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Native Foods Provide A Varied and Nutrient-Rich Diet
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- Written by Ali
- Category: Articles
Ali Bishop
Around 43% of Australians are taking supplements, many of them unnecessarily as, in most cases, it is possible to eat all the nutrients you really need. This is particularly true if you include some of the diverse and abundant range of native foods that has sustained the people of Australia for thousands of years. Not only is bush food tasty and versatile, but studies have shown that many of the traditional foods have a high nutrient content, providing all the the vitamins and minerals necessary for a healthy diet.
Benefits of Natural Food
Supplements can have a place in certain diets and are useful for those deficient in iron or folic acid for example. However, it’s important to be certain that they only contain harmless and beneficial ingredients. In order to ensure purely organic nutrients in your diet, try eating more natural, native food. Indigenous plants include a range of essential vitamins and minerals, and are high in antioxidants. The native berry, Mountain Pepper, has four times the antioxidants of blueberries, so a sprinkling of this strong, earthy spice in your cooking can help fight the excess free radicals in the body that can lead to certains type of cancer and contribute to heart disease.
Vital Vitamins
Along with vitamins A and E, Vitamin C is also well-known as an antioxidant. As well as being a reliable source of energy and hydration, the Kakuda Plum contains 100 times more vitamin C than that of an orange. Vitamin C is useful in repairing body tissue and contributes to the skin’s ability to protect itself from harmful UV rays. Of course, staying out of the sun is the best way to avoid damaging the skin, but this has lead to a deficiency of vitamin D currently affecting one in four Australian adults. Mushrooms grown in sunlight are a good source of vitamin d2 and a serving of shrimp can provide 25% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin D.
Essential Minerals
Vitamin D is also necessary to help the body absorb calcium, which helps build and maintain strong, healthy bones. Calcium can be found in many native foods and is particularly rich in Lemon Myrtle and Australian Desert Lime. Bush Tomato and Wattleseed contain rich sources of iron, essential for transporting oxygen around the body, and they are also a good source of selenium, a micronutrient vital for many body functions.
Having a healthy, well-balanced diet is an easy way to meet all your body’s nutritional needs. Including tasty, natural foods found in the wild that have sustained people over thousands of years not only enhances your everyday cooking, but can provide all the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy.
Modern Twists for Bush Food Favorites
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- Written by Sammy
- Category: Articles
I am so delighted to have a new writer helping me add content to this site.
Please welcome Ali Bishop!
Long before the Europeans made their way to Australia, the Aboriginal people were privy to a flourishing food culture that supported them for thousands of years. It is believed that more than 5,000 indigenous food sources found their way to into the digestive systems of the country’s oldest people. Today, an increasing number of modern-day home cooks and professional chefs alike are putting modern-day twists on traditional bush foods. While it is close to impossible to ascertain just how many bush foods find their way onto plates around the country daily, it is safe to assume that bush tomatoes, emu, wattleseed and other foods sources are finding themselves on more menus than ever before. Let’s have a closer look at just how some of our favourite bush foods are expected to satisfy the cravings of countless modern-day foodies.
Bush tomatoes are great cooking and baking
The humble bush tomato has been eaten by the Aboriginals for centuries and has also been utilized in traditional medicine. While some variants of the fruit needed to be cooked before consumption, others could simply be cut in half, with the sweet outer flesh scooped out and enjoyed. Today, bush tomatoes are readily used in salsas, curries, as a veg sprinkle and in various baked goods such as savoury loaves and muffins. Fancy yourself a slice of pizza? You can make a fragrant pizza sauce by adding up to three tablespoons of crushed bush tomato to your regular ingredients, pop it into a heat-proof bowl and microwave on high for 5 minutes, stirring halfway.
Tuck into roasted emu
Although the tall, flightless bird has a place next to the kangaroo on the nation’s coat of arms, it has long been a staple of the Aboriginal people while also often being used in traditional ceremonies and medicine. Fast-forward to 2019 and emu meat is served in some of Australia’s most sought after restaurants. Tukka in Brisbane in one such an establishment that serves a delicious smoked emu fillet stuffed with a homemade béarnaise sauce and served with a side of fondant potato and shallot compote. If you want to cook emu at home you can do it in a similar fashion as how you would prepare a typical beef steak by either grilling it over the coals or frying it in a hot pan.
Wattleseeds everywhere
The national flower of Australia, the Golden Wattle, produces a seed that has been utilized by the indigenous people for tens of thousands of years. The seeds were traditionally eaten either green and cooked or dried, ground into a flour and used to bake a traditional ‘bush bread’. In modern times wattleseed flour is used extensively in baking an array of delicious confectionary including cakes, tarts, pancakes, and biscuits. Thanks to its pleasant, nutty flavour wattleseed flour will undoubtedly be used by Australia’s array of superb pastry chefs in an increasing number of bush food inspired creations.
Bush food is a very important part of the Australian culture and should be embraced as much as possible. A lot can be learned about the traditions of the Aboriginal people by experimenting with different bush foods, putting your own unique modern spin on them.
The Kakadu Plum
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- Written by Sammy
- Category: Plants
No matter how much you think you know, you can always learn something:
Why the Kakadu Plum is only found in Australia's Northern Territory.
Bushfoods on Pinterest
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- Written by Sammy
- Category: News
I'm not usually a fan of Pinterest but this is interesting:
