An Ottawa-born author has given foodies something different to chew on: the idea that we should be eating more like our distant ancestors.
The Ottawa Public Library and International Writers Festival hosted three author and food literacy events at the Christ Church Cathedral last month. Stephen Le is an author and an Ottawa native. He recently returned to the city, after five months in Sweden, and a year in Vietnam.
On Oct. 14, Le spoke about his recently published book: A Hundred Million Years of Food. Also speaking were authors Maya Shetreat-Klein and Sonia Faruqi, presenting their books: The Dirt Cure and Project Animal Farm.
Le’s book argues that returning to the diets and lifestyles of our ancestors could lead to better health and longevity. The book took three years of intensive research and writing, with Le drawing from his background in biological anthropology. It took him seven years to complete his PhD, work he said launched the idea for his book.
But his inspiration was also personal. Le’s mother had breast cancer, and passed away in 2010, at the age of 62. According to Le, she left Vietnam and came to Canada when she was 17, and dove straight into a Canadian lifestyle and Canadian diet. Two years prior, Le had lost his grandmother, who passed away at 92.
“I wanted to see if there was something behind the way that my mother had lived that could help explain why she had passed away earlier,” Le said.
According to Le, humans are not designed to be vegans. Other animals, such as koalas, are OK surviving on plants, but around the world there has never been a vegan human society, he says.
“It’s plausible to go on a diet that has very few animal products, but it has to be done carefully,” said Le. He noted how other cultures have incorporated sustainable vegetarian diets, such as areas in India.
Katie Taylor, an employee at Pure Kitchen, an Ottawa-based vegan restaurant, believes there is a way to lead a healthy vegan lifestyle that allows people to incorporate more plants into their diet.
“With any diet, there are ways to eat healthy, and there’s ways to not eat healthy,” says Taylor. She emphasizes the importance of eating the proper amount of fruit, vegetables and grains.
Pure Kitchen first opened in Westboro on Richmond Road. The second location is on Elgin Street in Centretown.
The restaurant uses no meat or fish in its dishes.
“There are some animal by-products in our food. We do offer cheese as an option to add on some things,” said Taylor.
Pure Kitchen also makes the effort to only prepare fresh food, and ensures all produce is locally sourced.
Ottawa resident Sara Adams has been a vegetarian on and off since she was 15, and currently calls herself a “flexitarian.” She says she can’t maintain a complete vegetarian diet for health reasons.
“After about six months, I became severely anemic. I had a lot of health problems along the way with that,” she said.
Adams was also a competitive athlete at the time, and being a vegetarian complicated her health.
However, Adams’ reasons for wanting to lead a vegetarian lifestyle aren’t entirely tied to health issues. She feels that being an environmentalist and eating a lot of meat cannot go hand-in-hand.
“I couldn’t keep eating meat because that is contrary to my values, but with things going the way the way were going, and supplements being as expensive as they are, it is simpler to eat meat,” she says.
Currently, Adams eats meat approximately once every other week.