Meet the Natives
Channel surfing the other day I happened upon a Travel Channel program titled “Meet the Natives”.
The show profiles five members or an indigenous tribe in the Pacific on the Island of Tanna. They traveled to various locations in the US and were hosted by families.
The three episodes I watched revealed a lot about their views on food and nature. They were hosted in Montana, Illinois and New York City. More episodes will be aired in the future.
Why do we do that?
They wondered why we raked the grass and didn’t grow any vegetables on the plot. They were afraid that the snow would kill the plants and grass. The chief of the tribe was very concerned when his host family was about to roast a turkey that she bought from a store by first placing it in a plastic bag. He said the plastic would melt and poison him. She assured him that it was a special plastic and would not harm him. She offered to remove the turkey from the bag, but he said he would trust her. She then opened a can of yams and asked him if he recognized what it was. After he said he didn’t, she told him it was yams. Yams, a staple in his diet, were completely unrecognizable to him. He commented that we eat too much “dead” food, and was concerned that the yams were in a tin can. He told the host that he ate yams, but he harvested them from his garden and roasted them in a fire. The tribesmen also commented that we eat too much food when they were invited to a community dinner. They said this much food would feed his whole village for a long long time.
What can we learn?
I wonder what lessons we can learn from them. They live in a communal village, they are happy, self sufficient, and not any of them suffered from obesity that I could see. They ate fresh, whole, live food with a diet devoid of soft drinks, candy, chips, and fast food.
Tags: healthy, ingredients