What Is Your Food Culture?

In Monday's blog post on "The Perfect Diet" I list three simple food recommendations for health and energy.  Rule number one is to include plenty of whole, unprocessed foods in your diet.  Rule number two is to favor locally raised foods over foods that have to travel long distances.  Rule number three, and the topic of today's post, is to include foods from your particular cultural heritage in your diet.

A FOOD HERITAGE

If you are from Scotland then salmon, oats, potatoes, kale, dulse, rutabagas and small berries such as currants will be staple and familiar foods.  If you are from Japan rice, fish, adzuki beans, miso, tamari and nori will be a regular part of your diet.  If you are from Mexico your diet will favor corn, beans, mangoes, avocados and bananas.  What is your food culture?

ANCESTRAL WISDOM

I believe that we benefit when we choose foods that closely resemble what our ancestors ate.  When I teach cooking classes I often suggest that we take those treasured family recipes from our cultural heritage and update them to a healthier standard.  The traditional foods, eaten by our ancestors, should have an honored place at our table.  The foods eaten by our ancestors nourish us at many levels and create a sense of community that binds us together.  Our bodies, in my mind, are biologically adapted to process and more readily digest the foods our ancestors ate.