Grains snuck up on us
I haven't memorized the numbers but for millenia humans have been practicing the art of "stretching food." I was taught it by my mother. You add grains to your food to make it go farther. It's a way of feeding poor people. That's what grains are, an invention supported by kings and bullies for the purpose of feeding the masses. We should be feeding them to the meat animals and eating them, and turning it into fuel, oil, and assorted other non-food functions because it's not human food! Instead we're forcing it onto our carnivore pets!
But can the world live on a paleo diet? They should, and would be far healthier if they did, and live longer, be less emotional, and smarter as a whole. But can we produce enough freshies?
I realize that for most people, bread is food and good food. In fact, folks believe that there are nutritive qualities in grains that we can't do without. I used to. Now I see that's been artificially injected into our society by the cereal and grain manufacturers since the 19th century. It takes a lot of learning to find that nugget of understanding. You need to learn about the sugar industry's manipulation of the food market. You need to understand how the tobacco industry happened, and the skullduggery in which they engage. Then you need to know the history of breakfast cereal. You also need to know a bit about what sorts of things people have eaten in the past, via mundane novels, fiction, or true drama, etc. Consider what foods the people in A Christmas Carol by Dickens focussed on eating. Pudding, which was a weird confection involving sugar, wine, and fruit, mostly fruit and wine. Goose. Vegetables. If you think about a Dickensian feast, where's the bread? Even the sutffing was made with things like chopped liver and vegetables! Bread figures heavily in images of feeding people who are on the edge of starvation. Again, grains are cheap food. When I was a child I was told that in Europe corn was considered animal feed, not human food, and my fondness for sweet corn was going to induce laughter. My aunt in Holland even found a speciality shop that sold the stuff in cans. That rare.
Yet when you examine the modern western diet, grains figure close to 85% of the intake! It's in every mmeal, every dish.
But can the world live on a paleo diet? They should, and would be far healthier if they did, and live longer, be less emotional, and smarter as a whole. But can we produce enough freshies?
I realize that for most people, bread is food and good food. In fact, folks believe that there are nutritive qualities in grains that we can't do without. I used to. Now I see that's been artificially injected into our society by the cereal and grain manufacturers since the 19th century. It takes a lot of learning to find that nugget of understanding. You need to learn about the sugar industry's manipulation of the food market. You need to understand how the tobacco industry happened, and the skullduggery in which they engage. Then you need to know the history of breakfast cereal. You also need to know a bit about what sorts of things people have eaten in the past, via mundane novels, fiction, or true drama, etc. Consider what foods the people in A Christmas Carol by Dickens focussed on eating. Pudding, which was a weird confection involving sugar, wine, and fruit, mostly fruit and wine. Goose. Vegetables. If you think about a Dickensian feast, where's the bread? Even the sutffing was made with things like chopped liver and vegetables! Bread figures heavily in images of feeding people who are on the edge of starvation. Again, grains are cheap food. When I was a child I was told that in Europe corn was considered animal feed, not human food, and my fondness for sweet corn was going to induce laughter. My aunt in Holland even found a speciality shop that sold the stuff in cans. That rare.
Yet when you examine the modern western diet, grains figure close to 85% of the intake! It's in every mmeal, every dish.