Excerpt 4
No man can be wise on an empty stomach.
—George Eliot
Food is necessary for life to exist. Much of our time on this planet is devoted to either thinking about food, hunting and gathering it (now called shopping), or preparing and consuming it. Trade routes, agriculture, and spices have occasioned war and conquest, and many fortunes have been made and lost because of food. The time is ripe to celebrate food for the central role it plays in our lives. It is a magical, precious gift from nature, one not to be taken lightly. This book provides a starting point for an exploration into the fascinating world of food and offers a wealth of information both historical and practical: where our foods originated, how they received their botanical and common names, the stories associated with them throughout their travels, how they are used for culinary purposes, and their many nutritional benefits.
There is a growing demand for wholesome and flavorful foods, a demand that will influence the way food is grown, packaged, and shipped in the future. Sales of organic produce are rapidly increasing as the public becomes aware of the dangers of food additives, chemical fertilizers, and insecticides. The term “organically grown” refers to a method of growing fruits and vegetables the way they were raised before the advent of industrial farming—without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Researchers at Rutgers University recently tested produce to find out just how much more nutritious organic produce really is. Their conclusion: organic produce has as much as a 75 percent higher mineral content than non-organic produce. Freshly picked and unprocessed food can supply over two thousand different enzymes; these enzymes are destroyed by heat greater than 105 degrees Fahrenheit and by pasteurization, and their beneficial effects are greatly inhibited by chemical substances added either to the soil or during processing.
The foods profiled in this book are organized by category, for instance “Fruits” and “Vegetables,” and then organized alphabetically within each category. Some foods are placed by botanists in one category while popular use places them in another. For example, tomatoes and eggplants are botanically fruits but are used as vegetables. For the purposes of this book, popular use prevails. Products made from whole foods (such as apple juice or peanut butter) do not have separate entries but are covered along with their parent whole food. If you are unsure where to find a particular food, please check the index. Dairy products and eggs were omitted in order to concentrate solely on plant-based foods. Like the animals from which they come, these foods may carry large amounts of toxic chemicals, including antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides, which are dangerous to health. Margarine, though not derived from animal sources, was also excluded because it is neither a whole nor a healthful food. However, a brief discussion of butter and margarine can be found in the introduction to the “Nuts, Seeds, and Oils” section.
This book is intended to be used as a reference, but I hope it will also be entertaining. Each entry contains information on the plant’s botanical name and the food’s history, folklore, culinary uses, and nutritional data. Although entries vary according to how much information was available, there should be enough information in each case to identify an unfamiliar item at the market and then prepare and serve it successfully. The nutritional composition tables, which present all available information from a number of sources, provide only an estimate of each food’s fat, carbohydrate, protein, vitamin, and mineral content; nutrient value may vary up to 100 percent depending upon the quality of the soil in which the plants grew, the stage at which they were picked for shipment, and even weather conditions; methods and duration of storage and preparation also cause wide variations. Measurements are given in the standard gram (g), milligram (mg), microgram (mcg), and IU (International Unit) increments.
A note on botanical names: The botanical name of a plant consists of two parts. Of these, the first word indicates the genus or family, while the second identifies the species within the genus. These botanical names change from time to time, sometimes at a speed that must be disconcerting even for botanists. Some of the names given here may already be scheduled for replacement, but fortunately obsolete names have a sort of afterlife and continue to enjoy some currency for a decade or more after they have been replaced.
The idea for this book grew out of my combined interests in organic gardening, cooking, and holistic health. After an initial study of food and its relation to health, I decided to research and compile the information I had found on natural foods into one comprehensive volume. This book is the culmination of my effort to discover the relationship between the foods we eat, the health of our bodies, and the clarity of our minds. It was not my intention to promote one manner of eating over another, and thus there is no recommendation for any particular “diet.” There are many excellent books already written on that subject, quite a few of which are mentioned in the bibliography. Bon appétit!
It is an obvious truth, all too often forgotten, that food is not only inseparable from the history of the human race, but basic to it. Without food there would be no human race, and no history.
—Reay Tannahill, Food in History
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