Longevity of Traditional PeoplePrior to white mans intervention in Australia, the traditional people, of some 600 strong nations, had an enduring way of life. Aboriginal traditional people were mainly a hunter and gather culture, respecting the natural framework of what the land had to offer, feeding both humans and animals. This existence lasted for centuries and is embedded in the rituals and cultures of the individual clans. They learnt not to exploit the offerings of the land. Seasonal changes and climatic patterns were read with great insight ensuring continuance of food for the following seasons. This influenced how they foraged for foods and the types of foods gathered. Over centuries, they learnt to adjust tribe numbers to what were potential available resources. Otherwise the clan would suffer starvation from lack of food. Many rituals and dream-time stories relate to the environment and warnings of natures ability to punish if the land was not cared for. Hence they were able to establish an ecologically sustainable lifestyle, rich in culture and abundance of nutritional food sources. Life was not at it is today, clans had to decide on how and where they would move, ensuring that when they returned to this area, food again would be abundant. The knowledge of food groups and the properties the plants held was extensive as they needed to support not only the nutrition of the clan but any medical needs encountered. They utilized between 150 to 600 different food groups, depending on the type of land they lived in. Some clans lived in the tropics, others in more arid lands and others in the colder highlands. Wherever they lived the diet was diverse and rich. Very little disease as we know disease to be, like heart condition, diabetes, cholesterol, etc, was encountered by these traditional people. Today many of our food groups contain sugar, fats and salts and are highly processed. Traditional aboriginals need for sugar was to seek out sweet fruits, tubers and honey. These foods provided complex carbohydrates, fibre and water soluable nutrients. The sugar were slow release, providing a protective role against diabetes and cardiovascular disease. To find fats that the body was craving, was also hard work as they needed to forge for nuts or hunt game. The nuts needed to be gathered and to obtain enough, they foraged large areas. To catch the game also required tracking and successful hunting techniques. The game meat and nuts were more unsaturated than the fats of equivalent foods of today. Domestic animals of today have more body fat than those that were eaten as traditional game. Research on the wild foods eaten by the traditional aboriginal people is demonstrating the nutritional value that is by far amongst the best identified yet. As farmers entered the scene and domesticated several varieties of food groups, it can be seen over time that they changed the original integrity. Food for farming was chosen for it being - sweeter and larger, but was picked unripe and artificially ripened -selected tubers that grew faster but had less fibre and were more starchy. The wild tubers often contained fructans which are complex carbohydrates. Complex carbs do not increase glucose as digestion is much slower negating the need for higher insulin amounts. It also avoids circulating the glucose in the bloodstream. -domesticated animals contain different fats with less vitamins in the tissue. Utilizing the knowledge of the food sources that were available to traditional people of many lands and blending them in our diet to benefit, using the science about how micro-nutrients operate and interact with us at cellular level seems to be a positive step to good nutrition. A blended food group of specially selected foods makes a very powerful nutritional supplement that has to enhance well-being.
|
