Eat This Newsletter 100
Hello
I'm in the middle of an exchange with Robert Shewfelt, whose definition of "processed" foods I took issue with in the previous Eat This Newsletter. So I'm just going to leave a couple of links here, until I have had time to read and, er, digest, the original research to which they refer.
- It's Not Just Salt, Sugar, Fat: Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Weight Gain
- Do Processed Foods Make You Fat? A New Study Has Stunning Results.
There's appropriation, and then there's appropriation.
I think I've linked before to the scandal of a Dutch company patenting the processing of teff, the tiny grain that is the foundation of much Ethiopian cuisine. BBC Travel has a thorough article asking Did the Dutch 'steal' this African food? The answer is a pretty comprehensive yes, although I can't help but think that to blame the entire Dutch nation for one rotten Dutchman is a bit much. Of course, this view may be coloured by the extremely delicious 'njera I had in Utrecht just a couple of nights ago.
The article also contains a by-now familiar refrain:
[T]eff is now expensive for poorer urban people thanks to global demand. Most farmers in northern and southern Tigray now sell their teff for larger quantities of cheaper grains in the market, such as barley, wheat and sorghum, to make their injera, causing “a loss in culture and a loss in nutrition”.
This is something I see over and over again, as one regional "superfood" after another gets its 15 minutes of fame. In the case of 'njera, unlike quinoa, I'm prepared to believe that it could be a problem, because teff really is a staple that supplies a good deal of the nutrients in the diet. As ever, we need more research.
First cooks
When I was researching Our Daily Bread I was conscious that the cooked starch story from the Fertile Crescent might have parallels elsewhere, most notably in southern Africa. Although they weren't doing it to grass seeds, it seems like the title of first cooks might have to go to the people who lived in South Africa's southern Cape 120,000 years ago. A press release about the earliest evidence of cooking and eating starch found that the stone hearths of the famous Klasies River Cave were used to cook starchy tubers and rhizomes.
Some other fun finds:
- Campbell’s soup changed tomatoes' DNA and opened up a can of mystery. The article, in Quartz, is based on this original press release -- Cryptic mutation is cautionary tale for crop gene editing -- which actually made a lot more sense.
- Who Makes Almond Milk, Oat Milk, Soy Milk? Big Dairy. While trying to beat 'em, join 'em. Bloomberg's piece reminded me of all those rumours that Big Tobacco had trademarked all the great marijuana names. Whatever happened to that one?
- Jeremy Parzen has a fun quiz on The bastardization of Tuscan cuisine (test your Tuscan cookery knowledge). I don't think anyone has yet walked off with the prize, "a bottle of juicy Sangiovese".
- Have you ever been annoyed by those bizarre adverts that permeate the internet like a bad smell? This gut doctor begs every American to throw out this vegetable now. Which vegetable? And who is the doctor? Vox took a trip though internet garbage, so we don't have to.
And that's your lot. I'm trying to decide whether I have time to visit Food: Bigger than the Plate at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
I really do welcome comments, criticism and suggestions; send them over.
All the best,
Jeremy