Native America Food systems and health

What are indigenous Americans contributions to medicine?

Baby bottles and formula

dentistry and dental surgery

oral contraception

insect repellents

pain suppressants and anaesthetics

74% of 121 plant derived compounds currently used in the global pharmacopeia

What are some indigenous contributions to foods?

Corn, chocolate, tomatoes, beans, squash, avocado, allspice, chashews, cassava, stevia etc.

What does healthy in a diverse way mean?

Very diverse diets can produce healthy people. Diets will look very different from plains and arctic to forests and jungle.

What are ancestral food practices?

Nutritious

physical activity

cultural connection and belonging

What is the quote from recovering the sacred: the power of naming and claiming by Winona laduke?

“The recovery of the people is tied to the recovery of food, since food itself is medicine: not only for the body, but for the soul, for the spiritual connection to history, ancestors and the land. The sustainability of land based life rests on the biodiversity of traditional agriculture, the life stuff for pollinator diversity, and the web of life itself.

Why are indigenous foods that are planted today not as healthy as they used to be?

They are being planted in ways that aren’t as healthy for consumption or the ecological place because of the lack of diversity in that place (need a diversity of plants for pollinators)

What are Winona LaDuke’s main views?

• Worldviews of relation (animate and inanimate based on relation)

• Relations beyond human kind in our environment (kinship with people and place)

  • Land and people are connected in a modern gendered relationship

What is the food is medicine quote from LaDuke?

“there is a pretty immense sense of responsibility and connection that is associated with growing out the ancient seeds. Cached away for a generation or more, many of the seeds are grown not only with potting soil, water, and a greenhouse but also with prayers”

What are the aspects of food is medicine?

• physical health is not enough

• ancestral diets are medicine

• community settings

Who are Mayans?

Specific indigenous group (around central/South America)