Paleo with a twist

Regenerative Culture Health, Healing & Movement
#1

I started the paleo diet a couple of weeks ago, but decided to continue using salt (mostly for fermentations) and eating fermented foods. This is because I’m located next to the ocean, and in a very rainy region, so ferments seem like a good preservation option over sun or smoke drying. They also just make good health sense to me (if anyone knows otherwise let me hear about it).

Today my roomie made miso soup and I initially turned it down cuz of the soy beans. “But they’re fermented!” she said. It made me wonder how much phytic acid is broken down during fermentation. Anybody got a clue?

#2

As for my part, I consider both fermented foods and fish oils a vital part of paleo diet.

Warning: amateur nutritionist speculations ahead!

Fermentation, from my understanding, makes soy edible. It doesn’t make it nutritious or healthy. It still started out as a famine food (say, like skunk cabbage). Farmers used it to increase the fertility of the soil and as a cover crop, and in hard times, ate their cover crop. For whatever reason (perhaps extended famine? japan certainly had plenty of that in the middle ages - famines came one after another), people include it as a normal part of their diet. But with any choice, I think a modern nutrition conscious person would avoid it whenever possible.

So, kraut Yay!, miso Boo!

#3

All the “delicacies” from France are a result of food supplies being cut off by war. They were famine food, too.

Fermentation is paleo in my opinion, too. Used for everything, even meat, and doesn’t always require salt. Lots of health benefits from the process itself. Yeast, for example, is very high in B vitamins. Very laxative too, though :stuck_out_tongue:

The book, “Sacred, Herbal, and Healing Beers” suggests that beer may have spawned agriculture, rather than the other way around. The author also includes mention of numerous indigenous cultures, that made/make extensive use of this process. Really turns civ’s idea of beer, its making, and inebriation, on its head. Doesn’t really concern foods so much, but the fact that the process was well known and used is well attested to.

#4

thanks folks! think I’ll continue to avoid even fermented wheat and soy, mostly for simplicity really.

#5

In the spirit of looking or evidence to support my theory (rather than evidence to disprove it - c’mon, I don’t get paid for this):

In the Edo Period (1603-1868), Japan experienced 154 famines, of which 21 (21!!) were widespread and serious.

Methinks this would cause one to start eating one’s cover crop, if they hadn’t already from the six continuous years of famine and drought beginning in 1226. 6 years!

And with that, the ridiculous threadjack ends!