Foodstuffs that benefit from "treatment"

[fifi]

I found this interesting site.

This process, called nixtamalization, uses either wood ash or slaked calcium hydroxide, called cal or tequesquite ("builder's lime" in English) to soak the corn kernels and soften their often-tough outer skin. Besides making the grain easier to grind, nixtamalization increases the protein value of corn by releasing bound niacin, and helps to preserve the masa, which would quickly become sour without it.

[Mabelline]

Sorry, Pan. When Meso-Americans process corn in a wet state, it's nixtamal, (or masa, once ground). So you then have the slaked lime treated kernels soaked in water and ready to rock. Think tamale, and you get it. Nixtamal came from Atahuilapan--Aztec.

[Mabelline]

Maple sugar and syrup!

[Pan]

Thanks, fifi and Maybelline!

[fifi]

I don't see jackal10 around and my curiosity was killing me. After looking at several dictionary sites all I could find was:

a form of decay seen in fleshy, overripe fruit.

Uh... I am still curious.

[Mabelline]

Look up medlars, fifi. I reckon its like the Southern Persimmons, where they don't get edible till they've gotten mooshy and aged (or froze, in the 'simmon's case). Medlar has been considered one of the most desirable of fruits for hundreds of years. Marlena Spieler and I had a lot of discussion about it. I was considering trees for a crop, since they are cast iron-tough, and very uncommon here. I can't remember where the bletting explanation was, but medlar oughta help. I reckon J10's asleep.

[morda]

Spinach contains a chemical that keeps its nutrients from being absorbed by humans. Cooking kills it, so cooked spinach is actually more nutritious than raw spinach.

I believe the beta carotene in carrots gets activated by cooking as well...making them more nutritious.

[jackal10]

I was asleep - it was night in the UK.

Bletting is a form of fermentation. "Time is like the medlar, it is rotten before it is ripe"

The fresh medlar is tough and woody. Its (I think) a member of the Rose family, but with three big seeds. You leave them in a heap to ferment (a week or so) and they get soft. A real taste of autumn - they are brown and taste "brown", like an old sherry. They are still tough to eat, beacuse there is mot much flesh to seed, but they make wonderful jam or jelly. The tree is also decorative and long lived.

I have a feeling there are other foods which have to undergo this process: persimmons and tobacco come to mind..

[foodgeek]

Spinach contains a chemical that keeps its nutrients from being absorbed by humans. Cooking kills it, so cooked spinach is actually more nutritious than raw spinach.

I believe the beta carotene in carrots gets activated by cooking as well...making them more nutritious.

Reminds me of a chapter in Steingarten's book The Man Who Ate Everything: Salad, The Silent Killer.

[Mabelline]

Thanks, jackal10...as you can tell, medlars are quite rare in the states. I was interested in them for so many reasons...they are hardy here in Montana; they produce in just 2 or 3 years; and mature height is just 8-10 feet. And they are noted as an exceptional taste!!

I had some pears--Seckel, I think--which were enormous, green, and I would pick in late fall, still hard, wrap in newsprint and store in closed-up cardboard boxes, where they finished ripening all fall, to eat them all winter. As kids we used to call these 'chunking' pears, because they made very respectable missiles to 'chunk' at the BOYS!

[scottie]

I don't think that food processing, per se, is necessarily bad; what is bad is the industrialized processing that's been going on for the past century or so, e.g. hydrogenated vegetable oils, bleached and bromated flours, etc.

I do think that ancient methods of food processing and preservation, usually involving fermentation, are actually quite healthy. People would do well to eat more lacto-fermented products such as sauerkraut and certain cured meats. The pickles you can buy at the supermarket these days are not like the old-fashioned, lacto-fermented varieties made by many of our grandparents.

I have a book called called Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. She talks a great deal about this subject, including lots of footnotes and supporting research. She talks about ancient and traditional methods of soaking and/or fermenting grains before grinding into flour. These processes break down the phytic acid, which is what can cause trouble for animals lacking a multiple-stomach digestive system. About phytic acid, she says: "This is why a diet high in unfermented whole grains may lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss."

She goes on to recommend whole-grain sourdough as the most healthful of breads.

[scottie]

I would add to the list:

Eggplant

Eating raw eggplant sounds like severe GI distress waiting to happen.

Same with potatoes.

And:

Soybeans!

"Soybeans are high in phytates and contain potent enzyme inhibitors that are only deactivated by fermentation and not by ordinary cooking." (Ologhobo, A.D., and B.L. Fetuga, Journal of Food Science, Jan/Feb 1984, 49:1:199-201; as quoted on p. 78 of Nourisning Traditions, by Sally Fallon.)

This means that edamame are actually not so good for you, and the whole brouhaha about soy protein for menopausal ladies is patently false. Soy is a huge industry, one of the first to undergo genetic modification. Agribusiness has a huge stake in convincing the general public that soy is healthful. But unfermented soy products can block enyme absorption and cause malnutrition. And it's in baby formula!

This is not to say that all soy products are bad. Fermented, unheated soy products such as miso are actually quite healthful, as is tempeh. But not tofu.

This thread could get quite political...

[Mabelline]

Yes, for sure, scottie. Susan Fallon's position and book receive some serious consideration in the book I am reading, as well. I find her to be very astute and interesting!

There's some very good info and resources about genetic modifiers, and the agendas they've got in mind for us. I don't think people realize how far from corn, particularly, that the stewards of pure strains have to be in order to prevent introduction of modified pollen. Some day corn will be Monsanto--and that's it.

[gingerly]

gingko nuts,ackee fruit,bamboo shoot,certain kinds of cassava..

a toast to all those who went before us!

[ingridsf]

And:

Soybeans!

"Soybeans are high in phytates and contain potent enzyme inhibitors that are only deactivated by fermentation and not by ordinary cooking." (Ologhobo, A.D., and B.L. Fetuga, Journal of Food Science, Jan/Feb 1984, 49:1:199-201; as quoted on p. 78 of Nourisning Traditions, by Sally Fallon.)

This means that edamame are actually not so good for you, and the whole brouhaha about soy protein for menopausal ladies is patently false. Soy is a huge industry, one of the first to undergo genetic modification. Agribusiness has a huge stake in convincing the general public that soy is healthful. But unfermented soy products can block enyme absorption and cause malnutrition. And it's in baby formula!

This is not to say that all soy products are bad. Fermented, unheated soy products such as miso are actually quite healthful, as is tempeh. But not tofu.

This thread could get quite political...

Research also shows that the one-time appeal of soy products for women -- estrogen -- is probably not such a great thing after all, as we are now bombarded by estrogenic substances, including many plastics. Proving as always there's such a thing as too much of a good thing.

(A little education can be a dangerous thing, BTW. The idea that "processed" and "chemical" and "artificial" are by definition negative led me to explain to a young woman that the natural arsenic in peach pits was not a superior form of birth control, as compared with "artificial" bc pills. Yikes.)

Ingrid

[jackal10]

I had some pears--Seckel, I think--which were enormous, green, and I would pick in late fall, still hard, wrap in newsprint and store in closed-up cardboard boxes, where they finished ripening all fall, to eat them all winter. As kids we used to call these 'chunking' pears, because they made very respectable missiles to 'chunk' at the BOYS!

Hard winter pears - called Wardens - are a very old tradition.

Medlars are a very slow growing tree, but make wonderful gnarled architectural forms.

[Chad]

I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned manioc/cassava. Made into tapioca in the West, it's a staple food for huge portions of the world. It is also deadly poisonous unless properly processed (boiling, I believe).

Ya gotta wonder how people figured this stuff out.

Chad

[gingerly]

three steps back Chad!

Edited May 24, 2004 by gingerly (log)

[Mabelline]

The first guy to steal honey from bees by smoking them out gets a big hoorah, too!

[ingridsf]

Ya gotta wonder how people figured this stuff out.

Chad

That's always been my question: How'd anybody go from wheat in a field to a loaf of bread? Now, THAT's thinking outside the box!

Ingrid

[TJHarris]

Maybe a little to uncommon but... Stinging Nettles... one of the tastiest cooked greens there ever was. Oh will they mess you up raw. They have little hairs on the leaves and stems that will leave you with burning welts where-ever you touch them.

[Mabelline]

Artichokes and cardoons!

[fifi]

This whole thing to me is one of the great historical mysteries of the human race and I find it endlessly fascinating. We seem to be relearning basic food principles from our ancestors, e.g. the whole wheat versus white flour thing.

Wheat in the field to a loaf of bread? That is a really big leap. Then, if you get into the nutritional advantages of refining the wheat flour to remove as much of the bran as possible, well, reason fails me and today's "wisdom" (whole grain all bran) makes no sense.

A big mystery: How did the early americans figure out that processing corn with wood ashes or burned sea shells make the corn more nutritious? That combination is not instinctual.

[ingridsf]

A big mystery: How did the early americans figure out that processing corn with wood ashes or burned sea shells make the corn more nutritious? That combination is not instinctual.

If memory serves, native Americans basically saved the Europeans' butts. My 2nd grade history teacher explained that Squanto showed John and Priscilla to put a dead fish in with the seed corn. Yadayadayada, a Thanksgiving feast.

Now, where the native Americans were getting their info from is another question....

[Pan]

I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned manioc/cassava.

Have a look at the quoted portion of the first post in this thread, Chad.