The Thammasat University Library has newly acquired an informative book about the history and anthropology of diet. 100 Million Years Of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today is shelved among the General Books at Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus. As a way of replying to fashionable modern diets such as veganism, the author Stephen Le offers other suggestions. Dr. Le is a scientist interested in anthropology, economics, biology, psychology, health, and international relations. He is currently affiliated with the University of Ottawa, Canada, as a visiting scholar. He earned a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, a master’s degree in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Ottawa. He previously held an appointment as a postdoctoral scholar at Hokkaido University in Japan. He has conducted fieldwork in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Sweden, and Greece. Among his suggestions:
Walk like our ancestors did and amble for at least two hours a day. Vigorous exercise makes people hungrier and often leads to physical injuries, while cutting back on calories takes superhuman control and is probably an unnatural thing for humans to do, as our hunter-gatherer relations had pretty healthy appetites.
TU Students may be interested to know that Dr. Le, who is of Vietnamese origin, believes that most young people in developed countries eat too many meat and dairy products. Although when young people eat these foods, it helps them grow, the foods absorb high levels of growth-related hormones such as IGF-1 which may increase the risks of cancer later in life. By contrast, Dr. Le adds that emeritus professors and old alumni benefit from eating meat, since the nutrients can help them from becoming too fragile. One significant message of Dr. Le’s book is that most people would benefit from trying to find out what our ancestors ate 500 years ago, and following that diet. If we eat traditional foods, we will probably consume only moderate amounts of fat, cholesterol, and salt. The reason Dr. Le mentions 500 years as an ideal point in dietary history is that in that era, the Industrial Revolution had not yet impacted the way food was prepared or how it was consumed:
The older the cuisine, the better. Five-hundred-year-old cuisines are a good starting point, because at that point industrially processed foods had not yet made significant inroads in peoples lives… If your ancestors didn’t consume much starch or dairy, neither should you.
Dr. Le also advises that we eat plants and animals adapted to our local environments rather than relying on imported products. Finally, Dr. Le favors dishes that are boiled, steamed, or stewed. Cooking at high temperatures, such as broiling, roasting, deep-frying, and grilling may dry out food and create advanced glycation (AGE) products, compound that has been linked to some illnesses. Processed foods in particular have high AGE levels. In 2016 Dr. Le told a newspaper interviewer:
Humans throughout our history, we’ve always cooked our foods. Eating raw foods is a very novel thing. People on these raw vegan diets, the women have higher rates of infertility because they can’t get enough calories from their food. Also in human history, there’s never been a point when humans didn’t have some form of animal food in their diet. Vegan diets in general are also novel and probably not good for our health for that reason. Our bodies through evolution are well-designed to handle animal foods but not purely vegetarian diets. Fruitarian diets are also very unusual from the point of view of history. In the book I mention one case of a patient who was admitted to a hospital in France. He had a heart attack and when they did an autopsy, they saw these crystals inside his lungs, which had come from eating apples.
Thailand and Healthy Food
As all Thais know, Thai food is famous around the world. In terms of the healthiness of the Thai diet, the website of the World Health Organization states:
In big cities like Bangkok, there are plenty of food stalls and small restaurants on the sides of streets. The quality and prices of these food stalls and restaurants are diverse. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has issued certificates on cleanliness to those qualified food stalls and restaurants in the city whereas the Department of Health of the Ministry of Public Health has issued certificate on “clean food good taste” to those qualified food stalls and restaurants in all provinces. The green-colour signs in these shops can be observed. Whenever dining out, cleanliness of food, food containers, plates, forks and spoons should be major concern. Not all food stalls and restaurants are safe. It depends on individual decision.
It is advised that people consider the following when dining out:
- Be sure that the food you are eating are freshly cooked, be mindful of the indications (warm food, food cooked in front of you, etc.).
- Fish, seafood, meats (especially chicken and pork) and eggs should be well cooked.
- Fresh vegetables and fruit should be washed thoroughly or peeled where possible to avoid contamination and pesticides.
- Please ensure that plates, spoons, forks, glasses and cups are clean. In some cases, the foods are cooked safely but the serving containers are not clean.
In addition to this advice, last month Thailand’s Public Health Ministry was praised for a new regulation banning the production, import and distribution of industrially produced trans fats and food products containing them. This rule addressed the fact that trans fats have been linked to cardiovascular disease. They will therefore be banned under the Food Act 1979 by the end of 2018. Trans fats are usually found in such food items as crispy snacks, French fries, cookies, shortening, margarine, non-dairy creamer and dry fast foods, none of which were eaten by Thai people 500 years ago, to follow the suggestion of Dr. Le. Trans fats were first produced industrially just over 50 years ago, to keep some products from spoiling when sitting on the shelves of supermarkets and to enhance flavor. Mr. Sanga Damapong, a former Honorary Advisor of the Nutrition Association of Thailand, told The Nation newspaper:
Trans fats can cause many deaths because they contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease… After they began being used commercially around the world, people noticed an increase in non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases – predominantly heart attacks and strokes – high blood pressure and diabetes. Studies were conducted and trans fats were identified as the culprit.
This timely new regulation is a positive response to the report in March on food security, that malnourishment and obesity are both increasing in Thailand. 6.5 million people in Thailand suffer from malnutrition and hunger, but 5 million in Thailand are obese. The 2017 report of the Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture, and Food Sovereignty Action Thailand Foundation (BioThai) pointed to an increasing inequality gap in access to food. BioThai Foundation director Withoon Lienchamroon said that even though Thailand exports food to the rest of the world., 6.5 million Thais do not get enough food and over 600,000 children suffered from malnutrition, affecting their physical development. Yet obesity rates in the Kingdom have doubled over the past ten years. Dr. Withoon stated:
The problem of food access continues to be a significant outcome of social inequality, as the poor have limited food choices and often do not get enough, but the rich enjoy the privilege of access to larger amounts and diverse varieties of food. The lavish consumption also generates large quantities of food wastes. Statistics show that 449 million tonnes of food were wasted in Asia alone last year, and this food waste could feed millions of people who do not have enough food.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)