Watching Glenn Beck today about how food is being regulated in the USA, among other things. Quite apart from the fact that the blockheads in the government have absolutely no right at all to tell us what to eat, they also apparently don't know what's good for us.
Had a couple classes in world history. Remember the plagues in Europe? One of the most severe was brought to Europe by the fleas that infested rats on merchant ships. Another of the plagues was measles. Yeah. Measles. That'll bring you to your knees.
Oh well, Europe was not in such good shape when these diseases hit. Due to improvements in agriculture, much of the arable land was in cultivation, meaning it could sustain more people, meaning the population was growing to a level where it was just barely sustainable -- even with the improvements in agriculture. So nutrition was kinda bad and then the plagues hit, in waves for about a century? Not sure. But if you want to know what it was like, read Boccaccio or things like "Diary of the Plague Years." It's pretty well-documented.
Anyway, about this same time, Columbus and others had the crazy notion that they could get to India by sailing west. En route, they crashed into North and South America. A couple of the immediate benefits resulting from this accident was the European discovery of [trumpet blast here] Potatoes!!
Potatoes grow almost anywhere. They can be difficult to cultivate, but the American Indians had it pretty much under control. And potatoes helped to rescue Europe from starvation and disease. Really.
You know, you can live on potatoes and nothing else. To remain reasonably healthy, you'd have to eat about five pounds of potatoes every day. However, potatoes are loaded with vitamin C, several B vitamins, and starch for ready energy.
Carrots and apples don't have these same kinds of nutrients, at least to the degree as are found in potatoes.
So, to finish the story, people in Europe started growing potatoes. The plagues diminished. The population had been at least decimated due to the plagues, but it came back and potatoes helped to sustain all these people. In one notable and very unhappy example, the British and Scots masters of the Irish left the Irish with little more than potatoes, and the Irish survived, until the blight.
And salt? Please. Just about every living thing needs salt to live. Ever hear of salt licks? They're areas of natural salt that are a magnet for all types of wildlife. Farmers even put out blocks of salt to help their animals survive. I worked at a factory many years ago that was very hot in summer and couldn't be air-conditioned because the manufacturing process required heat. So there was a dispenser of salt pills at every water fountain. Otherwise, you could sweat yourself into unconsciousness. Joggers, beware.
And did you know that if you don't eat cholesterol that your body manufactures it? Yeah. There's a reason eggs are so full of cholesterol. The embryo chicks feed on the cholesterol until they hatch. You need cholesterol to live. As aforementioned, if you don't eat cholesterol, your body manufactures it. You can't live without it.
Don't even get me started on tomatoes, another innovative veggie found first in the Americas. At first, the Europeans believed they were poisonous. And just a few days ago I was looking into food sources for a few exotic things that provide hard-to-find nutrients, and tomatoes kept coming up as a source. Also packed with Vitamin C.
Potatoes are by far the most-consumed vegetable in the USA, with, and this is a pure guess, corn and tomatoes as runner-ups. Combined with solid proteins taken from meat, children grew and bigger and stronger here than anywhere else for many decades. Look at the statistics going back a couple hundred years. I'm not making this stuff up.
So is Michelle Obama an ignorant butthead or what when it comes to nutrition? You decide.
Save the Republic. And my french fries. Actually I prefer potato chips -- the crunchier the better. (Potato chips -- first created by an innovative chef for some dignitary at, curiously enough, a place called French Lick, Indiana. It was and still is a resort area, named after the natural salt deposits found there, which drew all kinds of critters from all over the place.)
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