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Return to Your Roots
by author Simone Gabbay, RNCP

Is your body genetically programmed to thrive on foods which were prevalent in the diet of your ancestors? If your forbears lived in northern Europe, should you build your diet around fish and dairy? If you’re of Asian descent, should you shun milk products and eat more rice and soy foods?

Research has shown that traditional diets around the world protect ethnic folk from the major killer diseases-cancer and atherosclerosis–which have become rampant in the industrialized world. Should we, therefore, track down our genetic lineage and adopt the diet of our great-grandparents? Would this help to prevent allergies and food intolerances?

While the idea holds appeal, many Canadians could find themselves in conflict if their paternal and maternal ancestors had different ethnic origins. If your grandmother was from southern Italy and your grandfather from northern China, what foods should you put on the dinner table, especially if your spouse brings yet another set of genes to the mix?

I’m convinced that the health benefits of different ancestral diets are largely found in their commonalities:

• natural whole foods which are locally and seasonally available;


• foods that are high in enzymes, either because they are fresh and raw or because they have been naturally preserved through fermentation, and;


• natural, unrefined fats such as butter, flax oil, olive oil and coconut oil.

Inuit Raw Food

The traditional Inuit diet makes for an interesting case study. The Inuit traditionally lived mostly on fatty animal foods, including different species of marine animals, fish and fish roe and few vegetables or fruits. They had virtually no heart disease. Why?

The traditional Inuit diet consisted largely of raw foods. Much of the Inuit’s meats, including organ meats, were eaten fresh and raw or frozen–but never cooked. As unappetizing as eating raw meat may seem to the western palate, it was the Inuit’s way of ensuring that he ingested an adequate supply of enzymes to help him digest his food. He even stored his meat in such a way that it would undergo autolysis, a process which partially predigests the meat and preserves it at the same time. Predigested foods are high in enzymes and are easily assimilated.

So what to do if your ancestral heritage is Inuit and you now live in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver? Should you eat raw meat and forego vegetables and fruit? Hardly. The consumption of store-bought raw meat is simply not safe and autolyzed meat is not readily available. You need also consider that you live in a different climate and environment. You are likely to be less physically active than your ancestors, even if you exercise regularly. This means that you should eat fewer acid-forming foods such as meat and more alkaline-forming foods such as fruits and vegetables, which also supply plenty of enzymes when eaten raw. In addition, you can incorporate into your diet foods which offer benefits similar to those found in the traditional Inuit diet.

Traditionally Fermented Foods

Simone Gabbay is a registered nutritional consultant living in Toronto, ON.

Source: alive #226, August 2001