2585: What Our Ancestors Can Teach Us About Healthy Eating by Kathy Robinson of Athena Wellness

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily, Episode 2585.

[00:01:04] What Our Ancestors Can Teach Us About Healthy Eating by Kathy Robinson of athenawellness.com.

[00:01:11] And I'm Dr. Neil.

[00:01:12] Hey there, happy Tuesday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily,

[00:01:16] where I simply read to you from the best health and fitness blogs for free.

[00:01:20] I cover fitness, nutrition, stress management, weight management and lots more.

[00:01:25] This is just like an audiobook, but from a bunch of different authors.

[00:01:29] And always with permission from the sites and always with a bit of my commentary at the end.

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[00:01:36] I answer your questions.

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[00:01:44] or you can email your question to health at oldpodcast.com.

[00:01:49] And with that, I'm sure you're excited to hear today's article.

[00:01:53] So let's get right to it and continue optimizing your life.

[00:02:00] What Our Ancestors Can Teach Us About Healthy Eating by Kathy Robinson of athenawellness.com.

[00:02:08] Much of what I learned about healthy eating came from my grandmother's kitchen.

[00:02:12] My grandmother lived to be 96.

[00:02:15] She was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1904.

[00:02:19] Her mother emigrated from southern Italy through Ellis Island by herself at age 18

[00:02:24] to marry and begin a new life in America.

[00:02:27] I remember my great-grandmother who lived to be 88 herself.

[00:02:31] Sitting in a rocking chair I still have and rattling off Italian I didn't understand.

[00:02:37] What was the secret to their longevity?

[00:02:40] My great-grandmother brought the ways of her upbringing with her when she came to America.

[00:02:45] In the early 1900s, she and my great-grandfather grew much of their own food in a small yard in Brooklyn.

[00:02:51] Grapes for wine, figs and other fruit, tomatoes, olives,

[00:02:56] and vegetables that they would enjoy in the summer

[00:02:59] and preserve the surplus for the winter months by canning and storing the jars in their root cellar.

[00:03:05] It's completely urban now, but my grandmother used to tell stories of walking across big open fields

[00:03:12] to get to school among horses and wagons making deliveries in the neighborhood.

[00:03:16] When my grandmother married, she fed her growing family with what is known as peasant food.

[00:03:22] These meals were simple and hearty and made from inexpensive ingredients.

[00:03:27] Meals such as polenta, which is cornmeal and red gravy,

[00:03:31] macaroni with garlic and olive oil,

[00:03:33] and ditalini pasta and cannellini beans in tomato sauce.

[00:03:38] These modest dinners kept her family nourished in a healthy and economical way.

[00:03:43] Sundays were different.

[00:03:45] I have fond memories of my grandmother coming home after church

[00:03:48] and cooking up a storm for the legions of cousins, nephews, siblings, children and grandkids

[00:03:54] that would visit her three-room apartment.

[00:03:56] The tomato gravy would have meatballs and meat.

[00:03:59] There would be Italian bread and rice balls.

[00:04:01] We'd always start off with a tomato, onion and lettuce salad with oil and vinegar.

[00:04:06] The red wine flowed.

[00:04:08] For dessert, she'd make black coffee and a homemade treat,

[00:04:11] maybe a pie or donuts or Zeppoles if we were lucky.

[00:04:15] Exercise was embedded in the day-to-day.

[00:04:18] My grandmother never learned to drive, but she walked her beloved Bay Ridge neighborhood every day.

[00:04:24] She walked to church, the bread store, the cheese store, the butcher, the supermarket,

[00:04:30] pulling her groceries behind her in a metal shopping cart

[00:04:32] and then lugging that cart up four flights of stairs to the top floor of her walk-up apartment.

[00:04:39] This sounds like the ultimate Stairmaster workout.

[00:04:42] She knew where her food came from, even in a city of 8 million people.

[00:04:46] She enjoyed long established relationships

[00:04:49] because she was born and lived within a one-block radius her whole life.

[00:04:54] Her healthy eating patterns came out of necessity, not from being health-minded.

[00:05:00] Small portions and no snacking came from limited resources.

[00:05:04] My grandmother did enjoy her little sweet treat in the afternoons with a cup of decaf coffee though,

[00:05:09] and I loved those coffee breaks.

[00:05:12] Food was seasonal and locally sourced because air freight didn't exist yet.

[00:05:17] She ate whole foods before both words came to be capitalized.

[00:05:21] The food was homemade, prepared with love and eaten in community.

[00:05:26] And there was always gratitude, a moment to say grace,

[00:05:29] to be thankful for the food they were about to eat

[00:05:32] because they could remember what it was like to grow up during the Great Depression.

[00:05:36] Now that I think about it, this was mindful eating before there was such a label.

[00:05:42] I know how lucky I was to grow up as I did.

[00:05:45] We didn't have much, but we had all we needed and love was plentiful.

[00:05:50] My eating habits have evolved over the decades and in many ways, they've come full circle.

[00:05:55] As I reflect on this, I wonder how much epigenetics come into play here,

[00:06:00] that is, the degree to which I've been influenced by the behaviors and environment of my ancestors.

[00:06:07] I can feel the connection.

[00:06:08] I can feel it in my love of sharing home-cooked meals, fresh ingredients,

[00:06:13] chatting with the folks at the market, harvesting wild foods,

[00:06:17] living an active lifestyle, enjoying a nice glass of wine and my coffee breaks,

[00:06:23] all a nod to those who came before me.

[00:06:26] To be clear, I don't want to go back to the old ways.

[00:06:29] Life was hard for my grandparents and my great-grandparents.

[00:06:32] Women were expected to run the household, raise the kids with no modern conveniences,

[00:06:37] and many worked in the home, as did both my grandmothers.

[00:06:40] So no, this isn't about going back.

[00:06:44] It's about moving forward mindfully, learning our lessons from those who came before

[00:06:49] in order to live our best lives today.

[00:06:56] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:58] What Our Ancestors Can Teach Us About Healthy Eating, by Kathy Robinson of athenawellness.com.

[00:07:04] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:08:17] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:08:19] Today's author, Kathy, said something really important.

[00:08:22] When it comes to our eating habits, it does seem as though we're coming full circle.

[00:08:27] During World War II, the food industry had to come up with ways to get non-perishable food to the troops.

[00:08:34] This food had to last a long time without spoiling.

[00:08:37] It also had to be full of calories to supply the troops with lots of readily available energy.

[00:08:43] And it had to be easily transported across the world.

[00:08:47] Now at the time, most people weren't used to eating this way.

[00:08:50] Instead, foods were eaten fresh and seasonally.

[00:08:54] But these advances in food technology changed all of that.

[00:08:58] After World War II ended, lots of these convenience foods that were being sent to the troops ended up left over.

[00:09:06] And instead of wasting them, these foods were sent to grocery stores around the country.

[00:09:10] Now, these highly processed foods were readily available to pretty much everyone.

[00:09:16] That meant folks didn't have to rely on shopping every day for fresh foods.

[00:09:20] Instead, they could leave foods in the pantry without refrigeration for days and weeks.

[00:09:26] Baking became much less tedious.

[00:09:28] Plus, these foods were cheaper than fresh foods.

[00:09:32] Now of course there's more to this story,

[00:09:34] but this partly explains where our reliance on convenient processed foods came from.

[00:09:40] Now through 60 years of health-related research,

[00:09:43] we have seen now how these foods affect our health.

[00:09:47] And again, we're coming full circle.

[00:09:50] Back to the idea of mostly fresh, mostly unprocessed seasonal foods.

[00:09:56] You know, the way our ancestors ate.

[00:09:59] Thank you so much for being here.

[00:10:00] Thank you for listening every day.

[00:10:02] I hope you're having a great week so far.

[00:10:04] And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.