Rachel Laudan

Following on the previous post, the point is that banging, hitting, pounding, percussion does not produce flour out of grains (grape skins, chestnuts, bracken I shall leave for another post, but thanks commentators all, here and on facebook).  Grains are my subject because they are the key to the history of civilization. So although as [...]

The consensus of nutritionists at the end of the nineteenth century was clear. It was the meat eaters. But important minority movements (sometimes derisively called the nuts and the berries) who disliked the line the nutritionists took, argued for the grain eaters. It was a debate that spilled over into national nutritional politics, the feeding [...]

Many countries still have drinks that go back deep into the past. One such is taxcalate from Chiapas in the far south of Mexico. Here’s the powder base: ground toasted maize, ground cacao, and ground achiote (Bixa orellana, used in many societies for color and also flavor). It turns the mixture a bright orangey color. [...]