..…..(1).…..…(2)..….…(3)…………..
Asafoetida is a hard resinous gum, grayish-white when fresh, darkening with age to yellow, red and eventually brown. It is sold in blocks or pieces as a gum and more frequently as a fine yellow powder, sometimes crystalline or granulated.
Bouquet: a pungent smell of rotting onions or sulfur. The smell dissipates with cooking.
Flavour: on its own, extremely unpleasant, like concentrated rotten garlic. When cooked, it adds an onion-like flavour.
Hotness Scale: 0

To make and store:

click to see the picture
It is vital to keep asafoetida in airtight containers as its sulfurous odour will effect other foods and spices. It is most commonly available as a powder or granules that can be added directly to the cooking pot. It is also sold in lumps that need to be crushed before using. This is a very powerful spice and even in its ground state lasts well over a year if stored properly, away from light and air.

Cultivation and manufacture:
The resin-like gum comes from the dried sap extracted from the stem and roots and is used as a spice. The resin is greyish-white when fresh but dries to a dark amber colour. The asafoetida resin is difficult to grate and is traditionally crushed between stones or with a hammer. Today, the most commonly available form is compounded asafoetida, a fine powder containing 30% asafoetida resin, along with rice flour and gum arabic.

Ferula assafoetida is a monoecious, herbaceous, perennial plant of the family Apiaceae. It grows to 2 m (7 ft) high, with a circular mass of 30–40 cm (12–16 in) leaves. Stem leaves have wide sheathing petioles. Flowering stems are 2.5–3 m (8–10 ft) high and 10 cm (4 in) thick and hollow, with a number of schizogenous ducts in the cortex containing the resinous gum. Flowers are pale greenish yellow produced in large compound umbels. Fruits are oval, flat, thin, reddish brown and have a milky juice. Roots are thick, massive, and pulpy. They yield a resin similar to that of the stems. All parts of the plant have the distinctive fetid smell.

Edible Uses:
Use in minute quantities, adding directly to cooking liquid, frying in oil, or steeping in water. Asafoetida is used mostly in Indian vegetarian cooking, in which the strong onion-garlic flavour enhances many dishes, especially those of Brahmin and Jain castes where onions and garlic are prohibited. It is used mostly in south and west India, though it does not grow there. It is used in many lentil dishes (often to prevent flatulence), vegetarian soups and pickles. It is also suited to many fish dishes and some pappadums are seasoned with asafoetida.

click to see the picture

Constituents: Typical asafoetida contains about 40–64% resin, 25% endogeneous gum, 10–17% volatile oil, and 1.5–10% ash. The resin portion is known to contain asaresinotannols ‘A’ and ‘B’, ferulic acid, umbelliferone and four unidentified compounds.
Medicinal Uses:
*Antiflatulent. Asafoetida reduces the growth of indigenous microflora in the gut, reducing flatulence.[8] In the Jammu region of India, asafoetida is used as a medicine for flatulence and constipation by 60% of locals.

*A digestion aid. In Thailand and India, it is used to aid digestion and is smeared on the abdomen in an alcohol or water tincture known as mahahing. Assafoetida in this tincture form was evidently used in western medicine as a topical treatment for abdominal injuries during the 18th and 19th centuries, although when it came into use in the West and how long it remained in use is uncertain. One notable case in which it was used is that of Canadian Coureur des bois Alexis St. Martin, who in 1822 suffered a severe abdominal injury from an accidental shooting that perforated his right lung and stomach and shattered several ribs. St Martin was treated by American army surgeon William Beaumont, who subsequently used St Martin as the subject of a pioneering series of experiments in gastric physiology. When St Martin’s wounds had healed, there remained an open fistula into his stomach that enabled Beaumont to insert various types of food directly into St Martin’s stomach and record the results. In his account of his treatment of and later experiments on St Martin, Beaumont recorded that he treated the suppurating chest wound with a combination of wine mixed with diluted muriatic acid and 30-40 drops of tincture of asafoetida applied three times a day, and that this appeared to have the desired effect, helping the wound to heal.

*Fighting influenza: Asafoetida was used in 1918 to fight the Spanish influenza pandemic. In 2009, researchers reported that the roots of Asafoetida produce natural antiviral drug compounds that demonstrated potency against the H1N1 virus in vitro and concluded that “sesquiterpene coumarins from F. assa-foetida may serve as promising lead compounds for new drug development against influenza A (H1N1) viral infection”.

*Remedy for asthma and bronchitis. It is also said to be helpful in cases of asthma and bronchitis. A folk tradition remedy for children’s colds: it is mixed into a pungent-smelling paste and hung in a bag around the afflicted child’s neck.
An antimicrobial: Asafoetida has a broad range of uses in traditional medicine as an antimicrobial, with well documented uses for treating chronic bronchitis and whooping cough, as well as reducing flatulence.

*A contraceptive/abortifacient: Asafoetida has also been reported to have contraceptive/abortifacient activity,. It is related to (and considered an inferior substitute for) the ancient Ferula species Silphium.

*Antiepileptic: Asafoetida oleo-gum-resin has been reported to be antiepileptic in classical Unani, as well as ethnobotanical literature.

*Balancing the vata and kapha. In India according to the Ayurveda, asafoetida is considered to be one of the best spices for balancing the vata dosha. It mitigates vata and kapha, relieves flatulence and colic pain. It is pungent in taste and at the end of digestion. It aggravates pitta, enhances appetite, taste and digestion. It is easy to digest.

*Antidote for opium. Asafoetida has only been speculated to be an antidote for opium.

*Acifidity Bag. Asafoetida was approved by the US Pharmacopedia to stave off the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 that killed millions worldwide. It was placed into pouches called “acifidity bags” that were provided by drug stores to be hung around the neck to try to prevent catching the disease.
Other uses

Other Uses:
*Bait: John C Duval reported in 1936 that the odour of asafoetida is attractive to the wolf, a matter of common knowledge, he says, along the Texas–Mexico border. It is also used as one of several possible scent baits, most notably for catfish and pike.

*May also be used as a moth (Lepidoptera) light trap attractant by collectors—when mixed by approximately 1 part to 3 parts with a sweet, fruit jelly.

*Repelling spirits: In Jamaica, asafoetida is traditionally applied to a baby’s anterior fontanel (Jamaican patois mole) to prevent spirits (Jamaican patois duppies) from entering the baby through the fontanel. In the African-American Hoodoo tradition, asafoetida is used in magic spells, as it is believed to have the power both to protect and to curse.

*In ceremonial magick, especially from The Key of Solomon the King, it is used to protect the magus from daemonic forces and to evoke the same and bind them

Side Effects:
The uncooked herb can cause nausea and vomiting. Using asafoetida over long periods may cause throat irritation, gas, diarrhea, and burning urination. This herb should be avoided during pregnancy. It may affect the menstrual cycle, and it is known to induce miscarriage.

Known Hazards : Do not use orally. Avoid during pregnancy as possible increased bleeding. Topical use may cause skin irritation

Availability:If you want to buy on line you may click on this link.

You may click to see for more knowledge

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida

Encylopedia of spices,

http://www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail415.php

http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_AB.htm

Madhur Jaffrey recipes: Curry Easy (telegraph.co.uk)
Madhur Jaffrey recipe: Potato and pea curry (telegraph.co.uk)
Squash curry (independent.co.uk)
Madhur Jaffrey’s everyday moong dal (telegraph.co.uk)
Unusually Good – San Francisco Chefs and Frontier Natural Products Co-op Spice Up the Night at Food & Wine Festival (prweb.com)
Curry Recipes and Health Benefits of Curry (eatdrinkbetter.com)
The Health Benefits of Garlic (lifescript.com)

Fruits & Vegetables Herbs & Plants

Coconut

[amazon_link asins=’B00BNW9BR2,B01G4M1G1O,B002YR7A9Q,B00PMR3QF2,B01LL3FQQC,B00DS842HS,B007FS8AL6,B00LNURL94,B00PG32AZO’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9d910e0a-3d1b-11e7-b8e9-9ba5be003bd1′]

Botanical Name : Cocos nucifera .
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Arecoideae
Genus: Cocos
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Arecales
Tribe: Cocoeae
Species: C. nucifera

Habitat :The coconut has spread across much of the tropics, probably aided in many cases by seafaring people. Coconut fruit in the wild is light, buoyant and highly water resistant, and evolved to disperse significant distances via marine currents. Fruit collected from the sea as far north as Norway are viable. In the Hawaiian Islands, the coconut is regarded as a Polynesian introduction, first brought to the islands by early Polynesian voyagers from their homelands in Oceania. They are now almost ubiquitous between 26°N and 26°S except for the interiors of Africa and South America.

Description:
The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long, and pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word.

YOU MAY CLICK TO SEE THE PICTURE
...
The coconut palm is grown throughout the tropics for decoration, as well as for its many culinary and non-culinary uses; virtually every part of the coconut palm can be utilized by humans in some manner. In cooler climates (but not less than USDA Zone 9), a similar palm, the queen palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana), is used in landscaping. Its fruits are very similar to the coconut, but much smaller. The queen palm was originally classified in the genus Cocos along with the coconut, but was later reclassified in Syagrus. A recently discovered palm, Beccariophoenix alfredii from Madagascar, is nearly identical to the coconut, and more so than the queen palm. It is cold-hardy, and produces a coconut lookalike in cooler areas.

CLICK & SEE

The flowers of the coconut palm are polygamomonoecious, with both male and female flowers in the same inflorescence. Flowering occurs continuously. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some[which?] dwarf varieties are self-pollinating. The meat of the coconut is the edible endosperm, located on the inner surface of the shell. Inside the endosperm layer, coconuts contain an edible clear liquid that is sweet, salty, or both.

The Indian state of Kerala is known as the Land of coconuts. The name derives from “Kera” (the coconut tree) and “Alam” ( “place” or “earth”). Kerala has beaches fringed by coconut trees, a dense network of waterways, flanked by green palm groves and cultivated fields. Coconuts form a part of daily diet, the oil is used for cooking, coir is used for furnishing, decorating, etc.

Coconuts received the name from Portuguese explorers, the sailors of Vasco da Gama in India, who first brought them to Europe. The brown and hairy surface of coconuts reminded them of a ghost or witch called Coco. Before it was called nux indica, a name given by Marco Polo in 1280 while in Sumatra, taken from the Arabs who called it jawz hind?. Both names translate to “Indian nut.” When coconuts arrived in England, they retained the coco name and nut was added.

You can find many ways to incorporate coconut oil into your daily diet, and you will read about the science behind the diet with links to the research that backs up the wonderful truth about this incredible oil.

Today thousands of people testify that Virgin Coconut Oil has tremendous health benefits, related to not only weight loss, but to such things as increased metabolism, helping sluggish thyroids, increased energy levels, killing Candida and yeast infections, improving cholesterol levels, clearing up skin infections, killing viruses, improving digestive health, and more! All across America health care practioners, including MDs, chiropractors, nurses, nutritionists, naturopaths, and others are seeing positive results in their patients or clients when using Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil.

Cultivation:The coconut palm thrives on sandy soils and is highly tolerant of salinity. It prefers areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall (150 cm to 250 cm annually), which makes colonizing shorelines of the tropics relatively straightforward.[7] Coconuts also need high humidity (70–80%+) for optimum growth, which is why they are rarely seen in areas with low humidity, like the Mediterranean, even where temperatures are high enough (regularly above 24°C or 75.2°F).

Coconut palms require warm conditions for successful growth, and are intolerant of cold weather. Optimum growth is with a mean annual temperature of 27 °C (81 °F), and growth is reduced below 21 °C (70 °F). Some seasonal variation is tolerated, with good growth where mean summer temperatures are between 28–37 °C (82–99 °F), and survival as long as winter temperatures are above 4–12 °C (39–54 °F); they will survive brief drops to 0 °C (32 °F). Severe frost is usually fatal, although they have been known to recover from temperatures of ?4 °C (24.8 °F). They may grow but not fruit properly in areas where there is not sufficient warmth, like Bermuda.

The conditions required for coconut trees to grow without any care are:

*mean daily temperature above 12-13 °C every day of the year
*50 year low temperature above freezing
*mean yearly rainfall above 1000 mm
*no or very little overhead canopy, since even small trees require a lot of sun
The main limiting factor is that most locations which satisfy the first three requirements do not satisfy the fourth, except near the coast where the sandy soil and salt spray limit the growth of most other trees (Palmtalk).

The range of the natural habitat of the coconut palm tree is delineated by the red line in map C1 to the right (based on information in Werth 1933, slightly modified by Niklas Jonsson).

Coconut trees are very hard to establish in dry climates, and cannot grow there without frequent irrigation; in drought conditions, the new leaves do not open well, and older leaves may become desiccated; fruit also tends to be shed.

Coconut palms are grown in more than 80 countries of the world, with a total production of 61 million tonnes per year.

Harvesting
In some parts of the world (Thailand and Malaysia), trained pig-tailed macaques are used to harvest coconuts. Training schools for pig-tailed macaques still exist both in southern Thailand, and in the Malaysian state of Kelantan.[11] Competitions are held each year to find the fastest harvester.

Use of Coconut

Once I heard some one to say Coconut is such an amazing fruit which can quench your thrust with its sweet water and meet your hunger with its good and neutritious pulp.Coconuts are a way of life for millions of people around the world today in tropical climates. Known as the “tree of life,” the wonderful fruit of the coconut palm is rich in specific fats that have incredible health benefits. Traditional tropical populations that consume a lot of coconut oil are seldom overweight, and traditionally have been free from the modern diseases that afflict most western cultures.

The Coconut Diet picks up where traditional diets fail. Low-fat diets don’t work. The body needs a proper balance of good fats, but in recent years traditional, healthy saturated fats have been substituted with harmful trans fatty acids in the US food industry. We now know that these harmful trans fatty acids that are found in most vegetable oils are not the healthy oils they were once thought to be, and they are considered one of the major culprits in modern diseases and obesity. The Coconut Diet replaces these highly refined harmful fats with one of the healthiest fats known to mankind: coconut oil.

The Coconut Diet is a not one specific diet plan, but a way of life! Most diet plans are temporary and tell you exactly which foods to eat, how much to eat, how to count calories or carbs, etc. Statistics prove that those starting diet plans are usually doomed to failure before they even start, because while they may temporarily lose weight on specific diet plans, they will almost always regain that weight and more as soon as they stop using the diet plan. We have seen traditional people in the tropics follow these dietary principles and live very long, healthy lives with coconut oil as the main dietary oil in their diet.

The dark, fibrous shell breaks, and fragrant coconut liquid begins to ooze out. Using a sharp knife, you separate the luscious white flesh from its shell; then grate it to make rich, delicious coconut milk. The milk will add delicate flavor and a smooth creamy texture to your lentil soup simmering on the stove.

But it is not only for its taste that the coconut is valued, says The Council of Maharishi Ayurveda Physicians. Coconut is considered a divine plant in the Vedic tradition. Whenever you perform a sacred ceremony like a yagya, a coconut must grace the occasion. Thus, the coconut enjoys the hallowed status of a select few herbs and fruits-like holy basil and amla-in the Vedic tradition.

What’s in a Coconut?
A recent research study from the Department of Biochemistry in the University of Kerala states that the fatty-acid composition of coconut changes as it grows. This change in composition is being studied by scientists in many places. But ayurvedic scholars knew many centuries ago that coconut has different properties at different stages of its life.

In the ayurvedic nighantus or classical texts which talk about raw materials or fruits, the coconut is actually divided into three types of coconuts —

Baal: tender or baby coconut
Madhyam: half-mature coconut
Pakva: fully mature coconut.

The Three Coconuts
Baal or Tender coconut: This type is 90 to 95 percent water. The liquid from this coconut is at its purest and most healing. It is considered the best for its cooling properties, for it is a proven pitta-pacifier. While unclogging the body’s channels, tender coconut water lubricates the dryness caused by ama. It repairs the gastro-intestinal tract, and its snigdha or sweet quality gives it a pranaropana-life-restoring-capacity.

Madhyam or Middle-aged coconut: In addition to water, the coconut at this stage has some soft pulp. Madhyam coconuts have less water than tender ones, but more water than mature coconuts. The water is slightly milky at this age. In the classical ayurvedic texts called Raj Nighantus, the middle-aged coconut is said to be the most nutritious. This type generally has more carbohydrates, protein, minerals, phosphorus, and Vitamins A, B, and C than the other two forms.

Mature or Pakva coconut: This type of coconut has firm “meat” or pulp, and very little water. Ancient ayurvedic scholar Bhav Mishra wrote that when a coconut becomes mature, it becomes heavy to digest, and it can also aggravate pitta or vata if the digestive agni of the individual is low. Mature coconuts can also build up toxic ama by interfering with digestion. If large quantities of this variety are consumed daily, then a person can suffer hyperacidity, and worse still, elevated cholesterol levels.

Therefore, people who have low agni or digestive power are not advised to eat mature coconut, unless it is combined with ingredients that balance its negative properties. In the south of India, for instance, a popular way to eat coconut is in the form of chutney. Combined with healthful ingredients like roasted chickpea flour, curry leaves, mustard seeds, and oil, the coconut is used in smaller quantities, and can actually be beneficial.

Benefits of coconut oil

Details of coconut plant, use etc

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut

Coconuts-A wonder food [Rudesh (Rudi) Mehta] (ecademy.com)
coconut shell bowls (alternativeconsumer.com)
Madonna Throws $1.5 million into Coconut Water Craze. Is It Really That Healthy? (hollywoodnews.com)
Is Coconut Water Really Better Than Sports Drinks? (motherjones.com)
Diet and Nutrition Facts: Milk (justslimming.com)
Coconut Deconstructed (craftzine.com)
Coconut Water: Nature’s Sweet, Low-Cal Hangover Relief (time.com)
Coconuts Could Be the Next Sustainable Packaging Trend (earth911.com)
Who wants to be a coconut millionaire? (independent.co.uk)
Colorful Bowls Made from Real Coconuts Shells (inhabitat.com)

Fruits & Vegetables

Fruits & vegetables

[amazon_link asins=’B01C8I6JRE,B076JN2Q2J,B001E5DZQQ,B01LERAALQ,B016X4ZB5U,B001OHV29G,B00ND5XNY4,B01BZ0KGY8,B00FL5L29C’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’451eb13e-83c7-11e8-8257-eda130e15453′]

What is the diffenence between fruits and vegetables?

The difference between a fruit and vegetable depends largely on your perspective, From a botanical perspective, a fruit is the mature ovary of a plant, such as an apple, melon, cucumber, or tomato. From the common, every day “grocery store perspective,” we tend to use the word fruit with respect to fruits eaten fresh as desserts —- apples, peaches, cherries, etc. – We normally eat fruits raw and vegetables cooked. In India green papaya, green banana etc. are considered as vegetable, because, they eat them cooked but when they are ripen they call them fruit as then they eat them raw.Now sometimes vegetable when we eat raw we call them SALAD, like cucumber,tomato,onion,radish,cabbage,carrot etc

But whatever way you eat “EATING FRUIT & VEGETABLES” is always good for health. Eating raw (uncooked) fresh vegetable is better. I have learnt about a family in India who eat only raw but fresh vegetables & fruits in their break fast, lunch and dinner.(never eat anything cooked).They have been doing this practice since last 20 years and they claim that none of their family members visited any doctor during this period for any kind of illness.They became a news flash in TV channel in Calcutta, (a city in India.)

Why do we eat vegetables?

This is a question that would never be asked of fruit. Fruit is sweet. We love sweet things. We love to eat fruit. But vegetables can be bitter, and apart from carrots and sweet potatoes, they are generally not sweet.

How is it, then, that we came to eat vegetables? Partly, it is ‘hardwired’ into us. For good body efficiency reasons.

Basically, we are an evolutionary line from a group of mammals that, from about 65 million years ago until around 50 million years ago were small insectivores, but which evolved to fill tree top vegetable-matter (foliage, fruit, tree seeds, or mixed vegetation based diets) eating niches, while still eating insects whenever we could (chimpanzees , orang-utans, gorillas, gibbons, and the siamang – all apes – eat insects).

Gorillas probably branched out earlier from the ape human ancestral line and so their life way gives us fewer insights into our ancestry (they probably went their separate way around 8 million years ago). Mountain gorillas, in particular, are primarily foliage eaters, consuming large amounts of pithy stems, buds, leaves and shoots. These foods are low in energy density, and gorillas have to eat a lot of plant material to meet their energy needs. They are now fairly specialized vegetation eaters.

Chimps, which have more recently diverged from our ancestral line (generally estimated at around 4.5 million years ago), are more likely to reflect at least some of our ancestral food preferences. Chimps don’t seem to tolerate grossly fibrous food as well as gorillas. They chew leaves into a “wadge’, and press the wadge against their teeth to extract the juicy parts, then spit out the fibrous residue. Chimps prefer insects and meat where it is available in their environment, but in their (primarily) forest environment it is not commonly available. Succulent piths – carefully peeled of the tough exterior – blossoms, fruit, shoots, and leaves are the mainstay (around 95%) of their diet, with insects, eggs, and monkey meat opportunistically thrown in as and when available.

Even limited omnivory is a conservative adaptive trait, and even in the great apes, which have put ‘all their eggs in one evolutionary basket’, so to speak, retain the ability and desire to eat insects (and eggs!).

We eat vegetables because, while we intensively exploit ground based and shoreline animal protein and fats, we share massive amounts of our genetic profile with our related plant food subsisting apes (some scientists assert the genetic similarities are so overwhelmingly great that chimpanzees, the ape genetically ‘closest’ to us, ought to be classified as a species of human), and we are therefore genetically ‘programmed’ to exploit plant food as part of the primate omnivorous capabilities.

Even by the Australopithecine stage in our evolutionary line, we lacked the kind of molar configuration to deal with very pithy vegetation. But we did have the kind of jaw form that could do a lot of chewing on moderately firm and fibrous foods – such as lizards, locusts, baby birds, and plant ‘underground storage organs’ – tubers, roots, corms, bulbs – soft new stems, immature flower buds, fleshy leaf bases, tender new shoots, tree seeds (once opened with rocks), fungi, and acacia gums. The microscopic wear marks on Australopithecus afarensis front teeth are very similar to those on baboon front teeth – suggestive of an intake of similar highly selected, nutrient dense shoots, bulbs, and leaves.

Our gut has become overall shorter, but with an increase in the proportion devoted to the small intestine (where high nutrient foods such as meat are dealt to and absorbed) in order to be able to handle the higher nutrient density foods of seashore and hunt. The price of a shorter gut is less efficient digestion of plant materials, as there is not enough room for the necessary micro flora to help break it down (the female of our species is said to have a longer gut than men. It is an interesting speculation whether this is an evolutionary adaptation to eating more vegetable foods than men, and whether this explains the difference in ‘intestinal gas production’ between men and women -women have more vegetable efficient guts).

Because we have taken omnivory far further than any other related animal, and can live quite well on an almost exclusive meat and fat diet if we had to, does not mean that we can forever abandon eating plants. Plants are ‘powerhouses’ of many and complex ‘life enhancing compounds’, and we almost instinctively ‘know’ that we need them. If our sense of taste hasn’t been completely dulled and distorted by the cultural forces of our urban ‘fad’ diet, we sometimes feel a craving for ‘bitter herbs’, and seek them out. There may be the distant echo of instinctive ‘self medication’, or perhaps, ‘self biochemical regulation’ in this feeling.

Vegetables are an important – perhaps key – part of our ‘generalist’ evolutionary niche, in that the reliable carbohydrate source of bulbs and roots (and certain seeds) acted as insurance against failure in the high value but much more uncertain hunt. On top of this, humans need far more energy to fuel our brains than any other primate – around 300 kcal when at rest, and it has to be in the form of glucose, because that is the fuel the brain runs on. This energy requirement can be met relatively easily with some roots and tubers, depending on the carbohydrate content of the particular species. In some respects, we should perhaps consider roots and tubers as a major food item, in a separate class to leafy greens, shoots, buds, and flowers

Tags Business, Food and Related Products, Fruit, Grocery store, Leaf vegetable, Plant, Produce, Vegetable

Related articles by Zemanta

Related articles