Y'know my housewifelyness has a background in archaeology too ? well, it gives you an exposure, an understanding, to the realities of the lives that people lived. People who had nothing like the sheer range of food options that we do now. People whose entire lives were so centred upon seasonality, and at times rather lean seasons, that they exploited every available option to keep themselves and their families fed.
The cooking bit is crucial; humanity thrived without claws or fangs or rasp like tongues or multiple stomachs or grinding teeth and jaws that would put a mammoth to shame. We're clever though, and we have hands (and importantly collar bones and shoulder joints that let us use those hands most effectively)
The cooking also makes much of what would otherwise be poor nutrition food a much better option.
We are omnivores, but we are cooking omnivores.
We now are omnivores with an enormous range of choices, and we know from the historical record that people in the past also made choices. Some that might seem illogical to us, but were important to them. The Romans said that some of the Celts did not eat fish….which seemed totally weird to them since they slathered everything in their fish sauce
….and we know that other folks didn't eat pigs, while some refused to eat snakes, or shellfish, or eggs and there are societies that are thousands of years old that are vegetarian too…..it's all a muddle; some of it religious, some of it an individual or societal geas, or simply personal choice, but it didn't make them unhealthy or unable to breed and rear healthy offspring.
Humanity is an incredibly adaptable species, but I truly believe that variety is good for us
whether that variety includes meat in the diet or not, is a personal/societal choice.
I
choose not to eat meat. I find the idea of eating meat to be repulsive even though I know it's good food. If there were only meat available, I'd starve.
I avoid eggs like the plague, fish is a total no!, and I can't digest milk or soft cheeses. (I admit the dairy industry causes me disquiet
) Honey I have no problems with, especially now that the bees are not killed to remove the comb, and I do like mature cheddar, even if it doesn't always like me much
So the occasional bit of mature cheddar or well roasted veggie friendly halloumi, and honey apart, I'm pretty much vegan.
It's not uncommon in the wide scope of humanity really.
What comes out most clearly in this thread though, is just how lucky we all are that we can honestly find enough food in the first place, and that we have choices in that food; and that's true regardless of whether we're in the sodden wet UK, snowbound in Canada or baking in the heat in the Caymans
It's an amazement of riches
Veggie food on the campfire though ? I want to try that marsh samphire that Compo Semite mentioned in post No.4
M
