A new book by the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warns that the rich diversity of food in indigenous societies throughout the world is threatened by the spread of Western eating habits. In the last century alone, about three-quarters of the genetic diversity once found in agricultural crops has been lost.

Dragonfruit and red bananas

The Western diet is actually far inferior to indigenous diets, as it relies heavily on four main commercial crops – wheat, corn, rice and soya – and some of these are even known to cause health problems. Ethnic communities in areas of the world which are far-removed from the West and its influences enjoy a wide range of fruits and vegetables relatively uncommon and unknown in the West. The Karen community of Sanephong in Thailand, near the Myanmar border, have a choice of 387 species of indigenous food. including jackfruit, tree ear and wax gourd. Wildlife food sources include the painted bullfrog and the bush-tailed porcupine.

Traditional foods frequently contain high levels of micro-nutrients which are good for the body. For instance, in a hamlet named Mand, located on the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, one of the 26 local varieties of bananas – the utin ilap – contains huge amounts of beta carotene and is more effective in combating Vitamin A deficiencies than any pharmaceutical supplement. How many banana varieties can you find in the Western world and urban societies?

But even remote places like Mand have been introduced to convenience and processed foods, causing health problems typically found in Western societies, such as obesity, high-blood pressure and diabetes, known to be diet-related disorders.

The diet of the Inuits or Eskimos in Baffin Bay in Canada’s frozen north may lack fruits and vegetables, but they eat 79 different varieties of wildlife, such as the ringed seal, caribou, and many species of oily-fish which are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamins A and D. In spite of their diet being dominated by animal protein and the massive fat intake, the Inuits traditionally had very low levels of heart disease – and low levels of rheumatoid arthritis as well. However, the Western way of life has been encroaching into Inuit society. Fast-foods and other convenience foods are gradually edging out native Inuit foods.

Next time I go to the supermarket, I’m going to buy more tropical fruits and vegetables like starfruit, chiku, guava, jackfruit, soursop (graviola), dragonfruit, brinjals (eggplants), four-angled beans and gourds. I must also make it a point to check out the local market, as they carry a wider variety of indigenous vegetables and fruits than supermarkets do. Someone gave me some red bananas recently, They were absolutely delicious and, no doubt, extremely nutritious. There’s a whole Garden of Eden out there that many of us are missing out on. Let’s make the most of it before more indigenous foods, with their health-giving nutrients, disappear.