Did WAPF get Thai diet wrong?

[Guest guest]

An interesting commentary on

http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/thailand.html at

http://www.ahoa.org.au/cgi-bin/cgiforum.pl?action=showentry & thesection=default & e\

ntry=809 & start=15 & end=0

Has anyone here lived in Thailand and can comment on this?

Roman

[Guest guest]

>Has anyone here lived in Thailand and can comment on this?

>

>Roman

I don't know about Thailand, but our local Korean store just got

a makeover and the " traditional " foods got waylaid in favor

of packaged nasty stuff. The food channel tour of Thailand

looked a lot like how the WAP folks described it, and the

Thai restaurants have great food, as so the Thai cookbooks. But I have

no doubt that the average Thai might be eating a lot worse. The

stores that sell " Thai food " now feature videos, candies, pastries --

stuff that NEVER existed in Thailand.

I visited a couple of old Hawaiians once in my youth -- they served

rice at every meal, along with seaweed and a variety of interesting

foods including a lot of coconut. The old man drove out to the

shore and dove for his seaweed, and they cracked open the coconuts

to shave off the meat (with a shaver he made from an old tin can)

to make these delicious rice cakes.

Do Hawaiians eat that way now? Probably not. In the last 20-40 years,

diets worldwide have changed DRASTICALLY, and not uniformly (as the trip

to Provance shows).

Anyway, I guess my point is:

1. The " American way of life " is infecting the rest of the world quickly.

2. Changes in land ownership, growth of large cities, use of pesticides, etc. is

changing how

people can " forage " for things like wild herbs, mudfish, etc. that used

to supplement their diets.

3. Changes in society (more people " going to work " for a living) changes

how much time anyone can afford to cook.

So I'd think both points of view are quite valid! The " Thai cuisine " is just

as WP describes it, and it is wonderful. AND it may no longer be the primary

cuisine of many Thai people. The author only describes his own experience --

what was it like 40 years ago? What is it like for the more fortunate families?

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

I was introduced to NT by a wonderful Thai cooking teacher named

Kasma, in Berkeley. She is really Thai and the food was widely

varied including plenty of meat and coconut milk. Cooking oils were

coconut and peanut. Deep frying was fairly common, as well as

sauteeing. The food was lots of work though, often using mortle and

pestle to make curries and spice mixes, mash green papayas, etc.

Very different from restauraunt fare which is americanized . It

is amazing food.

Anyway Kasma (who has a great cheery attitude) had been pissed off

for years about all the bad publicity about coconut oil. Her

husband, an internet geek, had Candida and discovered WAP and the

coconut oil group, and they began selling NT and Omega coconut

butter, along with Kasma's cookbooks.

What do you think is wrong with the article?

Daphne

> An interesting commentary on

http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/thailand.html at

http://www.ahoa.org.au/cgi-bin/cgiforum.pl?

action=showentry & thesection=default & entry=809 & start=15 & end=0

>

> Has anyone here lived in Thailand and can comment on this?

>

> Roman

[Guest guest]

It's in

http://www.ahoa.org.au/cgi-bin/cgiforum.pl?action=showentry & thesection=default & e\

ntry=809 & start=15 & end=0

Roman

Daphne Blumenthal wrote:

> What do you think is wrong with the article?

>

> Daphne

>

>

>

>>An interesting commentary on

>

> http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/thailand.html at

> http://www.ahoa.org.au/cgi-bin/cgiforum.pl?

> action=showentry & thesection=default & entry=809 & start=15 & end=0

>

>>Has anyone here lived in Thailand and can comment on this?

>>

>>Roman

[Guest guest]

Well, sounds like what he's really saying is the Thai diet, like many

diets worldwide, is deteriorating. I think the WAPF article is an

accurate portrayal of traditional Thai diet (based solely on my

experience with Kasma and her class). I also recall her saying lard

is traditional but she doesn't use it because it would freak out her

(American) cooking students. Pork, chicken, lots of seafood, are all

part of the cuisine, as well as lots of coconut milk and oil. Kasma

also conducts trips to Thailand with a focus on food and discourages

people who won't eat at least seafood from going on her trips because

of the difficulty in accomodating their needs in remote villages.

Link to her web site is below. Her picture is true to life, in that

she is vivacious (probably in her 40's or possibly older) with great

teeth and a round face.

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/

>

> > What do you think is wrong with the article?

> >

> > Daphne

> >

> > --- In , Roman <romeml@h...>

wrote:

> >

> >>An interesting commentary on

> >

> > http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/thailand.html at

> > http://www.ahoa.org.au/cgi-bin/cgiforum.pl?

> > action=showentry & thesection=default & entry=809 & start=15 & end=0

> >

> >>Has anyone here lived in Thailand and can comment on this?

> >>

> >>Roman

[Guest guest]

> Link to her web site is below. Her picture is true to life, in

that

> she is vivacious (probably in her 40's or possibly older) with

great

> teeth and a round face.

>

----> She's older than 40s ....her biography says born in 1950. She

really looks great!

My experience with traveing over the past 20 years has been that our

SAD ideas are quickly beoming standard for even rural countries. I

travelled in China right after they opened to foreigners and never

saw white flours, Coke, etc. I bet now even in rural aras you can get

a coke.

I was reading an article about Africa that described how when the

roads washed out they would hand carry the beer, cigarettes and Coke

to the village stores.

I think a good source of information is old travelouges and Nat.

Geographics as opposed to looking at the present diets of developing

countries.

Also i would think that Kasma at 53 would be cooking the traditional

ways her mother taught her. And that might be different than what she

would learn today growing up in Thailand.

Lynn