First off, I want to begin by saying with some shock that there are only thirteen hits on google for the team
"globalized diet." With all the talk of globalization and 'the globalized this' and 'the globalized that' - I am shocked that this term hasn't caught on. I would like to declare my intention to use it, think about it, and one day maybe write a book or a thesis or something like that on the topic. Full stop.
On the continuing subject of changing diets through development, I have been reading intriguing information about trends. Diets of different parts of the world vary considerably, but when a country industrializes you can generally expect it to do similar things. Meat will generally increase as a protein source, fat consumption will increase, and sugar, particularly refined sugar, will make huge leaps. There will also be a general increase in consumption of legumes and milk. Additionally, a country will lower its consumption of leafy greens as well as decrease its consumption of carbohydrates - however, there will be a marked increase in the consumption of white flour.
All is quite interesting, but most I will gloss over. Many social scientists see the departure from leafy greens as a turning away from a food which is seen as common and poor. The increase in fat and sugar play into instinctual and corporate desires. The rise in meat and shifts towards high calorie foods is an attempt at eating a more condensed diet. The reduction in grains is to make room for all these extra fats and sugars. But the increase in white flour - there's the clincher.
So, there's this stuff called wheat. And this stuff called rice. And both of them are brown normally, but people eat them white. And it's kinda a problem.
Wheat and rice are both grains. They begin as a whole grain, which looks sorta like this, but most people eat only part of the grain. While there's lots of good to get from the part of the grain which people do eat, there's lots more to get from what they don't eat. There are two big branches of flour you can buy in the store - white flour and whole wheat flour. White flour is made from just the endosperm of a wheat grain - while whole wheat flour (as the name implies) is made from the whole of the wheat berry. (for a more thorough dissection of the words you see on flour bags, see below). Similarly, white rice is just brown rice which has been polished clean.
(Here, I will add a caveat - I don't especially like whole grain foods. While there are a couple of whole wheat breads I make and I do enjoy brown rice with some meals, I am certainly not one of those whole grain advocates who will eat nothing else. It's the reasoning why people try and go for too much of a good thing which is really intriguing.)
So, whole grains are better for your health, no question about it - but do white rice and white flour taste objectively better? Questions of palatability are generally considered subjective, with a couple of notable exceptions. People are hardwired to like sweets and fats. They keep our bodies going so we like them (and I know there are people who (claim) not to like the flavor of sweet - they are genetic mistakes). But from there, what can we say is a societal preference versus an innate biological desire?
An interesting question posed by some researchers regarding the state of the modern waistline in developed nations is whether we have perhaps made food
too palatable. Food is great, but it has only been with the advent of modern convenience food that consumable have been specifically tailored to please our taste buds - and in turn that we have been over eating to such an extent. The roughage and extras which are included within food do us some good nutritionally - but also perhaps help us out by making food not so delightfully edible that we can't stop our animal instincts to stuff ourselves. Perhaps if food were to taste a bit less tasty it would be for the greater good? Variety, is of course, the key. But it's an interesting notion to ponder - how the free market has been able to engineer foods which are just too good to be truly good.
Flour taxonomy:
Flour is broken down in many ways. The basic divisions are:
Flour source:You can make anything that is crushable into flour - corn flour, nut flour, teff flour, and more. When you say flour, most people think wheat flour - but even wheat flour comes in basic divisions - because there many plants which are included in the wheat family:
- Triticum aegilopoides and T. monococcum which have 14 chromosomes (diploid), include wild and cultivated 'Einkorn' wheats. They are not grown commercially on a wide scale.
- T dicoccoides which have 28 chromosomes (tetraploids), commonly known as durum wheat. This is grown on about 10% of the world's fields.
- T. aestivum which possess 42 chromosome (hexaploids) and includes everything from bread wheat to spelt. These are grown on about 90% of the world's fields.
Of the durum wheat which is grown, half of it is consumed in the developing world - the rest of it is used for pastas (I am not sure why durum wheat makes better flour for pastas... I'll get back to you when I figure that out). Bread wheat is used for just about everything else - from cookies to, well, bread.
Flour type:White flour is made from just the endosperm of a wheat grain - while
whole wheat flour (as the name implies) is made from the whole of the wheat berry. White flour is generally fluffier, while whole wheat flour is denser and higher in nutrients.
Protein level:There are five divisions for protein, or gluten level, that you will commonly find on bags in the United States. From lowest to highest protein level the divisions are cake flour, pastry flour, all-purpose flour, bread flour, and pizza flour. The gluten level is really important - if you tried to make a croissant out of pizza flour it would turn out chewy and awful
(as an aside, the opposite actually does work, but only due to mitigating factors. You use pizza flour for pizza when you have a pizza oven (which gets to 800°) but when you use a home oven you can't bake as quick (most home ovens only get to 500°) so it can be better to use cake flour - see this amazing article in Cook's Illustrated for more science behind it ( and find the whole, wonderful recipe here). In a pinch, you can use all-purpose flour for anything - though getting the right flour for the job will help produce best results.
Odds and ends:You will often see that a flour has been bleached, bromated, or enriched. Flour is bleached to give it a whiter color (White! The symbol of purity!) and to increase shelf life - but the bleaching process (usually using benzoyl peroxide or chlorine dioxide) destroys some vitamins, so in America some of those vitamins (niacin, thiamin, iron and riboflavin, and the B vitamins) are required to be added back in. Flour is bromated for similar reasons - and potassium bromate is a carcinogen which is banned in most countries, but got through due to funny technicalities within the FDA in the US.
(My general advice is to avoid any flour which is bleached or bromated. The extra pennies are worth skipping the acrid flavor and gross additives. King Arthur has high quality purity standards, is widely available, and is considered highly consistent for protein levels.)
Wow. Surfing is damn tough. But also amazingly enjoyable.
I ate a lot. So much food. Maybe it's because Oaxaca is a bit more of a touristy town and it is well known for its foody stuff, but there was just a plethora of grand places to get tasty meals. With lunch specials, it was cheap and easy to get enough food to satisfy me for the day, and I got a good chance to talk to a number of the restaurant owners because business is relatively slow in the early afternoon.
I love the sea. Its raw power, its immense nature, its beauty, its predictable tides and dangerous waves. I spent four wonderful summers of my life working on the beach - and even one lifeguarding - yet I had never been to a warm beach until today. The Oregon Coast is a place where you can swim if you don't mind going numb - and I guess I had always sorta figured that was how it is. If you want to enjoy that pristine beauty you have to deal with the chill.
Then comes Oaxaca. Finally, things with rich, delicious sauces, exciting new flavors, and variation within the variation. Probably the most exciting thing I have been encountering is the variety of peppers. A had a lunch in the lovely Maria Bonita (north of the big cathedral and very economical, if you're ever passing through) and afterwards had a long and beautiful conversation with the owner about his peppers. I was particularly taken with a chili relleno I had gotten which boasted a sweet, smoky flavor I had never encountered. I asked him what it was (a chili pasilla oaxacana) and he was so excited by my interest he brought one out for me to inspect. Which led to more questions, more answers, and me getting to see a good variety of chilies I had never heard of.
So, the Watson is supposed to be 12 months of independent travel - I decided to stretch it out to 14. With the time and the money, I figured 'why not?' This week I finish up month two of my travels and begin to really be independent. I have thus far been centered at CIMMYT, a research center which focuses on maize and wheat improvement - but it is now time for me to spread my wings and fly. That flying may involve sporadic periods of internetlessness, so perhaps my communication will become even more unreliable. Or not. Who knows.
And what is Eliza Acton so worried about? Back when she was writing, in 1857, she was disgusted that despite 6000 years having passed since the Egyptians started making leavened bread, that no one had made any substantial improvements to the way that bread was produced. Still flour, yeast, salt, water, time, and some hand kneading. Ms. Acton's prayers were answered just seventy years later, and her worries have subsequently been readdressed every decade since then by the continuous march of mechanical progress.
The Soviets (errr... this book was a bit dated) developed a gravity fed machine which was very low in moving parts. Essentially, the machine had a large bowl which was continuously fed with raw ingredients and continuously stirred at a slow speed. The bowl was tipped at an angle so that the dough would slowly leak from it down a ramp. At an interval a chopper would lop off a loaf sized amount of dough which would slowly scoot down a ramp, rising as it went. It would be timed to slide at just the right pace to be fully proofed by the time it go to the bottom where a conveyor belt would carry it to the ovens. It sounds like so sort of fabulous Rube Goldberg machine (I have tried to sketch out what I think it would have looked like). This crazy machine started fermentation while stirring is still going on - and there's no need for measurement of ingredients as long as all the ingredients are released at a continuous and set rate and ratio.
First off, I want to begin by saying with some shock that there are only thirteen hits on google for the team "globalized diet." With all the talk of globalization and 'the globalized this' and 'the globalized that' - I am shocked that this term hasn't caught on. I would like to declare my intention to use it, think about it, and one day maybe write a book or a thesis or something like that on the topic. Full stop.
