So is it just me who's noticed the golden age of Cauliflower?
Perfectly aligned with the increase in health awareness, it seems a savior to those who are GLUTEN & STARCH free. Cauliflower it seems has come single handedly to rescue pizza crusts, rice and potatoes from health conscious oblivion.
Popular now as "pearls" these "veggies" are promoted as having low fat and cholesterol, and are said to be great mashed as a potato replacement or steamed as rice.
Cauliflower belongs to the "Cole" family of vegetables. Its more popular cousins are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, mustard, turnip and collard greens. (I was so distraught to see greens here! They are some of my favorite things to eat!)
From its originator, (considered a weed) Brassica oleracea or wild mustard or cabbage all of these well known vegetables are cultivars that have been altered through breeding for their desired characteristics by man. The non-heading forms (collards, mustard, turnip and kale) are still the most genetically similar to the wild variety and are found in the cultivar group Acephala.
From harvesting the seeds of the wild cabbages with larger leaves, the plant that we know as kale became the first cultivar around the 5th century BC.
Kale was then artificially selected (chosen for esthetic and utility purposes) until it transformed into cabbage. Cabbage artificially selected over time became koh-rabi and Brussels sprouts. Finally around the 15th century our preferences had created cauliflower and then its later derivative broccoli.
It is interesting to note that the matter of preference on the vegetable qualities had a lot to do with geographic location and the eating habits of the populations there.
Traditionally among native tribes in America, the wild cabbage has been known to detoxify, be anti-inflammatory and treat ailments of the lung and eye.
Cauliflower is the European spin on the wild cabbage. The problem with it and many other of our fresh produce options found in today's market is that they are almost nutrient-less and may actually help in leaching vitamins and minerals from our bodies.
Phytonutrients are present in very high amounts in whole foods, like the ones that came with the creation of the earth. They are responsible for assisting the healing of the human machine by fighting oxidation or degeneration. (Note: If there is inflammation there is oxidation.) Over the last 10,000 years, as man has cultivated his food, instead of eating what was offered wild and by season as was when he was nomadic, so to did the quality of our health and human experience.
Food seems, sadly, another arena where we have traded in purpose for pleasure. Our best example to note this point is in the journey of one of our most notorious cultivated crop, corn. Documenting this journey is an entire post in itself. So we'll fast forward to a time when we'd already successfully cultivated a popular strand.
In 1836, Noyes Darling, desired to create white corn, seeing the yellow color as a disadvantage. He succeeded and created this corn that science found to be more than 60x LESS nutrient dense than it's yellow counterpart. (It seems the yellow constituted for a high beta-carotene or vitamin A content)
Not only does color hold value as we discuss phytonutrients, but science has known since the 1940's that there is an inverse relationship between practices that increase yield like fertilization, irrigation and other environmental methods. These are also PROVEN to decrease mineral concentrations in plants.
We must remember that the goal of the United States Department of Agriculture is to produce higher and higher yields to grow larger and larger profits. Their concerns of disease and pest resistance overshadow our concerns of consumer wellness and safety.
I hold to my theory that white vegetables deplete phytonutrients despite Indiana's Purdue University spearheading a campaign that touts the complete opposite. (Has been since 2003.)
If we seriously want to take back our wellness, physical, mentally and otherwise, it will require us to dig deep and uncover ourselves, uncover our ancestors, uncover our connection to the Earth and the All and renounce all those lesser things that have been given to serve only the lower dimensions of our selves.
Once upon a time, our food was in fact our only medicine. I welcome a return to that cycle.
References:
W. RALPH SINGLETON; NOYES DARLING, FIRST MAIZE BREEDER, Journal of Heredity, Volume 35, Issue 9, 1 September 1944, Pages 265–267,
www.eatwild.com
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/44/1/5.full.pdf
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