Food History: Why did our ancestors eat better than we do? Learn from Alex Askew, President of the Black Culinarian Alliance...
Alex Askew started his restaurant career at 14, eventually attending the Culinary Institute of America to learn more about the art of cooking and the history of eating. In 1993, he helped co-found the Black Culinarian Alliance (BCA) to increase community awareness about food and to support people of color in the food and hospitality industries.
Q: What can we learn from our ancestor's eating habits?
A: History helps us understand the past, present and future of how we cook and eat. Because of the hard work slaves did everyday, eating food high in calories kept them alive. This is not the case today. We do not do as much exercise, so we don't need all those calories.
Q: Are people bigger today because they eat too much and exercise too little?
A: That is part of it, but not the only part. Our bodies do not get enough nutrition from the foods we eat. The key is to not only exercise, but to use fresh ingredients just as our ancestors did. We no longer connect with the food we eat. Food from a fast food joint is not high in nutrition; our bodies need those nutrients to function properly.
Q: Why does it matter where our food comes from?
A: We have too many choices in what we eat and we're choosing all the bad things. This is partly because we don't know about the negative effects of things like high fructose corn syrup. Did you know that this corn syrup is indigestible? And it's in almost everything we eat.
