I have no intention of dedicating this blog to nutrition, but a recent New York Times article on phytonutrients caught my eye. An earlier post on this blog notes that learning is at the bottom of
Munger's cognitive fitness pyramid and nutrition at the bottom of
Glassman's physical preparedness pyramid.
The New York Times piece by Jo Robinson opens with an argument nearly verbatim to advice my grandfather used to give me. He'd say, "it's always better to get your nutrients from food, not pills." Robinson's piece recites the idea that "food can be the answer to our ills...if we eat nutritious foods we won’t need medicine or supplements."
Robinson cites Hippocrates who, in addition to providing medicine's guiding principle more than 2,500 years ago (do no harm), also offered this insight that has become conventional wisdom, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." My foods & nutrition instructor in college liked to point out that the French were in the habit of making fun of 'Americans' for their habit of popping nutrition supplements noting that in addition to our poorer health and higher obesity rates, we also had a lot more expensive urine.)
It is a nearly universally held maxim today that optimal health can be achieved by eating lots of fruits and vegetables. (CrossFit founder Greg Glassman, interestingly, isn't crazy about fruit and hates sugar). And food may well be the answer, but Robinson notes that farming--even before Monsanto!--has robbed a lot of the stuff we eat of a lot of the stuff that is the most beneficial to our bodies. Phytonutrients--the parts of food scientists tell us are most likely to keep us from cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia--have been disappearing from our diets for about 10,000 years.
Robinson's piece tells a bunch of fascinating stories--most notably the story of how our corn came to be super-sweet, about 40 percent sugar, and devoid of phytonutrients after a scorched earth campaign launched by soon-to-be U.S. President George Washington against the Iroquois.
"If we want to get maximum health benefits from fruits and vegetables," Robinson argues, "we must choose the right varieties." And the right varieties are getting harder and harder
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| New York Times graphic on phytonutrients in contemporary food. |
The New York Times piece by Jo Robinson opens with an argument nearly verbatim to advice my grandfather used to give me. He'd say, "it's always better to get your nutrients from food, not pills." Robinson's piece recites the idea that "food can be the answer to our ills...if we eat nutritious foods we won’t need medicine or supplements."
Robinson cites Hippocrates who, in addition to providing medicine's guiding principle more than 2,500 years ago (do no harm), also offered this insight that has become conventional wisdom, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." My foods & nutrition instructor in college liked to point out that the French were in the habit of making fun of 'Americans' for their habit of popping nutrition supplements noting that in addition to our poorer health and higher obesity rates, we also had a lot more expensive urine.)
It is a nearly universally held maxim today that optimal health can be achieved by eating lots of fruits and vegetables. (CrossFit founder Greg Glassman, interestingly, isn't crazy about fruit and hates sugar). And food may well be the answer, but Robinson notes that farming--even before Monsanto!--has robbed a lot of the stuff we eat of a lot of the stuff that is the most beneficial to our bodies. Phytonutrients--the parts of food scientists tell us are most likely to keep us from cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia--have been disappearing from our diets for about 10,000 years.
Robinson's piece tells a bunch of fascinating stories--most notably the story of how our corn came to be super-sweet, about 40 percent sugar, and devoid of phytonutrients after a scorched earth campaign launched by soon-to-be U.S. President George Washington against the Iroquois.
"If we want to get maximum health benefits from fruits and vegetables," Robinson argues, "we must choose the right varieties." And the right varieties are getting harder and harder
Form Before Function.
CrossFitters chase performance. They don't care so much what their bodies look like (the CrossFit Turning 7s into 10s video notwithstanding), but they're invested in what they can get their bodies to do. Just as many people exercize in order to look good rather than perform well, 19th Century gentleman farmer Noyes Darling set out to create an
all-white, sweet varietyof corn. He succeeded in ridding corn of its erstwhile "disadvantage of being yellow."
Robinson's piece is a helpful corrective to crooked thinking about what's good for us to eat. She even offers some easy, practical advice for modern-day foragers, "Look for arugula. Arugula['s] greens are rich in
cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates and higher in
antioxidant activity than many green lettuces....Scallions, or green onions, are jewels of nutrition hiding in plain
sight. They resemble wild onions and are just as good for you.
Remarkably, they have more than five times more phytonutrients than many
common onions do....Herbs are wild plants incognito. We’ve long valued them for their
intense flavors and aroma, which is why they’ve not been given a flavor
makeover. Because we’ve left them well enough alone, their phytonutrient
content has remained intact."
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