With Bitter Herbs They Shall Eat It: Chemical Ecology and the Origins of Human Diet and Medicine (Arizona Studies in Human Ecology)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Johns, Timothy

Diets & Weight Loss

University of Arizona Press

People have always been attracted to foods rich in calories, fat, and protein; yet the biblical admonition that meat be eaten “with bitter herbs” suggests that unpalatable plants play an important role in our diet. So-called primitive peoples show a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of how their bodies interact with plant chemicals, which may allow us to rediscover the origins of diet by retracing the paths of biology and culture. The domestication of the potato serves as the focus of Timothy Johns’s interdisciplinary study, which forges a bold synthesis of ethnobotany and chemical ecology. The Aymara of highland Bolivia have long used varieties of potato containing potentially toxic levels of glycoalkaloids, and Johns proposes that such plants can be eaten without harm owing to human genetic modification and cultural manipulation. Drawing on additional fieldwork in Africa, he considers the evolution of the human use of plants, the ways in which humans obtain foods from among the myriad poisonous and unpalatable plants in the environment, and the consequences of this history for understanding the basis of the human diet. A natural corollary to his investigation is the origin of medicine, since the properties of plants that make them unpalatable and toxic are the same properties that make them useful pharmacologically. As our species has adapted to the use of plants, plants have become an essential part of our internal ecology. Recovering the ancient wisdom regarding our interaction with the environment preserves a fundamental part of our human heritage. Originally published in hardcover as With Bitter Herbs They Shall Eat It: Chemical Ecology and the Origins of Human Diet and Medicine

The Origins of Human Diet and Medicine: Chemical Ecology (Arizona Studies in Human Ecology)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Night Just Before the Forest (English and French Edition)

Ward, Matthew

Koltes, Bernard

Pub Center Cultural Resources

Book by Fabien, Michile, Temerson, Catherine, Harris, Jessica, Mac Dougall, Jill, Schwarz-Bart, Simone, Johns, Timothy, Miller, Richard, Gallaire-Bourega, Fatima, Bonal, Denise

Plays By Women (Ubu Repertory Theater Publications)

Literature & Fiction

Miller, Richard

Schwarz-Bart, Simone

Temerson, Catherine

Harris, Jessica

Bonal, Denise

Mac Dougall, Jill

Fabien, Michile

Gallaire-Bourega, Fatima

Dramas & Plays

UBU Repertory Theater

Have you ever had an argument with a four year old and lost? This book is for you, offering practical advice on how to manage the strong-willed child.

Parenting the Strong-Willed Child

Parenting & Relationships

Parenting

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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Books by Johns, Timothy