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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Diet, championing wide variety
  • Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:18:49 -0700

Roxanne:
Herbs contain dozens or more components that work together to bring about
a change or make an effect, and even though sciences identifies one or two
of them as the 'active' ingredient, they all work together and i don't
like separating out >the 'active' ingredient.

Lynn:
I've also noticed that many 'herbals' work to strengthen specific systems,
like the immune system, or help the liver detox. These help the body
recover, instead of taking over it's function, or forcing it to do or not do
something, as many allopathic medicines do. These herbals (not all...some
are for specific limited use) have no bad side effects and can take months
to work...they can also be eaten as a regular part of the diet. Many people
in this country incorporate garlic in everyday meals; the Chinese add
astrogalus to soup bases, and use a lot of garlic and ginger in cooking.

In The 120-Year Diet, Roy Walford, MD, suggests many menus and recipes that use ingredients largely unavailable except in big cities. I found myself inspired by the potential but dissuaded by the effort.

Since reading that book about 20 years ago, however, I have come around to the premise that by eating a diet composed of the widest variety of ingredients, we likely do many unknown favors to our bodies. While there is anecdotal evidence that a simple, dependable diet of a short list of ingredients can be very healthful--note the Hunzacuts--it seems to me that our bodies most likely benefit from not only known vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc., but from the synergism of various ingredients in each food and among foods. As Roxanne is uncomfortable with pulling out a scientifically-dictated "active ingredient," from an herb, I am uninterested in advice that dictates a diet limited to supposedly necessary or useful foods. And, as Lynn notes, herbs are known to be beneficial to many parts and pieces of the human body.

Our bodies are more complex than anyone can now guess. They have evolved over the last 200,000 years or more depending on one's acceptance of scientific information. It seems to me that over this time span our ancestors have ingested about every plant and animal on Earth, gaining from some and rejecting others. With the exception of known poisonous plants, we might well profit from chomping a bit of far more foods than we now enjoy.





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