Saw somewhere a claim that grains and beans are not a natural food.
These are claimed to be only recent foods in evolutionary terms.And that is
why they are cooked because of so much indigestible fibre.
Could this be true?
patrik
> Saw somewhere a claim that grains and beans are not a natural food.
> These are claimed to be only recent foods in evolutionary terms.And that is
> why they are cooked because of so much indigestible fibre.
>
> Could this be true?
Only if you define "natural" in an unnatural way.
patrick - 25 Mar 2004 11:47 GMT
oh gee! thanks for that.
patrick
> > Saw somewhere a claim that grains and beans are not a natural food.
> > These are claimed to be only recent foods in evolutionary terms.And that is
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Only if you define "natural" in an unnatural way.
anon - 25 Mar 2004 13:19 GMT
> oh gee! thanks for that.
I mean, really...what the hell did you expect? "Beans aren't a natural
food?" Sounds like the same crap that the raw-food faddists are
pushing. Eat beans, don't eat beans. Who cares if they fit somebody's
arbitary definition of "natural"? They're a hell of a lot better for
you than the crap that most Americans are stuffing themselves with on a
daily basis.
patrick - 25 Mar 2004 14:16 GMT
I know nothing about this subject.
The subject being 1. which foods were in the diet of humans throughout human
evolution 2. How well and how quickly humans adapt to a particular new food
source.
So it could make a huge difference how natural a food source is this sense.
For example alcohol: some races have not adapted yet to its consumption
AFAIK because thay were never exposed to it. and others have.
I was looking perhaps for some usefull information on all this. not a
smartass comment.
patrick
> > oh gee! thanks for that.
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> you than the crap that most Americans are stuffing themselves with on a
> daily basis.
anon - 25 Mar 2004 17:44 GMT
Well, you could've asked your question a lot more precisely than you did.
> I know nothing about this subject.
> The subject being 1. which foods were in the diet of humans throughout human
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> I was looking perhaps for some usefull information on all this. not a
> smartass comment.
>Saw somewhere a claim that grains and beans are not a natural food.
>These are claimed to be only recent foods in evolutionary terms.And that is
>why they are cooked because of so much indigestible fibre.
>
>Could this be true?
It depends on how you define natural. Compared to their wild ancestors
or related species, domesticated grains and beans are generally larger,
higher in digestible nutrients and lower in toxic and unpleasant
tasting components. Five to ten thousand years of farmers selecting the
best seed to plant next year has accomplished this.
Grains and beans are generally cooked to make them easier to chew and
to convert the starch to a more digestible form. Cooking also
deactivates some toxic compounds. Soybeans are a particular case of
that, but some other beans grown in tropical areas also need to be
cooked to be destroy components that interfere with digestion.
That said, a bowl of cooked brown rice or cracked wheat or oat porridge
is a lot closer to a wild or "natural" food in nutritional value than a
doughnut or slice of white bread.
Note also that "nature" has not optimized plants for value as human
food so there's no reason to regard undomesticated grains and beans,
with all their feeding deterrents and inhibitors of digestion, as
superior to crop plants nutritionally. It's in the plant's interest
to make its seeds inedible, and our ancestors have put millenia of
selective breeding into getting around that.