Does ancestry play a part in what foods agree with you?

(M) #1

By agree with, I mean you feel good from mentally and physically.

I ask this because before my surgery, two of my favorite meals were always fish with cruciferous vegetable or asparagus, or a meal my mom would make called pastie (beef with carrots, onions, potatoes, celery and a homemade butter pie crust. Although even then I hardly the potatoes, the buttery crust was what I liked. I also loved egg cooked in butter that I’d mop my toast up in. My ancestry is northern coastal Ireland (immigrated to America in the 1800’s I think) so it would have probably been heavy in seafood. One of my favorite lunches was Caesar salad. I know that’s not Irish, but cheese is. I ate cheese for dessert often. I think the fat in Irish diets was mostly saturated (animal fats). I feel like my brain runs best on omega 3 fats along with saturated fats. I wish I could bring the cheese and butter back and sometimes the beef too but after my surgery I just get acid reflux and constipation. The coconut oil makes me feel sick, but this is the best source of saturated fat I seem to have and I do notice my brain feels like it works better on the nights I’ve eaten a tablespoon of it, rather than extra nuts or avocado. It also doesn’t disrupt the omega 3 balance as much. I imagine eating seafood plus grass fed animals and dairy my ancestors would have leaned much more towards omega 3’s than 6’s.

I wish I did not have to have a specially formulated diet along with Senna tea to make food move through me since surgery. I would love to eat these foods again but I have tried and sadly it doesn’t work…but I would not like to talk about this anymore, I would like to hear from others about whether they feel that their ancestry affects what foods they like and make them feel good.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

For what it’s worth, the Dudes’ two dogmas are: (1) show us the science; and (2) find out what works for you.

So I’d say that individual variability, whatever causes it (and surely genetics is part of that), guarantees that the answer to your question is “Yes.”

But you didn’t really need us to tell you that, did you?

(Chuck) #3

According to the tests that I have had, and my experience with so many different diets I say yes most definitely for me anyway. I do best with a wide variety of vegetables and fruits but along with all types of meat. Just meat or just fruit and vegetables upsets my digestive system

(M) #4

I would say no I didn’t need you tell me that, I would assume it would be the case, but I second guessed it. In America the cultures are very mixed. Often people like to eat Chinese one day, Mexican the next, Italian etc. They like the variety of different food backgrounds and find that enjoyable and maybe have adapted to other types of food better. I used to have a diet like that. I noticed over time I felt best on Irish days.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

Well, I’m still not sure what you are really after, asking the question, but something to bear in mind is that Chinese and Mexican food in the U.S. bear very little resemblance to the actual cuisines of China and Mexico. My Irish ancestors mostly ate potatoes, and I don’t feel good eating them, though my Scottish ancestors ate a lot of porridge (that’s oatmeal to you Sassanachs, lol!), and I seemed to do okay on it, back when I was a carb burner.

Furthermore, “native” diets changed a lot after Columbus. The tomato and the potato are New World foods, though you’d think they’d been in Europe forever, looking at Italian cooking, and the ubiquitous chips/fries/pommes frites. Even olive oil wasn’t a foodstuff until a few centuries ago. The ancients used it as a lamp fuel and a skin moisturiser.

But regardless of the authenticity issue, it still boils down to what works for you. I suspect that fish-heads would probably not work for me, even if I were from Chinese stock, lol! And game that’s been hung, which used to be an aristocratic delicacy in Britain, holds absolutely no appeal for me, despite my plethora of Britannic ancestors. (I like to joke that I’m half-English, half-Scots, half-Irish, half-Welsh, and half-Cornish, lol!) Some of my Scots ancestors were from Glasgow, home of chicken tikka masala and deep-fried pizza–now there’s a dish I could get behind! :pizza:

(M) #6

maybe it was a bad idea for a topic.

potatoes don’t make me feel that great either, though I wish they did because I do think they taste good with butter, and I would take them over rice any day if I had to carbs. I read potatoes came from South America. I wonder how long they actually eaten for in Ireland.

what would real Mexican cuisine be like?

#7

Wondering that one myself, I live in an area with a very large Mexican population, and a ton of restaurants, almost to a comical level, and having been to Mexico more times than I can count from when my brother lived in CA, the stuff here is exactly the same.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #8

They have Taco Bell and Chipotle in Mexico? Times sure have changed!

#9

I was referring to actual Mexican food.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

That was precisely my point.

#11 
I like tasting foods from all over the world.

However, the foods that agree best with me can be easily traced to my ancestry - I am the first in a looooong line of generations who lives far away.
My people were butchers and raised their own meat and feed for those animals. They did have veggie gardens with stuff that grew locally - mostly greens. They kept some milk cows and traded the milk for a yearly supply of cheese from the local “cheeser”. And, of course they had chickens and eggs.
They did forage for mushrooms and berries (some of my most cherished childhood memories are foraging with them, it was like looking for easter eggs, much fun). You are pretty much looking at a keto diet there.
That didn’t click with me all my life though, I ate all kinds of things, was always fat, and was always starving myself trying to lose weight. I’m glad the light bulb finally came on, albeit late in life.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #12

Ours is a strange generation. Our grandmothers weren’t bad cooks I’d guess. Then our parents generation thought frozen food, supermarkets and chemical puddings were progress.
It’s gone downhill ever since and our generation (and future) are trying to recover from a brief but very damaging spell!
Very general of me of course. The pessimist speaking lol

(Bob M) #13

I think ancestry is very important. I am 7X% (they keep changing the X part, but I’m above 70%) Eastern European and 100% European. I believe this lends itself to my having zero problems with dairy, for instance.

The problem occurs in trying to decipher more than that. My grandmother (spoke little English, came from Europe) made her own perogies and desserts. Can I really eat perogies? Butter + potatoes + wheat = delicious, but I don’t think I can eat those. Instant overeating.

I’m much better off not eating any high carb meal.

#14

Right, but TacoBell and Chipotle aren’t Mexican food, TacoBell is barely food at all, no shortage of real Mexican places run by born and raised Mexicans. Their food is legit.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #15

Demolition Man Film - That’s where I’ve heard TacoBell from. We don’t have many in the UK. Luckily.
Interesting subject though. How far do you go back with ancestry for eg? I thought we’d
stay near the coast for fish or game … but not really the case!

#16

Easy to replicate, grab a can of dog food, but some dollar store taco sauce on it, put that into a stale tortilla, close enough to experience all that Taco Bell has to offer!

(KCKO, KCFO) #17

I think genetics comes into play with things like:
Does your urine smell funny when you eat asparagus
Does cilantro taste like soap to you
Does something taste too sweet, salty, etc.

I don’t think genetics plays a part in what type of ethnic foods you can enjoy, unless the dish is related to something I mentioned above.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #18

I’m not so sure! for example people of Asian heritage are less able to process alcohol due to an inherited deficiency in one of the enzymes involved: aldehyde dehydrogenase.
I’ve been searching badly maybe but : …
‘‘may be possible that some east-Asian populations, whose ancestors started eating rice on a daily basis at least 10,000 years ago, have evolved genomic adaptations that mitigate the harmful effects of high-glycaemic diets’’.
Internets a dangerous thing. It’s making me evolve unnaturally lol
Here’s a piece about dna testing and diet.
https://joinzoe.com/post/genetic-diet-nutrition

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #19

Be careful with these associations. The question of which came first, the food or the genetic adaptation, cannot be answered from epidemiological data. And there is also the possibility of a third factor that could be confusing the situation. It’s entirely possible that the rice-eating and the genetics are completely unrelated. We can’t tell from associational data.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #20

hmmm yes. Good point. How about your Lactose intolerance thing? If we all started with milk as babies yet the Maasai and Europeans can continue!