Download Native Seed Savers in NYS

http://www.bioneers.org/rdi/iwc_page.html
For the past three years, RDI has partnered with John Mohawk and Yvonne Dion-Buffalo in setting up a
corn hulling and milling operation in the small log cabin in the Cattaraugus woods. The cabin was once the
home of John’s parents. For the past year John, Yvonne and Kevin White have been shipping Iroquois
White Corn Hominy, Tamal Flour and Roasted Corn Flour to Angelica Kitchen and White Dog Café, two
great East Coast restaurants with missions to support traditional foods and small farmers.
John Mohawk has long been a grower and advocate of the health benefits of this heirloom corn, a slowrelease carbohydrate that is beneficial in preventing diabetes. John, with the wily look of the coyote, states
what is at the same time profound and obvious, "If it’s good for Indians, it must be good for other people
too".
Iroquois White Corn holds a highly respectedplace in Iroquois history. As the nutritional staple, it is the
centerpiece of the Iroquois agricultural system of the three sisters (corn, beans and squash), and was the
valued barter currency throughout the Northeast prior to European contact. But even with all that, there is
something else: flavor. Kevin Von Klaus, Executive Chef and partner of the White Dog Café, says, "Its
sweet earthy aroma and flavor add a new dimension, yet an old-fashioned flavor to muffins, pancakes,
savory herb stuffings, and creamy polentas". The December issue of Gourmet Magazine described "the
rich, toasty flavor" of the roasted Iroquois White Corn flour. Over one hundred Gourmet readers called to
order ten-pound bags to be shipped for the holidays.
John Mohawk’s team on the Cattaruagus Reservation met the unexpected challenge. They roasted, stoneground and shipped some 350 lbs. of new orders to readers every week-end in December. From that
challenge the project staff gained valuable experience in processing this high-quality traditional corn,
meeting the demanding specifications of restaurants, chefs.
Lois Lipman of RDI has been leading the charge in marketing the corn. In the past three months some of
America’s greatest chefs sampled the heirloom hominy, roasted cornmeal and tamal flour. Once tasted,
they quickly added it to their menus. The chefs have enthused over its sweet earthy flavor, its texture,
adaptability and its sacred history. We are proud that the following restaurants are using the cornmeal: Rick
Bayless’s Frontera Grill in Chicago, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Charlie Trotter’s Restaurant and Store in
Chicago, Higgins Restaurant in Portland, Savoy in NYC, Joseph’s Table in Taos and in Santa Fe
Geronimo’s, Corn Dance Café, Pasqual’s and the Catamount.
Within Indian country connections are also being made. The Ganondagan Historical site, near Rochester
New York, is where the French, during colonial times, invaded the great stores of Iroquois White Corn and
burned what was reported to be one million bushels in an attempt to destroy the Iroquois people and
culture. The IWC project is now supplying Ganondagan with that same traditional variety for corn bread
and corn soup for festivals and special events.
The project is also providing technical assistance to Native American growers in organic farming. Gabriel
Howearth, of Tarahumara blood on his mother’s side, is one of North America’s foremost restorative
agriculturists. His expertise in biodiversity, heirloom seed-saving, organic agriculture and medicinal plants
is beautifully expressed in his ten-acre botanical gardens in Baja Mexico. The Jardin Botanico CoEvolutionario Buena Fortuna contains over 3,000 botanical species in the midst of arid coastal desert. As
part of the RDI restorative agriculture project goals, Gabriel travels to the Northeast to meet with Iroquois
growers to provide technical assistance and training in organic farming in order to continue the legacy of
this treasured and unique heirloom corn.
http://www.bizspacefoodprocess.com/Q0202/slow_foods.htm
Seneca Nation historian and "bioneer" John Mohawk, Ph.D., associate professor and co-director of the
University at Buffalo Center for the Americas, is up to his knees in heirloom corn.
He is a staunch advocate of the slow-food movement, a worldwide effort to safeguard and promote the use
of traditional, unprocessed foods that digest very slowly, which means they are a lot better for you than the
foods that populate the average American diet.
Among the slow foods is Iroquois White Corn, once a staple of the Native American diet, that -- in a
display of slow-food entrepreneurship -- Mohawk and his associates now roast, grind and sell to upscale
restaurants throughout the country.
For the past three years, he and Yvonne Dion-Buffalo, staff assistant in the UB Center for the Americas,
have partnered with the national Restorative Development Initiative (RDI) to set up the "Iroquois White
Corn Project," a corn hulling and milling operation centered around a small log cabin in the Seneca
Nation's Cattaraugus territory -- a cabin once home to Mohawk's parents.
The RDI is a national organization that works directly with indigenous, traditional and family farmers to
improve the economic viability of smaller-scale organic farming. It aims to produce an agricultural
economy outside the commodities market of conventional corporate agribusiness, which the institute says
"has systemically destroyed farmers financially and forced them off the land."
The local non-profit project is similar to other traditional farming projects initiated by RDI throughout the
country. It currently is funded by the First Nations Development Institute, and headquartered on the
Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Western New York where Mohawk lives.
The Mohawk team hulls the corn and stone-grinds it to order every week. The maize is then roasted in
heavy, cast iron pans and shaken 60 times over a fire until the meal develops its trademark nutty flavor.
The project has shipped up to 350 pounds of tamal flour (stone milled from hulled corn), roasted white
cornmeal (stone milled unhulled roasted corn) and hominy (hulled whole corn) a week.
Among its customers are New York City's Angelica Kitchen and Philadelphia's White Dog Café, wellknown East Coast restaurants that support traditional foods and small farmers, and Bobby Flay's
internationally-acclaimed Mesa Grill and his Spanish Bolo restaurant, both in Manhattan.
Iroquois White Corn is a nutritional staple that has a respected place in Iroquois history. It anchors the
Iroquois "three sisters" agricultural system that features corn, beans and squash, and prior to contact with
Europeans was used as a barter currency throughout the Northeast.
Besides its nutritional value, however, the corn is valued for its flavor. Kevin von Klause, executive chef
and partner in the White Dog Café, says, "Its sweet earthy aroma and flavor add a new dimension, yet an
old-fashioned flavor, to muffins, pancakes, savory herb stuffings and creamy polentas."
When Gourmet Magazine described "the rich, toasty flavor" of roasted Iroquois White Corn flour, more
than a hundred readers called to order 10-pound bags to be shipped for the holidays.
Iroquois corn and other ancient crops are absorbed by the body slowly -- hence the name "slow foods" -and, proponents say, can reduce and even reverse degenerative diseases.
Mohawk, a Turtle Clan Seneca who is internationally recognized as a spokesperson for indigenous values
and culture, is director of indigenous studies in UB's Center for the Americas. In his writings he often
addresses the relationship between the global culture's treatment of indigenous peoples and its treatment of
the earth's environment.
"Slow" foods, which include squash, watermelon, ancient varieties of corn and a dense, tough desert bean
called pepary, were commonly grown and eaten by the America's general population before the 19thcentury agricultural revolution.
"Because they are slow-release carbohydrates, they do no dramatically raise blood-sugar levels and keep us
feeling full, whereas processed foods -- and today they are very highly processed -- disperse sugar rapidly
into the bloodstream, raise blood sugar, then insulin levels and promote fat storage," he says.
The shift from "natural" foods, which Mohawk says has become a politicized term, to foods that have not
been meddled with by modern science has been marked by a rise in heart and circulatory problems, tooth
decay, obesity and diabetes.
"Among those most vulnerable to these degenerative diseases are indigenous peoples," Mohawk says.
"In some regions of this country, for instance, native communities have a diabetes rate of 80 percent. It's
been found that when such people go back to eating what we might call their traditional diet, more wild
leeks or berries or cactus, they can count on a reduction and even a reversal of these conditions."
Mohawk explains that the slow-food movement, which has thousands of supporters in the United States
and Europe, is part of a general movement to address health issues through behaviors like food choice and
exercise.
It promotes the reintroduction of many previously unavailable food items that are neither elitist nor
expensive. They are grown by native and non-native farmers, then put through minimal processing and sold
for general consumption.
Mohawk and his colleagues do not grow the corn themselves, but purchase it from farmers whom they have
encouraged to grow it.
"Our flour is of the highest quality and appeals to those looking for unusual, high-quality items to add to
their menus," he adds.
The White Corn Project also operates the Pinewoods Café, a slow-food restaurant that serves traditional
whole foods sometimes combined with more recent additions to the American diet. Mohawk calls it "a
laboratory of sorts" for new slow-food recipes that will appeal to the contemporary palette.
The café's menu includes gourmet corn soup, bean soups, buffalo chile (that's chile made with buffalo
meat), corn bread and the occasional special, says Mohawk, like stews, dumplings or a casserole loaf that
might feature corn flour, garlic, squash, onions and sausage. This theoretical casserole, he says, might mix
traditional and non-traditional ingredients and would have an "interesting" flavor and texture that you can't
get with wheat flour or barley.
http://www.price-pottenger.org/Articles/Sugar.html
Sugar
by George E. Meinig, DDS, FACD
The sugar you eat is sucrose, a disaccharide C-12H-220-11. The sugar in your blood is a monosaccharide
C-6H-120-6. Sorry to get so technical, but I hope in seeing the chemical formula you will recognize that a
difference exists.
At any one time the glucose level in your blood stream should be 90 mg. per 100 ml . This means the total
amount in your blood is about 5 grams or about one to three teaspoonfuls.
Now, when you eat a candy bar containing eight teaspoonfuls of sugar, or pie at 10, or ice cream at eight,
you send in a high charge of eight to 20 spoons of sugar into a system that is geared to maintain itself with
only one to three teaspoonfuls, a chaotic problem is encountered. This overload must be dealt with first by
your pancreas and its hormone insulin. Then, when the insulin gets too high, the adrenal gland must
manufacture and distribute into the bloodstream its insulin-governing hormones. Normal, natural food is
not so highly concentrated and, more importantly, contains essential vitamins, minerals and enzymes which
help the stomach to utilize what you have eaten. This in turn helps each cell to obtain its proper nutrients.
The continual overcharging of one's glands with sugar has a depressing influence on your metabolism. That
is, instead of speeding it up, it actually slows it down, resulting among other things, in a lower than normal
blood sugar.
The slowdown foods are sugar, refined breads and packaged cereals, pie, cookies, pastry, ice cream,
candies, coffee, tea, alcohol and soft drinks.
If you really want a pickup, use the speedup foods instead, for they stimulate metabolism. Meat, fish,
seafood, poultry, fresh fruits,and vegetables, cheeses, eggs, butter, seeds, nuts, etc., all invigorate and
vitalize the system. The actual time of absorption and development of energy from these foods is but a little
more than with sugar itself. Besides, an important fringe benefit of the good speed-up foods is better
handling of stress and one's vigor is sustained over longer periods of time.
All information Copyright ©1997,1998, 1999 PPNF. All rights reserved.
Contact The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation at [email protected]
http://health.iafrica.com/dietonline/diseases/gindex2.htm
DISEASES
The glycaemic index - an update for diabetics
posted 14 November 2000 Seeing as it is Diabetes Week, and that diabetes is the third most frequent cause
of death worldwide, after heart disease and cancer, we thought we would give our readers an update on the
glycaemic index, and how to use it in the management of diabetes.
South Africa has over one million diagnosed diabetics, and it is estimated that there are at least another two
million diabetics that are undiagnosed. Of this total, about 2,5 million have what is known as "type 2"
diabetes, which is caused mainly by an unhealthy lifestyle. Healthy dietary habits are extremely important
and are essential for good glucose control.
Dietary treatment over the last century
The dietary treatment for diabetes has changed markedly over the years, and particularly so in the last
decade. Before the 1920s, the diabetic diet was largely a rigid, no sugar, no-carbohydrate diet. This
changed slightly when insulin was discovered in 1921 and although the carbohydrate allowance was
increased slightly, sugar was still completely avoided. From about the 1930s to the 1950s, although the
calorie allowance was increased, the carbohydrate allowance for a diabetic was still minimal, enough only
to prevent ketosis. The 1960s allowed for an increase in carbohydrate to approximately 150 gram per day,
as research came to light indicating that it was not carbohydrates themselves that were the problem. The
1970s to 1980s saw the advent of the high carbohydrate (low sugar), high fibre, low-fat diet, which was
fairly well accepted. More recently, the 1990s has seen the "launch" of the glycaemic index and what the
current diabetic recommendations are for a high carbohydrate, low glycaemic index, high fibre, low-fat,
moderate sugar diet.
What is the Glycaemic Index (GI)?
It was always assumed in the past that all complex carbohydrates like bread and potatoes were slow-release
carbohydrates (i.e. converted into sugar very slowly) and that all simple sugars such as table sugar were
fast-release carbohydrates. However, recent research has proven these assumptions wrong!
We now know that some simple carbohydrates do not make our blood sugar rise any more than some
complex carbohydrates do, and that different types of carbohydrates produce different blood glucose
responses.
Carbohydrates are now classified according to their glucose response or glycaemic index, which is simply a
ranking of carbohydrate foods, based on their direct effect on blood glucose levels. The GI measures how
fast the carbohydrate of a particular food is converted to glucose and enters the bloodstream.
Foods are ranked on a scale from 0 to 100, according to their effect on blood glucose levels - the lower the
number, the slower the action (i.e. the slower the food is converted to glucose) and the better it is. Glucose
is taken as 100, since it causes the greatest and most rapid rise in blood glucose, and all other foods are
rated in comparison. Since the GI is a ranking of foods based on their actual effect on blood glucose levels,
instead of on assumptions, it is much more accurate to use in the regulation of blood glucose levels. The GI
values of over 600 foods have been determined worldwide and more foods are being tested regularly, both
locally in South Africa and internationally.
How the GI is determined
The GI of a specific food is determined by comparing the response of blood glucose levels to that food with
the response of blood glucose to glucose. The blood glucose response measurement is done by testing the
blood glucose level of the test person every 15 minutes over a period of three hours.
Factors that influence the GI of food
In order to understand the GI, it is important to realise that there are many factors that influence the
digestion and absorption of carbohydrate foods, and therefore their GI values. It is not only the presence of
sugar in a foodstuff that influences its effect on blood glucose, as was previously thought. Other factors
include: degree of starch gelatinisation; particle size; degree of processing; fibre, sugar, fat and protein
content of the foodstuff; presence of anti-nutrients like phytates and tannins; acidity; cooking; speed of
eating and degree of ripeness of the food.
What does this all mean?
This means that the diabetic population has for decades been inadvertently misled to omit a host of
scrumptious foods from their menus. In actual fact, it was commonly recommended by health practitioners
that they consume specific foods that did them much more damage than the very foods they avoided.
The idea is that diabetics no longer need to avoid table sugar altogether - since its GI value is not nearly as
high as we would have expected (see tables below) - provided they use it correctly. In fact, we now know
that table sugar has a slightly more positive effect on the blood glucose of both normal and diabetic
individuals than some "non-sugary" foods like potatoes and bread.
Often, the GI of a given food is not what one would anticipate. For example, white bread has a high GI
factor of around 75 and many breakfast cereals, such as Rice Crispies and Corn Flakes have GI factors
between 80 and 90. On the other hand, sweetened low fat fruit yogurt has a GI of only 33, and an apple 39.
Because the GI is difficult to predict, all carbohydrate-containing foods need to be tested in order to
determine their GI values.
Of course, simple sugars are still just "empty" calories (since they contain very few nutrients), and should
still be minimised for that reason. Also, remember that although fatty foods are important to limit, high-fat
foods do not increase the blood sugar levels - only carbohydrate foods do.
However, being overweight (from eating fatty foods) alters the way that insulin works and indirectly causes
the blood sugar levels to rise. Some foods such as ice cream, potato crisps and peanuts have been found to
have relatively low GI values, but their increased use would lead to a high fat intake, which is not prudent.
These kinds of foods cannot therefore be recommended on the basis of their low GI, and would still need to
be limited.
Furthermore, following a low GI diet can actually aid in weight loss (usually important in type 2 diabetics)
because:
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Most people with a long-standing history of overweight have high levels of insulin
(hyperinsulinaemia) in the body. Insulin is a hormone that is not only involved in blood sugar
regulation, but also plays a significant part in fat storage. A low-fat, low GI diet lowers circulating
insulin levels, thereby aiding weight loss.
Low GI foods are more satisfying, ensuring that you stay fuller for longer, thus helping to prevent
overeating.
How is the food industry reacting?
The Department of Health and one or two major supermarkets support the GI concept and plan to educate
the public accordingly. The "Jack Spratt" logo has consequently been introduced. Jack Spratt foods are a
range of marked products that are low in fat and have a GI rating. The aim of Jack Spratt is to serve as a
mark to indicate to both the public and food processors that the food packaged with this mark is indeed
healthy for the common public (since they are all low in fat), as well as those who suffer from certain
lifestyle diseases, like diabetes.
The Jack Spratt emblem is available in four different grades: green plus, green, orange and red, which
imply different criteria for each grade:




Jack Spratt - GREEN PLUS is for very low fat (<3g fat/100g product), low GI products.
Jack Spratt - GREEN is for lower fat (<10g fat/100g product), low GI products.
Jack Spratt - ORANGE indicates a lower fat product but with an intermediate GI and/or a slightly
higher fat content.
Jack Spratt - RED indicates high GI and is generally unsafe for diabetics, but has other useful
applications.
The bottom line
The diabetic should concentrate on low glycaemic index foods and avoid high glycaemic index foods in the
context of a healthy, low fat, balanced diet and regular exercise. This is the mainstay of dietary therapy.
High GI foods should only be used during and after exercise, or in the case of a hypoglycaemic episode.
With the permission of the Glycaemic Index Foundation Of South Africa (GIFSA)CLICK HERE for the
latest available tables reflecting the GI value of foods.
As a general rule of thumb, foods with a GI value of:


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Below 55 (low GI) are good choices
Between 55 and 70 (intermediate GI) are safer choices
Seventy or more (high GI) must be used very sparingly, or only in combination with low GI foods
GI list
http://www.gifoundation.com/GI%20Food%20List.htm
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/corn.html
Saving Cherished Slow Foods, One Product at a Time
Iroquois White Corn
Iroquois White Corn (also known as Tuscarora White Corn), is an ancient heirloom corn grown by Iroquois
Indians. Hundreds of years ago, the Iroquois Six Nations' people of New York State, Pennsylvania,
Southern Ontario and Quebec planted and used the corn extensively for food and spiritual ceremonies.
Members of the Six Nations gave the corn to George Washington and his starving troops to survive a
grueling, foodless winter at Valley Forge.
In the early l990s, native Iroquois growers, academics and others grew alarmed that the corn was headed
for extinction. As more people moved off the land, with less time to grow and prepare the grain, and no
markets beyond the reservation, fewer farmers wanted to make the effort. Today, growers cultivate less
than one hundred acres of the corn.
A few years ago, individuals at the Iroquois Cattauragus Reservation in Western New York State began a
small cottage industry to save the corn. Iroquois White Corn is the most popular and widely used of the
many rare heirloom corns grown by members of the Iroquois Nation. This heirloom corn, while containing
an enormous array of genetic variability, has an unusual, earthy, vital flavor and a varied texture that chefs
praise. To preserve the uniqueness of the corn, native farmers plant it in special ways to reduce and
eliminate cross-pollination with commercial varieties. For example, they use protected areas or time the
planting so the corn does not pollinate at the same time as a neighbor's commercial corn. The small number
of remaining growers, taught by their fathers, are proud of their culture and their traditional agricultural
practices. This wonderful food results from the slow knowledge passed from generation to generation as
they celebrate the physical and spiritual sustenance given by the grain.
The flavorful, floury flint corn is roasted or hulled and milled to order in a log cabin on the Reservation by
members of the Pinewoods Community Farming, a native-owned and operated nonprofit organization. The
effort is a partnership with the Collective Heritage Institute, a Santa Fe-based nonprofit group that also
produces the annual Bioneers Conference as an initiative to restore biodiversity into the food supply and
help keep indigenous farmers on the land. Pinewoods produces hulled hominy (used in posole) and roasted
corn and tamal flours. Through their joint efforts, many top restaurants now feature this unique and historic
food in its many forms. The project is also funded by First Nations Development Institute through its Eagle
Staff Fund program.
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.html
Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food
U.S.A. is an educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food
production; to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the
invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; and to living a slower and more
harmonious rhythm of life.
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/index.html
Saving Cherished Slow Foods, One Product at a Time
Aboard the Ark…
The Ark of Taste came into being in 1996 at the first Salone del Gusto in Turin. A year later, in Serralunga
d'Alba, a Manifesto was drawn up to define its objectives. The Ark seeks, first and foremost, to save an
economic, social and cultural heritage - a universe of animal breeds, fruit and vegetables, cured meats,
cheese, cereals, pastas, cakes and confectionery. For two years, the Ark provided food for thought and
reflection for university researchers, lecturers, journalists and representatives of institutions and
associations intent upon protecting products in danger of extinction. This thought was soon transformed
into action. Our mission is to preserve endangered tastes - and to celebrate them, by introducing them to the
membership and then to the world, through media, public relations, and member events. Nominations for
Ark products can now be made online. Please read about our existing Ark products and then feel free to
review our selection guidelines - and make your own nomination today, using the Ark USA application
form provided here.


Selection Guidelines
Nomination Form
More History…
The second Salone del Gusto at the Lingotto exhibition center in Turin in November 1998 demonstrated
that attention for quality agro-industrial products was no longer the privilege of a minority of gourmets.
Roughly 120,000 visitors attended and hundreds of forms of pecorino di fossa and tonnes of lardo di
Colonnata and many other products were sold, proving just how much consumers have evolved culturally.
The data turned the most fashionable marketing theories on their heads and made The Ark stronger than
ever. In response to this event, Slow Food set up a Scientific Commission and launched the International
project. The Scientific Commission defined the product categories and five criteria for their selection, all of
which led to the first list of specialties in danger of extinction from all Italy's regions. Now Slow Food
members, leaders, and governors all over the world are hard at work seeking out products, which they
believe worth saving in their respective areas. The 90 or more products protected within our International
program include a variety of cured meats, preserved fish, herbs and vegetables. Slow Food USA observes
the same product designation as the International program, through The Ark.
http://www.nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/91d/0023.html
Native Seed Savers in NYS
David Yarrow ([email protected])
Thu, 7 Nov 1991 19:43:00 PST
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/* written 10pm 11/7/91 by David Yarrow (jdmann) */
TO: Conference Coordinator
Natural Organic Farmers Assoc. of NY
In his Foreword to Gary Paul Nabhan's excellent book "Enduring
Seeds",Wendell Berry began:
"Gary Nabhan's work reminds us of what I can describe only as a
sort of historical wonder: that we have paid an immense amount of
attention to American Indian crops, or at least to some of them, but
almost no attention at all to American Indian farming. Books, movies,
radio and television have given us images in abundance of the Indian
fighting and hunting and participating in various ceremonies, but few
indeed of the Indian farming or gardening.
"That we should value Indian crops but not Indian farming is
probably another instance of our disposition as a people to value
substance above form -- or, in fact, to destroy form for the sake of
substnace. We are now destroying our farms for the sake of our crops,
just as we are now destroying our forests for the sake of their timber.
As Gary Habhan puts it, speaking of the Southwestern deserts: 'Modern
agriculture has let temporary cheap petrochemicals and water substitute
for the natural intelligence -- and the stored genetic and ecological
information -- in self adjusting biological communities.' And, of
course, we have substituted these things for the human intelligence
stored in human communities."
Recently I've been meeting with several native Americans who are trying
to preserve their traditional agriculture, including their own
traditional seed strains. I'm happy to report that although native
people and their culture have been pushed to the brink of extinction,
they are still with us, including not only their methods of agriculture,
but even their unique and ancient varieties of seeds. In fact, there is
something of a revival happening in most native communities in New York,
and I'm convinced they have much of great value to offer us in this
decade of ecological crisis and change.
For example, Steve McComber, who lives at the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation in
northern New York, has for many years made it his avid hobby to comb
Iroquois villages for the old varieties of seed. He has collected
twelve original varieties of Iroquois corn, including four strains of
blue corn, a purple and a red corn, a popcorn, a sweet corn, a white
flour corn, and a black and a red flint corn. Steve has also discovered
twelve original strains of Iroquois beans, several strains of squash (I
forgot how many), and even a blue Iroquois potato. Growing so many
varieties, expecially the squashes and corns which are easily
cross-fertilized, isn't easy for one person to do, so Steve has
recruited several other people (including non-native neighbors) to share
this responsibility with him.
Not content to merely search for and grow out these old Iroquois
varieties, Steve has also researched the library at the Geneva
Experiment Station for books and other information on old varieties of
colonial and Iroquois seed. A keen talker, Steve has cultivated an
encyclopedic knowledge about these old seeds.
At Tuscarora Nation near Niagara Falls, Norton Rickert works six days a
week at a mill, yet since he left the paratroopers after World War II,
he has dedicated his time every year to plant several varieties of
Iroquois corn and beans. Norton's reputation as a reliable source for
traditional Iroquois crops is well established in most Iroquois
communities in the United States and Canada. On October 19 several of
us gathered at Norton's farm to shuck and braid Iroquois corn, and to
talk about our concerns to preserve these old seed strains and encourage
traditional indigenous agriculture in native communities.
At Oneida Nation near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Chas Wheelock, who has
degrees in Forestry and Agronomy, started an agriculture project for
community self sufficiency in basic food supplies. Oneida Nation has
over 6000 acres of excellent eastern Wisconsin farmland, and Chas hopes
his community can develop even more self reliance in its food supply,
even to become an exporter of farm commodities. As a step towards this,
Chas works with native farmers in several Indian communities in an
Iroquois White Corn project to grow, process and market their
traditional Seneca white flour corn.
And at Cornell University, the American Indian Program now has an
agriculture project in which Cornell staff grow, preserve and research
Iroquois crops, and study and strengthen indigenous farming. This
summer AIP published Native Corn Report describing the diverse
activities in their program; I will enclose a copy of a few pages from
this remarkable new journal about a very old way of farming.
For a multitude of reasons, these efforts to preserve and revive
indigenous agriculture and traditional seed strains should be of great
interest to anyone in sustainable agriculture. Here are three to
consider:
Most acutely in my perspective, in light of the hybrid dilution,
narrowing and proprietary patenting our the genetic base of American
farming, preservation of the genetic wisdom stored in these ancient
strains of seeds is critical for the continued viability and
adaptability of our modern agricultural varieties.
Also, in our search for models to develop a new form of faarming
not dependent on petrochemicals, there is a great deal to be learned
from the very ancient indigenous tradion known as Three Sisters complex,
a complete cultural, and not just agricultural technology which was
perfected on this continent centuries ago.
Further, the popularity of blue and white corn chips in natural
food markets is a tangible evidence of the economic potential of these
native crops.
Therefore, I urge you to invite these native farming preservationists to
present their work at the NOFA-NY conference on March 14-15, 1992 at
Tompkins-Cortland Community College in Dryden, NY. I am sure this will
be of great interest to many NOFA-NY members, and we will all agree that
we have much to gain in learning about indigenous agriculture.
As a matter of fact, considering 1992 is the 500th anniversary of
Columbus "discovering America" and the United Nations' Year of
Indigenous People, I hope NOFA-NY will find ways to feature indigenous
people and their farming at the March meeting. A workshop is one
appropriate way to invite native people participate, but I hope NOFA-NY
will offer other extra-special ways participate.
I already discussed the possibility of a Three Sisters workshop at the
conference with Steve McComber and Norton Rickert, and they will
enthusiatically accept an invitation. It's with their approval I've
drafted this letter to you. My native friends themselves want to use
this as an opportunity to recruit organic farmers and gardeners to join
their efforts to grow out and preserve the traditional seed strains.
I myself taught a Three Sisters workshop at the Summer NOFA Conference
last August, and the response was extremely positive, as the Summer
Conference coordinator will confirm based on written evaluations
recieved. However, I would rather that these native people took center
stage to present such a workshop themselves.
Please call me to discuss my suggestion. If we agree in principle about
participation of native people in the NOFA-NY Conference, I will tell
you how to contact them so you can discuss with them directly how best
to arrange their role in NOFA-NY's annual educational event. I
sincerely hope this will initiate warm, fruitful relations between
native people and our own organic farming community.
for a green and peaceful planet, David Yarrow
http://www.bioneers.org/rdi/rdimedia_page.html
The following publications have featured article on the Restorative Development Initiative's Iroquois
White Corn Project
Natural Home Gourmet The New Mexican Chefs Collaborative
If you would like to learn more about the Iroquois White Corn Project and other projects of Collective
Heritage Institute, sign our Guestbook and receive a FREE Newsletter
If you are a journalist and interested the Iroquois White Corn Project please email media@bioneers to
receive further information and a press kit.
Natural Home
May/June 2001
EATING WELL
Food of the Gods
A mainstay of both Aztecs and early Americans, traditional maize has
been replaced since the Industrial Revolution by hybrid field corn, which
can be mechanically harvested and produces enormous yields. White corn,
an Iroquois staple that is still cultivated by Indian farmers in New York,
Ontario, Quebec, and Wisconsin, is considered vastly superior in taste and
nutrition but requires a lot of labor to reach the table. For best flavor,
maize is hand-picked, air-dried, and hand-hulled.
Food-lovers who want a taste of the real thing are in luck, however. In
collaboration with John Mohawk of the Turtle Clan Seneca, a partner in
the Restorative Devlopment Initiative, and his wife, Yvonne Dion Buffalo,
The Collective Heritage Institute is working to revive and popularize the
use of traditional Iroquois white corn, which was in danger of dying out.
The group is marketing heirloom white corn organically grown and milled
by the Iroquois Indians on the Cattaraugus Reservation in western New
York. The corn is available by mail order in the form of hulled whole corn
(posole); stone-milled, hulled tamal flour; and stone-ground roasted white
corn meal.
Operating out of a tiny log cabin in a cornfield , Mohawk and his
colleagues hull the corn in lime and stone-grind it to order every week.
Mohawk roasts the maize in heavy cast iron pans. He laughs that his
young assistants are incredulous as they watch "an old man like me" lift
and shake the heavy pots sixty times over the fire until the cornmeal
achieves its nutty flavor.
"To preserve and ingest this mysteriously, delicious corn thrills me, " says
Leslie McEachern, owner of New York City's Angelica Kitchen, whose
menu now features several item smade with maize. " Knowing its source
adds such depth to enjoyment, as well as flavor, nutrient profile, and good
value." Adds Kevin von Klause, chef-partner of White Dog Cafe in
Philadelphia, which also serves dishes made from Iroquois white corn,
"The sweet, earthy aroma and flavor of the corn flour that is ground from
these ears is well worth the extra cost."
The corn is now being featured at the Frontera Grill and Charlie Trotter's
in Chicago; Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California; Higgins Restaurant in
Portland, Oregon; Savoy in New York City; and in Santa Fe at Joseph's
Table, Geronimo's, Corn Dance Cafe, Pasqual's, and the Catamount.
Noted vegetarian cookbook authors Deborah Madison and Mollie Katzen
are also developing recipes using white corn.
The price is $3 per pound for ten-pound minimum orders, plus $10 for
shipping and handling. To order, call (877)246-6337, write Bioneers/CHI,
901 West San Mateo Rd., Suite L, Santa Fe, NM 87505; or visit
www.bioneers.org
Gourmet
December 2000
GOOD LIVING
WHY WE LOVE:
ROASTED CORNMEAL
by Zanne Stewart
Sometimes the slightest improvement in a main ingredient can change a
recipe from impressive to unforgettable. Iroquois farmers in western New
York State are growing an heirloom variety of white corn and then
roasting the kernels before grinding them into meal. The rich, toasty flavor
that results adds a new dimension to my favorite quick bread. Simply the
way it smells in the oven is enough to warm you on the coldest day.
Available by mail order ($30 for a ten -pound bag–you might want to
share some with your friends–from the Bioneers; 877-246-6337).
The New Mexican
Wednesday, April 4th, 2001
RESTORING IROQUOIS WHITE CORN
by Lynn Cline
Corn has long been one of America's food staples. Whether you grew up
withit on a farm, eating it off of a cob freshly picked from a field, or your
folks served it hot, scooped from store bought containers, chances are that
as a child, you had a plate of yellow or white corn on your dinner table.
According to food historians, most people in America ate corn until 1860,
when Georgian immigrants form Russia came to the great plains region
and to Detroit, bringing their winter wheat with them.
Not long after those immigrants arrived, wheat began top replace corn as
the staple in this country.
Today corn has become a controversial food in Europe and in the U.S. The
controversy has erupted largely because of genetic engineering, which has
stirred a public outcry over the merits of inserting genes from pesticides
and other non-corn sources, such as Brazil nuts, into the genes of corn.
Corn has a history as rich as the fertile farmland soil that has nurtured it
for centuries.
The world today boasts approximately 9,000 different kinds of corn.
American Indians have micro-selected corn in this country for the last two
millennium, and today, they have perhaps 300 different types of corn.
One of those types, a white heirloom variety known as Iroquois White
Corn, is getting special treatment from a group of celebrated American
chefs.
The group includes Cafe Pasqual's owner and executive chef Katharine
Kagel, Santa Fe vegetarian chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison,
Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame in Berkeley, Calif., and Mollie Katzen,
author of the celebrated Moosewood Cookbook and one of the founding
members of the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithica, N.Y.
"The corn is absolutely fantastic," said Kagel, who uses the Iroquois
White Corn roasted corn flour and hulled hominy in several of her
restaurant dishes, including tamales and posole.
"It's toasted, so it has an extra corn flavor that we don't usually get to
experience here, particulary in the posole. It is truly worth getting. I'm
thrilled with it."
Kagel, in fact, introduced the corn to Zanne Stewart of Gourmet magazine.
In last December's issue, Gourmet ran a small blurb touting the corn's
"rich toasty flavor" that :adds a new dimension" to quick bread. "Simply
the way it smells in the ovenis enough to warm you on the coldest day,"
Stewart wrote.
The Iroquois White Corn is indeed finding its way around the country
through a collaborative effort pioneered by the Turtle Clan Seneca farmer
and historian John Mohawk, who lives on the Cattaraugus Reservation
near Lake Erie about 45 miles southwest of Buffalo.
Bioneers and the Collective Heritage Institute (CHI), a nonprofit
organization based in Santa Fe and founded by Kenny Ausubel, supports
the Iroquois White Corn Project.
Ausubel and his institute are committed to helping the native farmers srt
up a viable small-business economic model as well as restorative farming
practices on their reservationlnads, according to Lois Lipman, who
coordinates the Iroquois White Corn Project for Bioneers/CHI in Santa Fe.
Mohawk, also a professor of American Studies at the State University of
New York at Buffalo, oversees the corn production in western New York
and Ontario, where Iroquois farmers grow the corn on reservation lands.
The farmers use native methods that primarily involve hand-picking,
hand-shelling and hulling.
At a small cabin on the Cattaraugus Reservation where Mohawk's parents
once lived, the corn is dried and stone-ground into roasted-corn flour and
hulled hominy.
Inside the cabin, Mohawk and a small crew of native workers package the
corn and prepare it for delivery to restaurants that include Rick Bayless'
Frontera Grill and Charlie Trotter's to Goin Chicago, as well as Susan
Spicer's Bayona in New Orleans and An American Place and Savoy in
New York City.
The first two restaurants to use the corn commercially were the White Dog
Cafe in Philadelphia, and Angelica Kitchen in New York City, Lipman
said.
White Dog's chef and partner Kevin von Klaus was impressed by the corn
flour's sweet, earthy aroma and flavor, Lipman said. He incorporated the
corn into White Dog's repertoire of recipes, including white corn cakes
topped with smoked trout hash and toasted hazelnuts.
Up in Taos, Joseph Wrede, owner and chef of Joseph's Table and tapped
last year by Food & Wine magazine as one of the top ten chefs in the
country, also is crazy for the Iroquois White Corn.
Wrede is working the hulled hominy into his menu as well, experimenting
with roasted quails stuffed with a hominy, chipolte and roasted lobster
crema, Lipman said.
In Santa Fe, Eric DiStefano, executive chef at Geronimo's used the
roasted-corn flour to create an Iroquois White Corn Torte with Sonoma
foie gras and homemade quince jam, currently on the restaurant's spring
menu.
Robert Stritzinger, the relatively new executive chef at the Corn Dance
Cafe, is featuring the roasted-corn flour in the restaurant's Iroquois
Roasted White Cornbread Sticks, made with juicy bits of diced red and
green peppers and fresh corn kernels.
Stritzinger also said he plans to use the corn flour in Iroquois raosted
white corn loaves that he will cook in the restaurants's outdoor horno this
summer.
"I was blown away by this roasted white cornmeal," Stritzinger said. "You
opened up the package, and the aroma just hits you. It's got a much better
texture than regular yellow cornmeal. The other stuff can get real soggy
easily. But this has more of an earhty flavor, and a much better mouth
feel."
Both Kagel and Stritzinger said they are impressed by the way the roastedcorn flour enhances the flavor of tamales.
"We made the masa for the tamles, and I've never had anyhting so
delicious," Kagel said. "It's just truly very suave, very smooth and
delicious."
Kagel also said the hulled hominy was impressive, though this particular
variety requires a lot of cooking before softening.
"We were eating the hominy right out of the bag," she said. "They are
smaller than what we're used to here in size, but I think they have a unique
extra corn flavor."
Indeed, supporters of the Iroquois White Corn insist, this corn is quite
special.
"There's a certain authenticity to the flavor, " said Arty Mangan form his
home in Santa Cruz, Calif. Mangan first tasted the corn in 1998 at an
annual Bioneers conference, when he worked for Odwalla as the
company's sourcing agent. Today, Mangan is project director of the
Restorative Development Initative, a nonprofit economic development
program under the auspices of Bioneers/CHI.
"When you eat it, you think this is what corn is really about," Mangan
said. "That's really the hook on this for a lot of people. It also has very
strong nutritional benefits, as well as the whole story about reintroducing a
traditional food."
As Mangan tells the story, the corn served as a food source and an integral
part of the agricultural system for untold generations of Iroquois.
The corn also played a major role in trading and in religious ceremonies.
But while certain people continued to believe in the corn and held fast to
its role in their society, others stopped growing it in the face of a modern
world offering convenience foods.
The corn is also very healthy to eat because it is corn flour instead of a
hybridized sweet corn, which is selected and then carefully cultivated for
increased sweetness, according to Mangan.
"Tasting the corn is really what wins people over," Mangan said.
"When you select or hybridize corn for certain characteristics, sometimes
you lose other characteristics, and some of the authentic corn flavor has
been sacraficed."
Corn has long played a major part in American Indian cultures. And, as
Mangan pointed out , a special relationship develops among the food, the
grower, and the palce the food is grown.
Mangan recalled a Hopi creation story, which tells how the Hopi traveled
to the Grand Canyon, a place they consider to be the passage-way between
two worlds.
"There," Mangan said , "the creator gave them gifts of blue corn and said
'If you take care of this it will always take care of you.'"
The Iroquois White Corn is available in 10-pound bags of either roasted
white corn flour or hulled hominy for $30, plus postage and handling. Call
Bioneers/CHI at 986-0366.
Chefs Collaborative Newsletter
Fall 2000
Hand-harvested Iroquois White Corn
by Kevin von Klaus
At White Dog Cafe's annual Native American Thanksgiving dinner in
1998, I learned about the Restorative Development Initiative from Dr.
John Mohawk of the Turtle Clan Seneca. He is Professor of American
Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a partner to
RDI. The RDI is seeking to define an agricultural practive that can restore,
rather than degrade the Earth, while connecting family and indigenous
farmers with progressive markets for value-added products.
One of the products that the RDI markets is a dried, non-hybridized,
heritage maize that has been grown by untold genrations of Iroquois
Indians. Unlike commercially grown corn, the ears ripen at different rates;
therefore they must be harvested by hand.
That adds to its expense. But the sweet earthy aroma and flavor of the corn
flour that is ground from these ewars is well worht the extra cost.
We have included it in our repertoire of recipes that call for corn meal and
have created new dishes to showcase this amazing (no pun intended),
product. The following tender savory cakes topped with the smoke dtrout
hash and toasted hazelnuts make great hors d'oeuvres or a light first course
for a holiday gathering.
http://www.mbf.com.au/member/livingwell/articles_date_unkonwn/facts_on_blood_sugar.html
Blood Sugar Article
THE FACTS ON BLOOD SUGAR
>
>
>
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What should people with diabetes eat and drink?
Limit alcohol intake.
Eat moderate amounts of protein foods.
What about exercise?
From June 1995 Magazine
What is blood sugar?
Blood sugar or blood glucose is the main source of energy for our
organs, muscles and tissues.
During digestion, certain foods break down to simple sugarrelated units which are absorbed into the blood. These foods are
called carbohydrates.
What causes high blood sugar levels?
Normally, a hormone called insulin helps sugars in the blood
enter your body cells, where they are used for energy.
In some people, insulin may not be produced in sufficient
quantities (or even at all), or their bodies may not be able to use
it. These people even have high sugar readings when they have
not eaten and they may have diabetes. A Gluclose Tolerance
Test is needed to confirm diabetes.
There are two main types of diabetes:
Type 1 occurs in children and adults under the age of 30. Insulin
injections and diet are used to manage this type of diabetes.
Type 2 is the most common. It occurs in people over the age of
40, most of whom ate overweight or have a family history of
diabetes. Treatment for this type includes weight reduction, a
balanced eating plan and possibly oral medication or insulin.
What Should People with Diabetes Eat and Drink?
A diet low in fats especially saturated fats.
Anyone with diabetes has a higher than average chance of
developing heart disease so limiting fat intake will assist with
weight loss and long-term control of diabetes.
Choose low-fat dairy foods and lean meat.
Avoid takeaways and snack foods that are high in fat.
Limit all foods containing saturated fats eg. butter, full-cream
dairy products, meat and poultry fat, biscuits, cakes, pastries,
chocolate, crisps etc.
Mono-unsaturated fats such as olive and canola oils are better
than saturated fats. Avocados and most nuts (including
macadamias, almonds and hazelnuts) also contain this type of
fat.
Poly-unsaturated fats, especially of the fish or omega-3 type, are
also good choices.
A diet high in slow-release, carbohydrate-rich foods.
Carbohydrate-rich foods include breads and cereals, fruit and
starchy vegetables, sugar products (including cakes, biscuits and
lollies) and dairy foods (other than cheese or butter).
Different carbohydrate-rich foods have varying effects on blood
sugar levels. Some cause a sharp rise in blood glucose and are
said to have a high glycaemic index or high G.I. (these are fast
release sugars).
Foods with the same amount of carbohydrate, but which cause a
slower rise and fall in blood glucose have a low glycaemic index
(these are slow release sugars).
There are also other foods which have a medium glycaemic index
(these are moderate release sugars).
Low G.I. foods slow release sugars
Pumpernickel, rye bread, mixed grain bread and crispbreads,
oat-based breads, fruit loaf, rolled oats, barley bran, rice bran,
All bran, Sultana Bran.
Spaghetti, pasta, basmati rice.
Lentils, kidney beans, haricot beans, black-eye peas, chick peas,
butter beans, baked beans.
Apple, pears, grapefruits, peaches, plums, oranges, cherries, firm
bananas, sweet potato, sweet corn.
Yoghurt, milk, custard, low-fat ice cream.
Moderate G.I. foods medium-release sugars
Crumpets, pita bread, arrowroot biscuits, Ryvita. Vita-brits, one
minute oats, Mini Wheats, Nutrigrain.
Taco shells, cous cous.
Broad beans, beetroot, new potatoes, ripe bananas, mangoes,
orange juice, pineapple, sultanas.
Regular ice cream.
High G.I. foods fast release sugars
High-fibre white bread, white bread, wholemeal bread, bagels.
Cornflakes, Rice Bubbles, Weet-Bix, Coco Pops.
White calrose rice, brown rice.
Parsnip, potatoes, watermelon.
Morning coffee biscuits, jelly beans, glucose.
Slow release carbohydrate foods help to slow down the
absorption of an entire meal. This allows you to include fastrelease sugars in a meal as long as you also include slow-release
sugars in that same meal.
Aim to have at least one slow-release carbohydrate food in every
meal.
Foods containing glucose, corn syrup solids, maltose, dextrose,
malt and golden syrup are best avoided.
Foods containing other sugars such as fructose, lactose and
sucrose will have little effect on blood sugar levels when eaten in
small amounts.
Space meals with carbohydrate-rich food evenly throughout the
day.
Not all peoples blood sugar levels respond to carbohydrate foods
in the same way so it is beneficial for people with diabetes to
monitor how their own sugar levels respond to different foods.
People who take insulin or tablets need to monitor the amount of
carbohydrate they have. A dietitian or diabetes specialist can
teach you how to do this.
TOP^
Limit Alcohol Intake.
All alcoholic drinks are high in energy value and can lead to
weight gain. If you do drink, one or two standard drinks per day
is an acceptable level.
Alcohol should be consumed with some carbohydrate food if you
are on insulin or tablets.
Have at least two alcohol-free days each week.
Have drinks that will not affect your sugar levels such as water,
tea, coffee, cocoa, plain mineral water, low-joule/diet cordial or
soft drink and vegetable juice with no added sugar.
TOP^
Eat Moderate Amounts of Protein Foods.
Most protein foods dont contain carbohydrate and therefore will
not upset the control of blood sugar levels.
Choose low-fat types of protein-rich foods to assist with health
weight and blood sugar control eg. lean meat, skinless poultry,
boiled eggs and cottage cheese.
Fill up on foods that you can eat freely.
There are some foods that can be eaten as desired throughout
the day, and these are listed below.
Non-starchy vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, carrots,
celery, green beans, lettuce, pumpkin, onions, tomatoes and
watercress.
Fruits especially berries, passionfruit and rhubarb.
Juices especially vegetable and lemon.
Clear soups and soups made with non-starchy vegetables.
Pepper, spices, herbs, soy sauce, vinegar, meat paste and
Vegemite.
TOP^
What About Exercise?
Exercise is important to help with weight loss or maintenance of
a healthy weight.
For people who treat their diabetes with insulin or tablets, it is
necessary to have extra carbohydrate before exercising. This will
help prevent blood sugar levels from suddenly falling.
Aim to exercise for 30-40 minutes at least three times per week
at a moderate pace.
http://www.nutrichem.com/health/digestion.html
Digestion
Dietary energy is derived from protein, fat, and carbohydrate. During the process of digestion, these
nutrients must be broken down into smaller parts for proper absorption. There are digestive enzymes which
assist in this process. Enzymes are molecules which make biological reactions occur more efficiently.
Consequently, digestive enzymes help break nutrients down, making digestion more efficient.
The digestive process begins when food is placed in the mouth. Chewing reduces the size of food particles
and the saliva moistens food. An enzyme called alpha-amylase initiates starch digestion by breaking down
starch (complex carbohydrates) into sugars. This release of sugar alters the taste of food.
When the food is swallowed, muscle action propels the food downward to the stomach. The stomach fluids
are quite acidic in nature and this acidity is beneficial to destroy ingested bacteria, activate some enzymes,
and begin the process of protein digestion. Acid can damage the stomach, so the walls of the stomach have
a special lining to protect it. Increases in stomach acidity can damage the protective lining and lead to a
peptic ulcer. Bacterial or viral inflammation, anxiety, and alcohol can all increases the level of stomach
acid.
The digestive process continues in the small intestine, the major site of digestion and absorption of food.
Digestive enzymes assist in the breakdown of food particles to make them smaller for absorption. Some of
these enzymes, the nutrients they act upon, and the end products are:






Lactase
·digests lactose (milk sugar) into glucose and galactose
Maltase
·digests maltose to glucose
Amylase
·digests starch (complex carbohydrates) to glucose
Invertase
·digests sucrose (table sugar) to glucose and fructose
Proteases
·digest protein into free amino acids
Lipases
·digest dietary fat to a variety of end products
Problems with the digestive process can result when there is a deficiency of one or more of these enzymes.
Lactose intolerance occurs due to an absence or deficiency of the intestinal enzyme lactase. When lactose,
the main carbohydrate component of milk, is not digested, diarrhea and fluid loss result. In addition,
bacteria in the large intestine will metabolize the lactose to produce large quantities of gas which causes
bloating and pain. Surprisingly, lactase disappears after the first few years of life in much of the world's
population although about 90% of white Europeans and Americans retain the enzyme. It therefore seems
that many of us do not have the ability to digest lactose.
Most digestion is completed in the small intestine. However, further digestion is conducted by
microorganisms (such as bacteria) in the large intestine. While the idea of microorganisms flourishing in
the body may not be that appealing, these intestinal bacteria, called the intestinal flora, have an important
role in the body. Not only do they assist with the process of digestion, they can produce vitamins (for
example vitamin K and biotin) which can be absorbed by the human gastrointestinal tract.
Fibre, a form of dietary carbohydrate, contains cellulose. Cellulose is a structural component of plant
structure and is resistant to human digestive enzymes. Cellulose can be excreted in the feces, however some
of it is fermented by the bacteria present in the large intestine. Much like yeast are used to ferment the
sugars in grape juice to produce wine, the bacteria in our large intestine ferment cellulose to produce
hydrogen and carbon dioxide gases, volatile fatty acids and in many instances, methane gas (which has an
unpleasant odour). Changes in the diet or in the type of microorganisms can influence the amount of gas
produced.
When a high-bean diet is consumed, total gas production can increase tenfold. In most individuals, a high
bean diet will result in gas yet many individuals inherently have a large quantity of flatulence. This is likely
due to their inability to digest or absorb certain sugars, which are then fermented by the microorganisms
found in the large intestine. This could be due to a deficiency of digestive enzymes (such as lactase, as
mentioned above).
The presence of "normal" bacteria in the large intestine prevents disease-causing microorganisms from
growing. However if the balance of this normal flora is upset, then pathogenic microorganisms may grow.
This is analogous to burglars who wait for you to leave you home in the hope of robbing it. They may not
try when you're at home, but when you leave, it gives them a greater chance of success. When your normal
intestinal flora is disturbed or absent, it too offers an opportunity to potential pathogens. For example, an
antibiotic can inhibit the growth of normal intestinal flora. This might make an ample opportunity for
Candida yeast to grow, which usually cannot compete with the normal flora. The establishment of
pathogens can sometimes lead to harmful alterations in digestive function or even to disease.
The proper functioning of the human gastrointestinal tract is dependent on the proper functioning of
enzymes, microorganisms, and countless other factors too numerous to discuss here. If there are
disturbances in any of these functions, it can upset the normal digestive process, with potentially damaging
results. All of us at one time or another have experienced some type of gastrointestinal disturbance. For
those with regular problems, a consultation with your physician, dietician, or pharmacist may provide
guidance on how to improve your gastrointestinal functioning.
Bon appetit!
Note: Those with stomach ulcers should not supplement with digestive enzymes.
References
Brock, T.D. and Madigan, M.T. (1988) Biology of Microorganisms (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey) pp 383, 396-399.
Schauf, C., Moffett, D. and Moffett, S. (1990) Human Physiology: Foundations and Frontiers (ed. Allen,
D., Times Mirror/Mosby College Publishing, St. Louis) Chapters 21 and 22.
http://www.eservice.com.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/eservice/allegro.pl?database.matt.articles.item15
Sugars, not simple anymore
Sugars, not simple anymore
Anyone who has been taught basic nutrition will remember being taught that there are
two types of sugars, simple and complex. The simple were to be eaten in moderate
amounts and the complex were to eaten in vast quantities providing us with slow release
energy throughout the day. We were also taught that our body has an energy balance
where you must match what you eat with the amount of activity you do and that people
who were overweight simply needed to cut back on the amount they ate and increase
their exercise and thus solve all their problems. A kind of energy in/energy out balance.
Recent research has turned those theories upside down. How much you eat is not as
important as what you eat. Excess sugar will not necessarily get converted to fat, calorie
counting is out the window and what we classically thought of as complex carbohydrates
were in fact a mix of fast and slow digested sugars.
For about ten to fifteen years those who work with diabetics have been struggling with a
concept known as the Glycaemic Index(GI). The research into this concept has changed
the way we look at sugars.
Carbohydrates is simply another name for sugars. We used to group sugars into the
categories of simple and complex.
Simple carbohydrates were by definition simple molecules that broke down quickly once
in the blood stream and caused a fast spike in your blood sugar levels triggering the
release of the hormone insulin whose job was to protect the brain and get sugars out of
the blood and to the muscles. Anything that ended in ‘ose’ was labeled a simple sugar.
This included sucrose, glucose, maltose, lactose, fructose, honey, molasses, sorbitol and
other refined sugars.
Complex carbohydrates on the other hand were those that via a complex molecular
structure were slower to break down and therefore released a more consistent flow of
sugar into the blood stream. They were considered the ideal performance food as they
supposedly regulated a steady flow of energy throughout the day. The classic five
complex carbohydrates were; rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and cereals.
The Glycaemic index (GI) although only new on the field has turned this classic teaching
upside down. One of the big incongruencies was the labeling of fruits as a simple
carbohydrate. Did this mean that fruits were bad and that they shouldn’t be eaten by
athletes?
The GI is simply a rating of carbohydrates or sugars based on how quickly your body
digests them. If you digest them quickly then they are likely to push your blood sugar
levels up dramatically and thus force the release of insulin - just like simple
carbohydrates. If the carbohydrate is slow to be digested then it will avoid causing an
insulin release and will give you a slow release of energy throughout the day and indeed
activity -all the properties of complex carbohydrates.
Seems simple enough to replace the words simple with high GI and the words complex
with low GI right? Wrong! The studies have revealed that many of the foods we
traditionally thought of as complex and slow to digest may be quite rapidly absorbed into
the blood stream and those that we thought of as causing insulin levels to rise may not be
a dramatic as we thought.
The following sample of the glycaemic index rates certain foods with regards to how
quickly they elevate your blood glucose. Those entering the blood stream more quickly
have the highest ranking, say 100. Those that are slower to enter the blood stream have a
lower GI. Food GCI Brown rice 66 White rice 72 Porridge 49 Spaghetti 42 Fructose 30
Honey 87 White bread 69 Wholemeal bread 72 Rye bread 42 Pastry 59 Apple 39
Bananas 62 Cherries 23 Grapes 45 Peaches 29 Raisins 64 Grapefruit 26 Oranges 40 Skim
milk 32 Baked beans 40 Carrot 92 Lentils 29 Frozen peas 51 Potato Chips 51 Potato 70
Mars Bar 68
Diabetics can use this information to attempt to regulate their blood sugar levels more
closely, reducing the need for insulin injections and tablets. Of course those who are
diabetic should adjust their insulin intake only upon advisement of a medical practitioner.
For those who exercise you can use this rating of foods to make certain decisions. Before
a long workout or endurance event you would eat low GI foods such as All bran and
pasta while after the event you may eat higher GI foods such as rice and bananas to
enhance the amount of glycogen resynthesis. (ie the amount of sugars that get stored in
the muscles, liver and blood stream in the form of glycogen)
(callout or side panel) Factors which affect the speed of sugar digestion
1. How rough and unprocessed the food is. Unprocessed rugged foods such a wholegrain
breads are slower to digest than highly refined white breads.
2. How fatty the food is. Fat tends to slow down the rate of digestion. Be warned that foods
with a low GI but high fat content, (See potato chips versus raw potato) are not
necessarily ideal pre event meals or the best foods for diabetics.
3. How you cook the food. If you grind foods down or remove their skins and coatings (say
washing down rice) you tend to speed up the rate it can be broken down and the effect
that it will have on your blood sugars.
4. How starchy the food is. Some starches are slower to break down than others and this
may affect the speed of digestion of the foods you eat.
Matt Church runs his own business teaching the foundations of success to corporate
audiences all over the world. If you would like to find out more about a seminar run by
Matt Church then visit his WebSite at www.mattchurch.com.au or contact your preferred
speakers bureau.