Be skeptical about nonconventional food

An ancient Asian practice to ferment soybeans and consume it as tofu cheese make this plant a healthy food that, consumed in almost any other form, would harm us.
Soy hasn’t the characteristics of basis nourishment, because it contains a series of “anti-nutrients” - compounds that block the digestion of vitamins and minerals in the body, which affects the hormonal system and prevents the body to decompose soybean proteins. Asian cuisine had to find different ways to make this plant at all inviting in an extremely nutritious food. By boiling soya beans in water, to get some kind of milk and the added gypsum (calcium sulfate), chefs have managed to turn soybeans into an easily digestible protein food: called tofu.
So, in which way are these traditional methods “for food processing” different from new engineering food practices? Just by the fact that traditional methods have stood the test of time, and those who have applied them have lived long and healthy for generations. Culinary traditions reflect a long experience and embody a nutritional logic that should not be overturned. So, here are some rules to adopt traditional diets:

Be skeptical about nonconventional food. Innovation is exciting, but when it comes to food novelty it should be approached with caution. If various types of diets or nourishments are the result of an evolutionary process, than this means that a culinary innovation is a kind of mutation: it could be a revolutionary breakthrough, but probably it is not. Abandoning the idea of pitched roofs was a great and interesting step for the modern architecture, but often trough horizontal roofs that replaced the pitched ones water could penetrate

Be the kind of person who takes dietary supplements

It is known that generally the persons who take dietary supplements are much healthier then persons who don’t. And it is known that in controlled trials, most supplements are actually neutral. Maybe the reasons why these people are healthier have nothing to do with pills: generally these subjects are persons that are more concerned about their health and have a higher financial and intellectual level. So, be as much as possible the kind of person that would take food supplements and save your money.

However, many nutritionists with whom I talked recommend multivitamins, especially as you get older. At least in theory,your diet should contain all macro-nutrients you need so that you could be healthy, especially if you eat real food and with many plants. After all, we have evolved to procure ourselves all the necessary elements for our body from the nature and if we were unable to do so, we couldn’t attain all of this.

But natural selection is not interested in our health or survival after the period in which we give birth to our descendants and, as we get older, the need for antioxidants increases and the capacity to assimilate them from food wanes. So, perhaps it would be better, and certainly you have nothing to lose, if you take multivitamins and minerals after the age of 50. And if you generally do not eat very much fish, it wouldn’t hurt if you would take a fish oil supplement.