Author Archive

Who eats what in various part of the globe

World dietary culture has three distinct traditional food habits based on staple cereal diets: (1) cooked-rice eaters of Eastern food culture, (2) wheat/barley-based breads/ loaves of Western and Australian food culture, and (3) sorghum/maize porridges of African and South American food culture. ¹

Rice is a staple food for millions of people in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, east and south India, and Sri Lanka; whereas wheat or barley is a staple food in north and west India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and all of mid-Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia; while sorghum, maize, millets, and cassava are the staple crops of Africa, maize is the staple food in South America.

Food of the World

A typical diet of the Eastern World consists of boiled rice with many side dishes containing fermented and nonfermented soybean products, vegetables, pickles, fish, meat, and alcoholic beverages. The Western including Australian food culture has wheat or barley as the staple food, followed by milk and fermented milks (cheese, yoghurt, curd), meat and meat products (sausages, hams), and wine. The African dietary culture includes both fermented and nonfermented sorghum, maize, millets, cassava products, wild legume seeds, tubers, meat, milk products, and alcoholic beverages. The South American dietary culture includes both fermented and nonfermented maize products, meat, milk products, and alcoholic beverages. In Europe, America, and Australia, fruits, mostly grapes, are fermented into wine, whereas in Asia and Africa grapes are eaten fresh without processing into wine. Interestingly, the Himalayan dietary culture has both rice and wheat or barley or maize as the staple food along with varieties of ethnic, fermented and nonfermented foods prepared from soybeans, vegetables, bamboo, milk, meat, fish, alcoholic beverages, and wild edible plants.

Drinking animal milk is not part ofthe food culture of ethnic Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and many Mongolian-origin races despite an abundance of cows in their regions, whereas, the Indians, Europeans, Semites, and the nomadic tribesmen of North Central Asia are traditionally milk drinkers . In Far East Asia, the soybean, called as the “cow of China”, is processed to make soy milk, tofu (soya curd), and fermented into a number of ethnic, fermented soybean products such as miso, shoyu, natto, kinema, thua nau, douchi, chungkokjang, tempe, and sufu. The Himalayan dietary culture is a fusion of the Hindu–Aryan culture and the Tibetan–Mongolian culture influenced by ancient Chinese cuisines with modifications based on ethnical and sensory preferences over a period of time . Countries bordering other countries haven closed cultural affinities, which has influenced the dietary cultures of many regions.

Indian food is spicy, and salt is added directly while cooking; seasonings such as soy sauce and monosodium glutamate (MSG) are never used. Chinese, Korean, andJapanese foods are not spicy, and use soy sauce for seasoning and other taste enhancers such as MSG. European and American foods are grilled, fried, roasted, or baked. In North America, sweet tomato-based ketchup is widely used as a condiment, while pickled vegetables such as cucumbers and onions, and relishes based on fruits, are common European accompaniments. African foods are also grilled or steamed, and hot. Eastern foods are more salty, spicy, and hotter than Western foods, which are less salty, more sweet, oily, nonspicy, and crispy. People have developed different methods of eating foods in the course of the history of dietary cultures. The three major methods of eating foods are using hands/fingers, chopsticks, and cutlery, which have remained the tradition among consumers worldwide.

Beneficial effects of soy foods to the human body

There is increasing evidence that isoflavones, plant estrogens found in soy foods, may have some of the same effects as estrogen. ¹

Soy foods are healthy

Beneficial effects may include:

• Lower blood lipid levels—Soy may decrease total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides.
• Decreased cancer risk—Cancer population studies show a decreased risk for hormone-related cancers of the breast, ovary, endometrium, and prostate in countries where plant-based diets with a high content of phytoestrogens are consumed.
• Diminished menopausal symptoms—Population studies show that women who eat soy as their main protein source may have far fewer distressing menopausal symptoms.

Are fats bad for your diet?

Cooking Oils

Contrary to prevailing propaganda, fats and oils are very important components of diet. The consumption of naturally occurring,  unprocessed or minimally processed fats and oils plays a role in maintaining good health. In addition to the well-recognized need for unprocessed omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, there is strong evidence that some of the medium-chain saturated fatty acids such as lauric acid are essential since they are needed for maintaining the natural ability of the individual to fight potentially harmful microorganisms. In addition to antimicrobial fatty acids such as lauric acid found principally in coconut oil and palm kernel oil, fatty acids such as the anticarcinogen conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and immunesupporting fats, such as glycosphingolipids, are found in dairy and animal fats.

The bottom line is to consume as many whole foods and whole food mixtures as possible. Since we live in a society where other people prepare most of the foods many of us eat, it is important to look for those foods that are the least processed and, when it comes to fats and oils, the least likely to go rancid.

SOURCE: Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol; Mary G. Enig, PhD

When two not-so-friendly-with-each-other liquid joins together

when eggs become mayonnaise

In the simplest terms, an emulsion is a stable mixture of two liquids—such as oil and water—that normally separate from each other. Emulsions can be temporary (measured in seconds or minutes), semi permanent (hours), or relatively permanent (days, months, and sometimes years).

Mayonnaise is the best known and most widely consumed emulsified sauce. Basically, it is an emulsion comprising oil, egg yolks, and either lemon juice or vinegar. Related sauces include chantilly (mayonnaise mixed with whipped cream), gribiche (a piquant mayonnaise made with hard-boiled yolks), and rémoulade (mayonnaise plus chopped pickles, mustard, and other flavoring agents).

Hollandaise is the most celebrated emulsified sauce. It is an emulsion consisting of butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice combined with a little water, salt, and cayenne pepper.  Well-known derivatives include béarnaise (hollandaise enlivened with shallots, tarragon, and vinegar),choron (flavored with tomato), maltese (infused with orange), and mousseline (combined with whipped cream). Other world-renowned emulsified sauces include beurre blanc and sabayon (zabaglione).

Sauces are not the only emulsions. Whole milk, for example, is one, too. If milk fresh from the cow is left to stand, the emulsion breaks down and the cream (butterfat) rises to the top. Homogenization, a process that creates a relatively stable emulsion, prevents this separation.