We Are What We Ate
The New World bird that took over the Old World table Christmas – our biggest annual celebration – may seem like an age-old tradition, but travel back in time, and you will find it was typically a modest event for most people and, at times, a non event. England’s Puritan government cancelled Christmas in 1647, …
We Are What We Ate
Trading cheese has a long tradition In her ‘Say Cheese’ piece in this issue, Nicole Senior reminds us of the pleasure of a good piece of cheese. It’s certainly a food that’s long had value and currency for consumers as the following extracts will show. First, here’s what Daniel Defoe wrote about cheese in his …
We Are What We Ate
The evolution of dietary recommendations for diabetes. They knew about diabetes in ancient Egypt. Physician Hesy-Ra of the 3rd Dynasty describes various diseases including a polyuric syndrome, presumably diabetes, in what is now known as the Ebers papyrus (1500BCE). Ancient Ayurvedic texts from India go further describing two types of diabetes-like conditions – congenital …
We Are What We Ate
Say cheese, but when? The processing of milk and particularly the production of cheese were critical in early agricultural societies as it allowed the preservation of milk in a non-perishable and transportable form and, of primary importance, it made milk a more digestible commodity for early prehistoric farmers. However, while we do know a fair …
We Are What We Ate
A-foraging we will go. Foraging is back in fashion. Danish chef Rene Redzepi’s passion for foraging and using native ingredients put Noma on the map and triggered a small culinary revolution. Most ‘urban foraging’ is for extras not survival – it’s for flavour foods like herbs and greens or seasonal fare like mushrooms or picking …
We Are What We Ate
The clockwork body – why when we eat matters. ‘Body clocks are ancient mechanisms that regulate fundamental biological systems important to health, such as insulin secretion, the time we go to bed, the time we get up and the time we get hungry,’ says Dr Joe Bass, associate professor of medicine at Feinberg School of …
We Are What We Ate
Looks like we have had our nose to the grindstone for at least 30,000 years. Grinding starchy grains, tubers and rhizomes, possibly into flour, was a widespread practice across Europe 30,000 years ago according to Anna Revedin and colleagues’ findings in PNAS. The grinding stones they discovered at sites in Italy, Russia and the Czech …
We Are What We Ate
Milk – poster child for rapid evolution in humans. Marlene Zuk, a professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota, describes milk – or more accurately the ability to digest it – as ‘the poster child for rapid evolution in humans.’ In Paleofantasy she explains how this ability came about, what it …
We Are What We Ate
What our teeth tell us about our diet. DNA from tartar (calcified dental plaque) on human teeth reveals the changes in our oral bacteria that accompanied the changes in our food supply over the past 7500 years. ‘Dental plaque represents the only easily accessible source of preserved human bacteria,’ says lead author Dr Christina Adler. …
We Are What We Ate
Was ancient man a vegetarian? Robb Dunn reviews the evidence. First published in Scientific American. This edited and updated extract reprinted with their kind permission. Rob Dunn ‘Right now, one half of all Americans are on a diet. The other half just gave up on their diets and are on a binge. Collectively, we are …
