Absolute Write Blogchain #10
Don’t run and hide your eyes at the word “Blogchain.” This particular blogchain is a series of posts by writers, each of us taking an idea from the previous writers and seeing where it leads us. The post before mine was by Jim Melvin. He talked about organic vegetables and picky eaters, which leaves me so many possible paths to travel I may need to think a moment to find one.
Our notion of what makes a good diet changes over time. My favourite Medieval diet advice, for instance, explains that a good diet is esssential to good health, and that the four humours have to achieve the right balance in our bodies. Not an equal balance, but the right balance for us. If I was a flaming read head with a hot temper, then too much cucumber would perhaps be over-cooling and might lead to probems (I always use red hair and hot tempers for this example, just to annoy friends of mine whose hair is the right colour).
We do exactly the same thing today. Too many chips and sweets , not enough antioxidants. Cut down on fried foods. Eat more protein, less protein, different protein. And, you know, I’m really not certain that we know as much as we think we do about how our bodies work, or that those Medieval specialists knew as little as modern medical science assumes.
For me, it’s a matter of finding out. I love the Medieval notion that not all bodies are identical and I hate the modern notion that my metabolically-challenged body is the same as someone who could eat an elephant and retain and eighteen inch waist.
Some of the other bloggers in the chain have returned to their childhood and talked about what they learned about fruit and vegetables. What I learned in my childhod was scientific method. It was a strange upbringing in some ways. We would go on summer excursions and our parents expected us to anlayse and think about everything we saw.
What I’m doing now is continuing the learning f my childhood. I need to know what’s useful about Medieval dietetics, and not just dismiss it because it doesn’t fit modern notions. I need to know what’s useful and painfully wrong with modern theories of diet, and not just accept words of wisdom from on high.
The food of our childhood lingers in later life, but for some of us it has very strange manifestations.
The next blogger in the chain has just sent her son to something she calls Buddha’s boot camp. Keep an eye on her page and see what she makes of my link. I love blogchains. I love seeing how a topic unravels and new topics weave their way into a linear conversation online.
Here are the writers, all lined up, in the order they’re posting. It’s especially worth chasing the blogchain down the line this time round, because most of it is about food memories and family traditions.
blog@cathsmith.com
My Midnight Muse
periodically.org
(The Blog Formerly Known as) Taosbound
Virtual Wordsmith
The Death Wizard Chronicles
Food History
Kappa No He
A piece in the puzzle
Sound Off Blog
Virginia Lee: I Ain’t Dead Yet!
food history, memories, awchain, blogchain
August 31st, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Nice little twist on the food theme! And I’m heavily inclined to agree with your notion of different diets for different bodies. Food allergies and diabetes are just extreme examples pointing to the validity of that theory. (Being diabetic, by the way, despite the obvious down side, is a great way of finding out just how your body reacts to certain foods.)
And the next time my hot-tempered, red-headed friend calls, I’ll pass on your advice about laying off the cucumbers.
September 2nd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
My wife and I subscribe to a diet we like to call “Everything in moderation.”
I’ve never bought into the “this is absolutely the best way to eat” because that changes every two months or so. Plus, there’s always the quality vs quantity debate to consider.
No, I’ll stick with eating what I want in moderation. That seems good enough for me.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:19 am
I remember reading a piece of research a year or so ago (but my brain is so fugged these days that I can’t remember where I read it - naturally) that looked into how the body absorbs nutrients. They swapped people’s diets, so someone used to a European diet ate spicy Indian food and someone used to an Indian diet ate a comparatively bland European diet. They found that the subjects didn’t absorb the nutrients from the foreign diet as well as they did from their own.
So I guess there is a difference from person to person.
September 4th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Ha! I found the comments!
Well, I think my brother and sisters must be completely malnourished for they’re all certainly humourless.
:rimshot:
I agree that we all have different nutritional needs. Mine are completely different from my mom.
And talking about diets of the past - when I portrayed a cook in 1891 and had to cook 8 course dinners a few times, I had to churn my own butter, use lard for shortening, and have 4 meat or fish courses. It was CRAZY. But I was the cook for a wealthy household and that is the way it was.
Now then, I really have to come in here more often. I always learn something new every time I visit.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
When I stop to think about it, it would be much stranger if we awere all the same. Now all I hae to do is convince doctors…