Surprising origins of popular foods 🌎

I am endlessly obsessed with researching the cultural diffusion of foods and eating customs throughout history. I’m currently reading “Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal”, which details how many of our most beloved foods and customs came to be.

Inflammatory responses to nightshades among some Europeans may be due to the fact that they have had less time to adapt to them. Additionally, some Asian populations have an enhanced ability to digest soy and seaweed, and lactose tolerance varies significantly around the globe.

Eliminating foods your ancestors didn’t eat (like seed oils) should be the first step towards improving gut issues and overall health.

Potatoes:

It’s hard to imagine European cuisine without the potato, but this tuber is actually native to South America and was brought over after exploration of the new world.

Potatoes quickly replaced other carby crops due to higher yield , and by the 1700s become a dominant staple crop in Europe.

Peppers:

We take the kick of capsaicin for granted, but the Calabrian pepper pizza, or the chili peppers in your Thai food are not native to these lands. This too was a product of the Colombian exchange that swept the globe in the 15-1600s.

Black peppercorns and Szechuan peppers were native to Asia and were found in Europe at an earlier date, but everything else is from the New World.

Tomatoes:

Tomatoes are strongly associated with Italian cuisine, but they too are native to South America and rose to prominence in Europe after the 1500s.

Bananas and plantains:

The most popular fruit in the world, one might assume they are native to the tropics of the western hemisphere, but they actually diffused from Southeast Asia, through India and Africa to the hospitable growing climate of the New World.

The average American eats 26 lbs of bananas per year. A recent study found the polyphenol oxidase in bananas may destroy the antioxidants in a berry smoothie

Tea & Coffee: 

Tea is from China, Coffee from Ethiopia, and neither reached Europe until the 1650s. European history before then was completely decaffeinated.

Tempura:

The Japanese actually took Tempura (with lard) from the Portuguese when they came to Japan in the 1600’s. They also adopted baked goods, and egg consumption from the “barbarians” during this time.

On liquid fats:

Here at SOS we’re particularly keen on the elimination of processed seed oils, however liquid oils in general are basically absent throughout human history.

Besides olive oil in Rome and Greece, solid saturated fats were always far more convenient than liquid ones, as they were easier to store and wouldn’t spoil or go rancid.

Basically, in the scope of human history, liquid oils are not really a “food”. No culture has ever relied on liquid oils high in MUFA or PUFA for a significant source of their calories, outside the few regions which cultivated olive oil.