Okay… so I was sitting here eating an apple and I, like most of us, sometimes forget to REALLY chew my food.
So this particular time, I was really consciously chewing and chewing and chewing that apple… I mean really masticating it and breaking it down.
Then, a thought occurred to me…
(and let me preface this by letting you know NOW that I do NOT claim to have scientific facts or anything to back any of this up. This is just me thinking ‘out loud’, and maybe YOU’VE pondered the same)
“There are certain foods we eat that, in their natural whole state, we could NOT eat.”
We simply couldn’t masticate and break them down by chewing with our teeth.
Some of the foods that came to mind were:
Grains
I’ve always heard/read that grains are NOT meant for human consumption…that they are for animals that have gizzards to grind them up.
Perhaps… especially considering the rise of celiac disease. But I know that unrolled grains such as oats and wheat can be very… interesting to try and chew up!
(some) Seeds
Personally, I’ve never tried eating fresh seeds right out of the pumpkin or sunflower, have you?
So I don’t know if we “can” eat them naturally or not… maybe once they’ve dried in the sun(??)
Cruciferous Vegetables
Vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. – sure we can EAT ’em..but we’d be chewing all day long trying to REALLY break them down to mush in our mouths!
I think our teeth were more designed for TENDER leaves, not the really tough ones
Potatoes
Again, we can eat ’em…but would we WANT to eat them raw with all that starchiness?
Beans
I’m not sure if freshly-harvested beans are as hard as they are when you buy them by the bag, but if so… definitely not!
Meat
Okay, I know someone is thinking or saying, “We can eat raw meat!” I wouldn’t know because I won’t even try sashimi as the thought of eating raw meat repulses me. But think about it.
I mean, do we as humans look at a chicken or a cow or a pig and start salivating and chasing it down, ripping it open with our bare hands and eating the flesh?
Ummm… I don’t know about YOU, but that would cause me to hurl instantly!
And could we take our human teeth and just tear the skin and flesh and break it down when chewing? Hmmm…
So those are just a few things… I’m sure there are probably more.
My whole point in all of this is that the thought came to me,
“Hmm… I wonder, if we cannot truly masticate a particular food while it’s in its WHOLE, NATURAL state… should we be eating it? Was it designed for our consumption?”
I don’t have a yes or a no to that. Again, it’s just a thought.
Yeah, we have fire and we cook things, but had we never “discovered” it… could or even WOULD we eat a lot of the things we eat today?
Definitely food for thought!
And once more, that’s all this post is… me thinking out loud, so to speak.
I still intend to eat my (cooked) chicken, turkey, fish, certain veggies, sweet potatoes, etc; but I may investigate & research this further although, I KNOW I will be opening myself up for a W-I-D-E range of “expert” opinions and schools of thought!
Ugh.
