Winter is coming!!!!!! page

[urbancaveman]

Ok, in the UK we've had a really crap summer! with probably on 2 weeks of real summer weather! However now that autumn and winter are fast approaching I wanted to post this question.

I presume that paleolithically Grok would have had a bit of trouble in the winter, seeing how the abundance of nuts, fruit and meat would not necessarily be readily available. But this day and age, food is available in abundance all year round and so should one be fasting more because of what grok would have had to endure, or accept that we live in the modern age and eat as if it is summer during the winter months?

[beachrat]

I'm not sure about seasonal veg variations for the UK, but here in the Southern US my winter adaptations include:

- yams
- make sauerkraut with fresh cabbage
- experiment with other fresh fermentation ideas

- paté, glorious paté
- crockpot any/everything

[MissJecka]

I choose neither.

Thanks to my CSA, the vast majority of my produce intake make-up is dependent on the season; however, because I have yet to eat every single thing in my share each week, I've frozen much of it. So, while I will be eating summer squash, corn, eggplant, and zucchini in the colder months, I will be doing so differently: crock pot cooking (I have a good amount of stew beef in my freezer ready to go!) will be the main one. As previously mentioned, yams (as well as winter squashes and sweet potatoes) will be a feature in my autumn/winter meals that my warm-weather ones did not have.

So, for me it's not "fast like grok did" nor is it "eat like you did in the summer".

[sbhikes]

Ok, in the UK we've had a really crap summer! with probably on 2 weeks of real summer weather! However now that autumn and winter are fast approaching I wanted to post this question.

I presume that paleolithically Grok would have had a bit of trouble in the winter, seeing how the abundance of nuts, fruit and meat would not necessarily be readily available. But this day and age, food is available in abundance all year round and so should one be fasting more because of what grok would have had to endure, or accept that we live in the modern age and eat as if it is summer during the winter months?

Well, the ocean isn't frozen up there. British Grok may have still had access to foods of the sea. And when it is cooler, foods can be preserved such as tubers, roots, winter squashes (which is why they are called that), not to mention nuts and seeds. And animals and birds, large and small, still are in existence and out foraging for themselves during the winter, leaving lots of nice tracks in the snow, making them somewhat easier to find. I have no idea what foods an ancient human would have eaten in England, but I would guess that there's not NOTHING to eat.

I'm lucky living where I am. The native people's had tremendous food available year round. They were some of the best-fed native Americans in existence. They had so much abundance they were sedentary rather than nomadic and spent much of their time engaging in warfare to defend their territory, which means that they often died of injury and infection. There's always some trade-off.

[Owly]

I eat mostly local foods (except my beloved avocados and bananas), so I automatically end up eating more tubers and squashes in the winter months, along with more heavy meat dishes instead of stuff like chicken and fish. Basically my carb sources shift away from fruit toward starchy veg, and I have more red meat.

[Lewis]

Ok, in the UK we've had a really crap summer! with probably on 2 weeks of real summer weather! However now that autumn and winter are fast approaching I wanted to post this question.

I presume that paleolithically Grok would have had a bit of trouble in the winter, seeing how the abundance of nuts, fruit and meat would not necessarily be readily available. But this day and age, food is available in abundance all year round and so should one be fasting more because of what grok would have had to endure, or accept that we live in the modern age and eat as if it is summer during the winter months?

Depends how far you want to go back. The last ice sheet covered Manchester:



Seriously though, yes, you could tailor your food choices to the season somewhat. Circadian rhythms, seasonal variation, light and dark, and what's around at what time of year, seem all to interact in some interesting ways. This isn't the best source of information on that, but it is easily available and relatively cheap:

Lights out: Amazon.co.uk: TS WILEY: Books

Besides, if you're eating bananas flown in across half the world in Manchester in January is that a good use of jetfuel or ultimately sustainable?

You don't have to fast, but you could tend to prefer what would be seasonally available.

[Paleobird]

I love southern California. Just about everything is available all year long here. If you ask me or SB *really * nicely, we might mail you some avocados in January.

[Owly]

Too bad they probably won't make it past the border

[otzi]

I think a lot of societies health woes come from having it backwards. We tend to put on weight in the winter and burn it off in summer. Nature does it differently, there are no animals I know of that do it this way. I think the major problem is people becoming more sedentary and eating comfort foods (sugar/starch/fried food) in front of the TV all winter long.

I have been doing it differently the last couple years. In summer, I eat lots of sugary fruit and honey and transistion to starchy veg in fall then mainly non-starch veg/ little fruit/no sugar in Winter. I keep seafood/meat/offal/fat at the base of my pyramid all year long, though. Eating this way keeps my weight very stable year round.

[Lewis]

It sounds logical, Ötzi. You don't look too healthy, though:




Sept. 19, 1991: Hikers Stumble Upon Ötzi, the Alpine Iceman