5 — Ancestral 'Superfoods' that Optimise Reproductive and Immune Health

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Episode Transcript

This is the Eat Ancestral Podcast number 5. Out of all the foods that humans have eaten throughout our history, some have been particularly sought-after. These ancestral 'superfoods', if you like, offer unmatched nutritional, and sometimes medicinal, support for humans. Now, the ones I've chosen to talk about here today, are particularly useful for optimising our reproductive and immune health, which is something, two areas that are lacking in modern society. So, the interesting thing about these foods is that while they were discovered by our ancestors, they've also been confirmed by modern scientific analysis. So that should interest you. I think we can consider these as true superfoods. There's a lot of you know, people are calling broccoli a superfood. I don't agree. As you're likely aware, the most digestible, satiating and nutritious foods for humans are actually animal foods. And among these foods, there are some 'superfoods' that are on another level. Here's a brief summary of them. Organ meats like liver and bone marrow, sea foods like fish eggs, and bee foods like honey. Let's unpack each group. First off the organ meats. So most people eat muscle meats, (breasts, leg, rump, etc.) and muscle meat is undeniably delicious, extremely nutritious, especially compared to broccoli, and should form an integral part of your human diet. However, pound-for-pound muscle meat cannot compete with the nutritional profile of organ meats. The organs like liver, heart, kidney, bone marrow, etc. are somewhat of a stockpile of hard-to-find nutrients. And out of all the organ meats, liver is king of the jungle. It's particularly nutrient-rich, and yeah, usually tops the pound-for-pound rankings. Oysters are not far behind, by the way, but another topic for another day. So bone marrow is not only a rich source of vitamins and minerals, but it also contains stem cells. That's where a lot of the body's cells are made. And so you might find that interesting. Your dog might not be able to talk about the science, but they sure do know perhaps why it's good for them. Now, interestingly, in 1934, the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology was awarded to three doctors who discovered that eating liver quickly reverses and cures anaemia. Which is seemingly still a common problem these days... people are not eating their animal foods. So before 'liver therapy', as they called it, was discovered, pernicious anaemia was often fatal. And as it turns out, liver contains rich amounts of very bioavailable, very absorbable, usable nutrients for humans. To run through a few of them now, we have the entire suite of B vitamins, we have the critically important fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which most people are deficient in. and a hefty dose of minerals, heme iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, etc, all of which are critical to human health and vitality. So liver is not alone here. Organ meats deliver this kind of foundational nutritional support that human physiology needs in order for us to thrive and be at our best. And if you get some in your diet regularly, and you know, wait. If you get some in your diet regularly and continue to eat that way, you should really, at some point, feel your body work better. That's how nutrient dense they are. They're also really really filling. You know, a small piece of liver delivers a lot of bang for your buck. So something to think about get some paté in. Okay, so, next on our list here sea foods. I want to relay an anecdote from one of my favourite books, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and their Effects, by a man called Weston Price. He went to the High Andes in South America, and found that the Native Indians who lived there were apt to travel hundreds of miles on foot to the coast in order to get their hands on sea foods, and in particular, fish eggs were prized possessions. Dr. Price, reported that the people of the Andes considered fish eggs to be essential for female reproductive health in particular. Now, modern scientific analysis confirms their ancestral wisdom. But if you think about it, fish eggs, which is also called roe or caviar, is packed with all the ingredients that are needed to support newborn life–that is their function. So it is not surprising that they help confer benefit to the reproductive system of humans. And if we look at the nutrient breakdown here, we find that fish eggs are extremely high in things like omega three fats, choline, fat-soluble vitamins, and these are indeed essential for reproductive health. These nutrients are required in substantial amounts before, during and after pregnancy in order to provide the building blocks, optimal nourishment to the mother and her growing baby. So it's not surprising after all, that this food has been long sought-after, by not only the people of the Andes, but many other cultures, for their health-promoting and healthy-baby-making qualities. So try and get in some fish eggs if you can.  Next up: bee foods. So bees make many many interesting things, but today our focus is on honey, which holds very special significance in human history. Honey is the most ancient sweetener that we know of, and has been used since time immemorial. First of all, real honey, to draw a line in sand here, real honey means that it's raw and unprocessed, which means that it's maintained its biological complexity, and it contains hundreds of components. The beneficial qualities of real honey are destroyed by modern processing techniques such as pasteurisation, something to be aware of one of. One of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes in the world that we know of, The Hodza, who live in modern day Tanzania, consider honey their favourite food, which is interesting. Holy Books like the Bible and Quran, explicitly encourage the consumption of honey. And if we look at other cultures, like the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, they all used honey topically for wound healing, and internally for diseases of the gut. Now modern scientific analysis again can help us understand why they had these suspicions. And we see that honey, real honey exhibits potent antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal effects against a range of common pathogens. Honey is also a rich source of probiotics, prebiotics, and digestive enzymes. And it is also protective of gut health, including the oral biome, which is not something we can say about most sweeteners–being good for your mouth. It also shows promising anti-inflammatory and anti-allergy effects. So it seems like honey is much more than just a sweetener or folk remedy. It is both food and medicine. So there you have it, liver, bone marrow, fish, eggs, honey. These are some of the traditional superfoods that have been highly-prized amongst human cultures. Made by Mother Nature, discovered by your ancestors and confirmed with the help of modern scientific analysis. Now, just a word of caution here: in the modern world, finding quality sources, not just of food but of information, is the hard part. So take your time and source your superfoods wisely. Eat some liver, leave the broccoli for a herbivore. Alright, that's it for me today. I hope you've got some value out of that. Please let me know. Until the next one. Take care 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai