Eat Close To Home

The short version is, I’m not into raw foods because I live in Michigan, and raw foods are not available in Michigan year-round. This is not just a locavorian soapbox; I’m not just rooting for the home-grown team, as it were. Here’s my chain of logic:

• Many people – scientists, sociologists, nutritionists, travelers – have noted that cancer, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic “Western” conditions are essentially nonexistent in traditional cultures that eat the way their ancestors have eaten for thousands of years. The Masai who eat blood, milk, and meat; the Inuit who eat seal blubber and lichen; the Indians who eat dal, greens, and ghee; the SE Asians who eat vegetables, tropical fruits, and rice – all are healthy despite widely varied diets.
• Traditional foodways are based on the foods that grow in the climate where that culture exists.
• Shipping foods – especially foods that were bred to stand up well to shipping – reduces their nutritional value.
• Therefore, local foods are the ideal foods for people living in that climate.

This though first came to me when I noticed several people who eat a strict raw food diet – based largely on summer-harvested foods (zucchini, tomatoes) and a lot of tropical fruits and nuts – say they can’t handle cold winters anymore. Is it any surprise that people who eat a tropical diet develop tropically-adapted bodies? Just in terms of calories, could you imagine eating enough mangoes to keep your body functioning in the Arctic? Not a chance. Up north, you eat blubber because because you’re a mammal, and it takes a huge number of calories just to keep your core body temperature up, and blubber is the most concentrated food you can get. (And ok, you’re probably eating that blubber raw…hmmm…)

If you look at what is available on the landlocked 45th parallel this time of year, it’s a lot of root vegetables, hard squash, grains, meat, and dried and pickled foods. These things store well all winter, and many need to be cooked to be eaten. (Certainly they need to be cooked to be enjoyed, and some foods yield more – or different – nutrition when eaten cooked.) So, while raw foods certainly have their place in my diet, I’m not going to knock myself out trying to eat only raw foods, especially in the winter. I’m certainly not going to base my diet on noni fruit and zucchini.

I know I’m speculating here, but it rings true to me. Eat what you find in your habitat, and you’ll be equipped to survive in that habitat. This also helps me answer the question, “What food tradition should I try to follow?” Do I go with that of my blood ancestors, or that of the people who used to live where I now live? How long ago…a hundred years ago, or a thousand?

I think if I look at the foods that grow – and store – naturally here are the foods to eat, and for preparation, I can look to the way different cultures prepare those foods. So, corn grows well here. Does it matter if I eat it as tortillas or polenta or hominy or straight off the cob?