Big Macs and the phylogenetic distribution of diet
Researchers conducted a study of the "phylogenetic distribution" of the human diet to better understand the diversity of what we eat. For one case study of diet in developed nations, they analyzed the ingredients in a McDonald's Big Mac, fries, and coffee. The researchers, from the University of Calgary and Stellenbosch University, published their results in the scientific journal BioScience. From a press release:
...The researchers examined more than 7,000 plant species commonly eaten by people to determine the origins and evolutionary relationships of the various plants that comprise humankind’s menu. In addition to confirming the incredible number of species that are regularly eaten, they found that we chow down on members of a remarkably high number of plant families known to biology.Link (via IFTF's Future Now)
From potatoes that were first domesticated in South America to mustard that was developed in India, onions and wheat that originated in the Middle East and coffee from Ethiopia, they found the meal contained approximately 20 different species and ingredients that originated around the world (see attached Backgrounder). This leads to the conclusion that “a Big Mac is an apt symbol of globalization.”
“That a single meal contains about 20 species is impressive, given that some human societies – those that are largely unaffected by current globalization trend – commonly include only 50 to 100 plant species in their entire diet,” the paper states.
the latest
latest episodes
If you consider that some of those same ingredients are in EVERYTHING we eat, our diet doesn't look so diverse. Corn, Soy, Wheat, Cow, Chicken, Rice are the staples of every "developed" nation.
Oh and all those just happen to be subsidized by the US government.
50 - 100 > 20.
At the same time, our diet has become so incredibly dependent on a single species, corn. I would bet that although there is huge range of plant species available for us to eat, that the majority of Americans get the bulk of their plant-sourced calories from corn. In "Omnnivore's Dilemma", Michael Pollan cites research that shows that there are more carbon isotopes in the average American coming from corn than in the average Mexican, that is, in someone belonging to a culture that has a long history of a corn-rich diet. I imagine there are food scientists right now figuring out how to produce substitutes from corn for those "20 species" found in the fast food meal.
When the oil runs out we'll all be eating locally again.