The True Value of Heirloom Foods

Traditional foods were selected over hundreds or even thousands of years to be as nutritionally dense and flavorful as possible.  In fact, nutrient value and flavor almost always go hand-in-hand.  The compounds that make a food delicious are the same ones that are made up of the nutrients and phytochemicals that help us thrive.  In fact, we evolved to use taste as a way to judge nourishment.

Nutrient-rich foods are satiating in a way that modern foods could never be.  Hunger tells us that our body needs sustenance.  Traditional foods provide not just calories, but the vitamins, minerals, fibers, and even medicinal compounds that are vital to our overall health and wellness.  When all of those needs are met, there is no need for hunger.

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Today, most commercially available foods have been selected to be easy to grow, high yielding, easy to harvest with modern equipment, and able to be transported thousands of miles without being damaged or spoiling.  Flavor is rarely a consideration.  The foods that make it to the grocery store are there because of profit potential, and nutritional value is almost never considered at all.  As a culture today, we are eating plenty of calories, but starving for real nutrition.  Our natural judgement of nourishment through taste has been high jacked by artificial flavor compounds.