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Originally Posted by Derek Pankaew  No, most fruits and vegetables contain EFAs. For example:
8 ounces of strawberries contains 0.15 grams of Omega 3, and 0.20 grams of Omega 6.
Pineapple, 0.04, 0.05, respectively. Avacado, 0.04, 0.47.
A google search for the nutritional breakdown of a banana: WHFoods: Banana
(Search for "Omega.")
The amounts are small in individual fruits, but a primarily fruit-based diet will provide sufficient EFAs for the human body. |
Cool, I'll check that out.
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Hmm, a school of thought that I agree with is "If it's not appealing in it's natural state, it wasn't meant for human consumption." That isn't to say it's unhealthy to eat steamed broccoli, it's just not optimal.
Since we weren't born with a steamer and a stove attached to our bodies, do our bodies really need to eat something that must be steamed before consumption? Can the lack of this 'something' result in a deficiency, when it was only available to us in the last few thousand years?
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I don't know if I'd apply that general belief like that though. Meaning, sure you can eat cauliflower without steaming it, but steaming it just helps to soften the fibers a bit so that it isn't as irritating to our intestines.
Did our ancestors eat cauliflower without steaming it? Sure. Did it irritate their bowels? If it was the same cauliflower as we have today, and their bowels were the same as ours are, then probably it did.
Our ancestors only really needed to live for about 20 years in order to reproduce in large enough quantities to survive and keep the human race going, so when I look at health and nutrition, I look for what's optimal for the body right now, with today's food, under todays conditions, using today's technology.
Don't forget that our soil, our climate, our vegetables and such have all changed over time so we need to adjust as well.
I prefer to just look for what's healthiest, not what's most closest to resemble what our ancestors ate. Who's to say that our ancestors all didn't die prematurely due to malnutrition? Like I said, caveman Joe only really needed to be alive long enough to spread the seed to keep the human race going. If we have the technology and intellect now to analyze foods and determine that one type of food, prepared a certain way is better than a different type of food, then why not use it?
We can use history to teach us what a lot of us have forgotten in the modern world, but we can also learn from the modern world as well.
That's my take on it.
One thing that I will tell you from my nutritional studies is that there definitely is no sure fire formula that works for everyone, and things are definitely much more complicated due to the mind/spirit/body link. The body is a whole system of energy/mind/spirit/body, not just some machine that you feed a certain amount of milligrams of something each day to guarantee results.
You can be the healthiest eating person alive, but if you hate your life, are stressed out and have no purpose, your body will self destruct anyways, regardless how well you eat.