{"id":35305,"date":"2021-05-25T08:21:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T12:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=35305"},"modified":"2021-05-26T08:50:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T12:50:05","slug":"traditional-diets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional Diets: You Should Eat Like Your Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are traditional diets? Why do traditional diets tend to be healthier than modern diets?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traditional diets are dietary patterns that center around foods tied to their corresponding cultural identities. Unlike modern diets, traditional diets are characterized by the consumption of natural, whole foods that haven&#8217;t undergone industrial processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll discuss the benefits of traditional diets and explain why they tend to be healthier than their modern counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Traditional vs. Modern Diets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The advantage of traditional diets over modern diets is that the food has been vetted through years of trial and error for its effectiveness in fulfilling the body\u2019s dietary needs.<strong> <\/strong>A long relationship between the people and the food exists, and the food chain tends to be more harmonious.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, areas where the climate is hot tend to eat spicy foods. Spices help decrease body temperature. They also have antimicrobial properties that fight issues caused by rapidly decaying foods in hot climates. The hotter the climate, the spicier the food tends to be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other traditional foods are chosen for purely cultural origins. Foods are often tied to identity and culture uniqueness, which separates them from other cultures. Kosher and halal foods are good examples of this type of cultural identity. These cuisines tend to eschew change and remain over generations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, other forms of traditional diets are entwined with nature, both biologically and ecologically. In some cultures, <strong>people use their experience-based knowledge of food to decide what to eat and how to prepare it.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In Latin America, corn and beans are typically eaten together. Both include an amino acid the other is lacking, so they balance each other out in the system. They also grind corn or soak it in limestone, which helps preserve and enhance its B vitamin compounds. The people likely didn\u2019t know these facts, but they paid attention to the way their bodies responded.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li>When other cultures first started eating corn without the cultural context and familiarity, they became sick.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Similarly, Asian cultures eat a lot of fermented soybeans and soy curds, or tofu. Soy has properties that actually counteract the body\u2019s endeavor to absorb minerals and nutrients, disrupt hormonal processes, and resist the breakdown of its protein. Over generations, Asians learned how to manage the soybean to make it more digestible and beneficial.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As opposed to industrialized processing, <strong>these traditional processing techniques have proven over time to keep people alive, nourished, and healthy<\/strong>. The long relationship with the whole foods led to an understanding of their properties and benefits. This knowledge created standardized dietary habits that have persisted. This idea points to an important sub-rule: stick with tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Be Skeptical of Nontraditional Foods<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ingenuity is great in many industries, but food is not one of them. <strong>If healthy diets are the result of generational and evolutionary experience and growth, new and \u201cimproved\u201d foods are outliers of tradition, likely for a reason.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The example of soy explains this better. In America, we eat a lot of soy, but it varies greatly from the way Asians eat it based on their long history with soy. Soy is consumed as oil, textured vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, and isoflavones. These forms are all implicated in various health concerns. For instance, isoflavones resemble estrogen in the body and latch onto estrogen receptors. This action is believed to affect cancer, menopause, and other system processes. However, research has not yet decided whether the effect is good or bad. If it\u2019s in question, why gamble?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Asians may or may not have the answer to this scientific question. But their use of soy over generations with positive health results seems more legitimate as evidence than a lack of evidence. There may also be other aspects of the Asian diet that support soy differently than in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/western-diet\/\">Western diet<\/a>. This idea points to another sub-rule: eat a traditional diet completely for its benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are traditional diets? Why do traditional diets tend to be healthier than modern diets? Traditional diets are dietary patterns that center around foods tied to their corresponding cultural identities. Unlike modern diets, traditional diets are characterized by the consumption of natural, whole foods that haven&#8217;t undergone industrial processing. In this article, we&#8217;ll discuss the benefits of traditional diets and explain why they tend to be healthier than their modern counterparts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,7],"tags":[281],"class_list":["post-35305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-health","category-lifestyle","tag-in-defense-of-food","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Traditional Diets: You Should Eat Like Your Ancestors - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Traditional diets are characterized by the consumption of natural, unprocessed foods. Learn why you should stick with tradition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traditional Diets: You Should Eat Like Your Ancestors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traditional diets are characterized by the consumption of natural, unprocessed foods. Learn why you should stick with tradition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-25T12:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-26T12:50:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/japanese-food-sushi-chopstics-cuisine.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Traditional Diets: You Should Eat Like Your Ancestors\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-25T12:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-26T12:50:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/\"},\"wordCount\":667,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/japanese-food-sushi-chopstics-cuisine.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"In Defense of Food\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Food\",\"Health\",\"Lifestyle\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/\",\"name\":\"Traditional Diets: You Should Eat Like Your Ancestors - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/traditional-diets\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/japanese-food-sushi-chopstics-cuisine.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-25T12:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-26T12:50:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Traditional diets are characterized by the consumption of natural, unprocessed foods. 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