Page 49 - Spring2012

All Thumbs Book Reviews

with brush and the beautiful vistas through the on flat rocks, roasted and made into gruels and It’s a myth
oak trees disappeared. The Indians believed that cakes. The seeds of wild flowers were also gath- that the
a hands-off approach to nature—above all the ered and consumed as staples, particularly the
prohibition on controlled burning—promoted chia seed. Gathering methods always dispersed so-called

wild and rank landscapes that were inhospitable some seeds, enlarging the area of cultivation and Paleolithic
to life. “The white man sure ruined this country,” increasing yield over the years. It’s a myth that diet contained
said James Rust, a Southern Sierra Miwok elder. the so-called Paleolithic diet contained no grains.
“It’s turned back to wilderness.” Tending the Wild is to native agricultural no grains.
Author M. Kat Anderson dispels many ways what Nutrition and Physical Degenera-
myths about Paleolithic peoples, not only the tion is to native foodways. Anderson comes as a
myth that these people merely gathered food, missionary from the primitive peoples to teach
but also the myth that Stone Age cultures did not contemporary man their wise methods of tending
consume many carbohydrate-rich plant foods. the plant world, just as Price came as a mission-
Yampahs and other tubers were mainstays of ary from the primitive peoples to teach us their
the Indian diet; easy to store, they were cooked vital knowledge about healthy diets. Fortunately,
in oven pits to accompany fish and game. And a a few people are listening. Some of the national
most interesting revelation in Tending the Wild parks are now working with native Californians
is the widespread use of grain in the California to re-establish programs of controlled burning,
Indian diet. Wild rye, wheat and oats grew in seed selection, tuber cultivation and other meth-
abundance in California’s fire-managed prairies. ods that once made California so abundant and
Grass seeds were gathered with wicker seed beat- beautiful.
ers into large baskets—so abundant were wild Review by Sally Fallon Morell
grains in some places that many bushels could
be gathered within hours. The grains were win-
nowed and sifted with special baskets, ground

If you have tried to sort through the twisted and conflicting science on any subject, you know how complicated
that can be. Dr. Ancel Keys made the cover of Time magazine for his claim that a lowfat, low-cholesterol diet was the
solution to heart disease. Years later he recanted, saying, “There’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in
food and cholesterol in the blood. None. And we’ve known that all along.”
The China Study is another favorite of vegans. Schenck bases much of her criticism of the study on the excellent
analyses done by Chris Masterjohn and Denise Minger, revealing its obvious flaws. Study author Campbell concluded
that his best advice was to eliminate all animal products from the diet. Yet there were no Chinese vegans in his study
and the Chinese themselves consider certain animal products to be superfoods. How did he scientifically reach his
conclusions? Animal studies in which test rats were fed too much fractionated casein led Campbell to the conclusion
that all animal protein is carcinogenic. When you look at what the Chinese really eat you see that they eat much more
animal protein than The China Study would have us believe. Further, other studies carried out in China show that heart
disease is much lower in regions with the highest milk consumption.
Shenck is more in favor of raw food than perhaps Weston Price might have been but if you want to go totally
raw she recognizes the importance of animal foods in such a diet. She does a much better job of understanding the
science than conventional medicine does. I like the cartoon at the end of Beyond Broccoli with a doctor talking to his
patient. He says, “The high-carb diet I put you on twenty years ago gave you diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart
disease. Oops!” The thumb is UP. Review by Tim Boyd

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