• hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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    2 months ago

    What’s traditional? Like some decades or 100 years ago? Or before the Spanish brought the potato to Europe? Or paleolithic diet? I don’t quite get what “traditional” means in the context of something always changing and evolving like food. And plants like potatos, tomatos, paprika, coffee, … and spices spreading over the world. And a constant flux of change and everything being connected and incluencing each other for centuries or thousands of years already.

    Or does traditional mean not as much additives, sugar and convenience food? Because I think we can answer that by looking at the statistics. People need less sugar and more fibers for example than we currently consume (on average).

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      2 months ago

      Or before the Spanish brought the potato to Europe?

      Prior to the Columbian exchange, the Old World had never seen the tomato, the potato, corn, or chocolate, to name a few notables. The New World had never seen rice, wheat, beef, pork, or chicken.

      It was a very different world for both from a culinary standpoint, that’s for sure.

      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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        2 months ago

        I suppose where I live they mostly ate food made from grain. Like bread or barley gritz or other tasteless stuff. And then some available vegetables, berries, some animal produce, probably not a cow unless they were rich, more like eggs and occasionally a chicken.

        I think the Roman empire also spread quite some culture and food across Europe. But I can’t imagine living before the Columbian exchange. That brought us most stuff we eat as if today. Yeah and colonialism in general, that made some goods available for people in Europe.