Eating Fat Makes You Fat - Right? Foods to Avoid
If you really want to follow a Paleo Diet, eat some KOR Factor Review bugs. My favorite news magazine, The Week, recently covered an interesting story titled "The Real Paleo Diet" by Daniella Martin. In it, Ms. Martin makes the claim that insects were a large part of the diet for humans before the agricultural revolution. If you are not familiar with the Paleo Diet, the premise is that for optimal health, you should eat like early humans did in hunter gatherer days. The Paleo Diet consists mainly of organic grass fed meats, fish, leafy greens, berries and nuts. What is NOT included in any mainstream Paleo cookbooks is BUGS.However, the above debate seems somewhat trivial being that much of the non-Western world does in fact consume bugs. The practice never really went out of style for much of the world's population. I personally have NEVER tried an insect. I passed up a few choice opportunities on several business trips: ant eggs in Mexico City, bugs on a stick in Beijing, crickets (oddly sold next to bins of bulk candy) in New York's China Town. Now, I wish I had at least TRIED these delicacies.
Not surprisingly, there is a paucity of scientific literature on this topic in the mainstream Western academic journals. However, I did find an interesting article titled "The nutritional value of fourteen species of edible insects in southwestern Nigeria" from the African Journal of Biotechnology. Many species are over 20% protein and also contain Vitamins A, B2, C, Calcium, Phosphurs, Iron and Magnesium. The article also contains an interesting quote about Western attitudes regarding insect consumption "Most people in tropical Africa collect insects for food... The aversion to insects as human food among Europeans is nothing more than custom and prejudice" (Banjo 2006).Entomophagy is the consumption of insects as food. As a sensory scientist, I'm intrigued about what they TASTE like. For instance, a fried bean grub served on a kabob is described as follows: "exterior is a bit tough and chewy (salty and greasy), while the inside is somewhat bland with a tofu-like consistency". It is also mentioned that they swell and turn brown when fried.
The technical term for the Goji berry is {Lycium Barbarum}. They belong to the nightshade family {Solonaceae}. Keeping in mind that this is not a deadly nightshade plant-only a cousin and is never poisonous in any way. In fact, it is one of the most nutritionally complete and dense fruit found in nature. There are numerous health benefits to Goji. It's closest cousins are sweet potatoes, tomato, eggplant and peppers. The difference is-this little berry has big nutritional integrity. It's native to Mongolia and the Himalayan Mountains but it is now grown in a multitude of countries and therefor easier to find-this is great news for mankind and health!Goji berry health benefits have only been introduced to the western world recently. But, the Goji Berry has been used medicinally and in cooking in Tibet and China for centuries.
The one very important thing that makes the Goji berry unique to other fruits is it's amino acid content. The same amino acids you get from eating things that are not so good for you -like a steak-you can get from the Goji berry. You can literally cut meat out of your diet and skip all the hormones and things your body doesn't need and eat Gojis as a replacement. This means the Goji is a super food because it is a "complete" food.You would also have a full suit of armor against colds and flu. The benefits of the Goji packs a vitamin C punch like no other. They are also rich in cartenoids which we will explain a little here because they are crucial to the health benefits of Goji.