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Health Attributes of Indigenous Australian Plants

Chapter 9 in my book was based on a contributed scientific report on analyses done by Dr Izabela Konczak to which I added comments based on my own research results.

There has been so much interest in this topic that I have made the whole Chapter available as a download because the information is so important for a long list of reasons:

Wild foods are being recognized as critical to our on-going health in that they are typically lower in bad sugars, higher in dietary fibre and far more concentrated sources of phytonutrients than modern foods.

A wider appreciation of the Australian wild food resources is beginning to expand the number of growers focused on nutrition, not rubbish fruit and vegetables that contribute to Hidden Hunger and obesity rates of over 80% of people in English speaking countries. Oops. Maybe speaking English is what makes us all fat???

Increasing biodiversity in the midst of the Climate Catastrophe is key and wild foods have a toughness, a resilience unlike our molly-coddled modern foods. Growing plants that survive our changing climate and for carbon sequestration may be the way to rebuild agriculture as local weather patterns make growing food in current food bowl regions difficult to impossible.

I am also hugely appreciative of the way Indigenous Australians have not only preserved many of the foods through their traditional land management practices but my ‘Aunties’ out bush were so generous in sharing their knowledge and culture around these amazing foods. They changed my life and fueled my passion for the foods, Indigenous knowledge, their links to country and so much more. We need to reduce our population to meet the land’s carrying capacity. Our politicians need to stop thinking of their re-election and do something good for their constituents, the country and the planet.

It is becoming desperate to begin thinking of ourselves as did the First Nation people in that they saw themselves within the ecology of their Country. This is so different to modern, religious-based cultures who regard humans as above Nature. We are being taught the harsh reality of just how wrong is this approach and our rubbish foods are even reducing our fecundity. Think of the double-breasted turkey in the USA. It has been so over-bred that it needs humans to help make turkey chicks as the breeding pairs are too fat to even copulate. Are humans reaching this stage? Clearly, our failing nutrition is reducing our own number only just not fast enough.

Lastly, my passion over health and wild foods, ecology over economy and Indigenous land management over modern mismanagement drives my environmental concerns for the future. The subtitle of my book says it best.

Please download Wild Foods: Chapter 9 Health Attributes of Australian Wild Food Plants and let me know what you think.