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Humans are granivores (an animal that eats seeds as the main part of its diet)


Below are my thoughts after reading Sagen Ishizuka's (abbreviated as Sagen) book on healthy eating.


Sagen concluded that the best food for humans is grains. Why? Sagen noted that different animals have different tooth shapes and jaw functions, and that animals must eat foods that are suited to the tooth shapes and the movements of and jaws in the mouth, where food first passes.


Carnivores such as tigers and dogs have teeth that are saw-toothed, with pointed tips, and their lower jaws do not move sideways or diagonally. This is suitable for chewing hard bones and meat, but is not suitable for eating grass or grains. On the other hand, herbivores such as cows and horses have teeth that are flat, closely spaced, with flat, wavy surfaces, and their lower jaws move sideways and diagonally. This is suitable for chewing grass, but they cannot eat animals.


The structure of human teeth is such that they have high edges, a hollow center, and the majority of molars are closely spaced, and the lower jaw can move slightly back and forth and side to side. When the upper and lower teeth come together, they create granular spaces of various sizes. This shape can be considered suitable for chewing and crushing grains. From all of this, Sagen came to the conclusion that humans are granivores, which eat grains.


I learned about Sagen's teaching of eating foods that suit the movement of your teeth and jaws when I was 27 years old, and regretted not having paid attention to such a clear thing until then. We eat food by chewing it with our teeth using the strength of our jaws, but I had never thought about what kind of food the shape of my teeth was suitable for. Even though humans have incisors, canines, and molars, I had never paid any attention to the number and role of these teeth. In other words, when it came to food, I only thought that it was good to be able to eat delicious food to my stomach.


If we look at food with the idea that humans should eat grains as Sagen says, we can see how important grains have been to humans. In ancient Japan, rice served as currency, and the term staple food referred to grains such as bread and rice, while side dishes were thought of as vegetables, meat, fish, etc. that supplemented the staple food. Also, rice is cultivated in every rural area. Therefore, I think that, as Sagen says, forming one's diet around grains is not wrong even in modern times.


After reading the first chapter of this book, "Humans are granivores." I realized once again how important grains are.


6 years ago I had planted barleys and harvested them with friends. 

Source: Healthy Foods (published by Rural Culture Association, annotated by Hiroshi Maruyama, translated by Masanori Hashimoto)

Oct. 11th, 2024: Taka

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