The other evening at supper, I sat with a sister from Argentina, one from Montreal, one from China and one from Kenya. Somehow or other the conversation turned to the staple foods in the area.
Turns out (unsurprisingly, I suppose), corn has become a basic item in Italy (polenta) and Kenya, as well as (of course) Latin America. The sister from Kenya told us that in some areas, the people subsist on corn, beans and potatoes. And in these regions, diabetes is a growing threat.
One sufferer told Sister, "I would rather get AIDS than diabetes. If you get AIDS, the medicine is free. But I can't get medicine for diabetes."
Sunday, September 08, 2013
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The problem may be in the preparation of the corn. It has to go thru a process called nixtamalization that releases the niacin so it can be absorbed. Native Americans lived off The Three Sisters, beans, white corn, and squash.they processed the corn by boiling it with lime and ash, I think.
Beans and corn should be okay eaten together. Maybe its the potatoes or the combination of how the foods are eaten. Don't they have anything green to eat with the beans? What about okra?
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