The French Polynesian Diet - a.k.a. The If You Were Stranded on a Deserted Island Diet: The Ingredients
It's that special time again! The time when I get to say goodbye to
the diet I've been on for one whole month and start a brand new
adventure with a new diet. This month I'm very excited to start this new diet of mine. It's one I've been thinking about since November of last year, and after a lot of thought and God knows a ton of research, I'm finally ready to embark on it. It was not easy researching all of the ingredients I will be allowed to eat during this new diet of mine - but I think it will be worth all the hard work I've invested in reading up on it.
Ever wonder what it would be like to be stranded on a deserted island? I
have. I think lots of people have. Or maybe I'm just weird. But the
bottom line, is that if you were stranded on a deserted island, what
would you eat? Most people that I know have often played the game of,
"If
you were stranded on a deserted island, and you could only have one
thing...what would it be?" I often say, "avocados". But now that I was
on the Mexico Diet for a month, I've had my fair share of them, and I'm
ready for a break.
In all reality though, there are some
deserted islands out there, and indeed there is food on these islands.
Some food more limited on certain islands, than on others. I've always
kind of secretly wondered about it though when watching different movies
with people stranded on these remote locations. Like,
"That's
how I would lose weight! I'd be climbing huge hills, foraging for food -
eating coconuts and fish." Until one day, I decided that I should
actually research this and make it a reality.
I settled on
French Polynesia, as that is where the movie "Six Days Seven Nights"
takes place, and although I didn't specifically select the little
nowhere island that they ended up on, I chose a general location of the
Polynesian islands.
Though it may have been filmed in Hawaii, the movie takes place near Tahiti, and that is the point of the experiment.
I
also derived some interest from the film Castaway, but after doing some
research on the island where the movie was shot (and, I believe where
it takes place), an island near Fiji called Monuriki, I learned that
there is basically nothing on this island except some very strange and
exotic crabs.
As much as I want to experience the "real"
Polynesian island diet, I didn't want to starve. Because with the cost
of crab, if that's all I would be able to eat, that's what would happen.
Therefore, I had to start getting creative. Since I selected the French Polynesian islands, I had to learn about its earliest settlers. Where were they from, when did they arrive, and what did they bring (if anything) with them to the islands?
After some fascinating reading I did, I learned all about the Polynesians. They weren't from Polynesia - spoiler alert - they were actually from Southeast Asia.
Therefore, I had to do even more research. What were local foods that were, a., brought by the Polynesians to French Polynesia, and b., what were local foods that grow wild in southeast Asia. Also, which countries in Southeast Asia did the Polynesians originate. Also, by the time they made their way from Southeast Asia, had they been gifted some foods from neighboring southeast Asian countries, whereby allowing them to bring some of that food with them.
A lot of questions, and some interesting answers.
It is largely understood from my vast hours of trying to investigate these islands, that the peoples who came over from Southeast Asia were known as Austronesians.
"One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacifc by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 3500-2000 BCE. The migrations were accompanied by a set of domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants and, animals, transported via outrigger ships and catamarans that enabled early Austronesians to thrive." - Wikipedia
And why exactly is French Polynesia, referred to as 'French', since the original discoverers of the islands were anything but?
"The arrival of British and French missionaries in
the 1800s provoked a rivalry between England and France for control
over the islands, and this forever changed the way of life in Tahiti.
The native Pomare Family ruled until December 29,
1880, when Tahiti finally became a French colony. In 1957, the islands
were reconstituted into a French Overseas Territory and given the
official name French Polynesia." - www.tahiti.com
Now that we're all smarter and know as much as I think we need to about the origins of Tahiti and its surrounding islands which make up French Polynesia - let's get started with this month's diet.
Here below are the results of my findings, and what I will be eating and why these certain ingredients for the next month.
The Ingredients:
Free-Range Pigs. I have chosen not to eat any pork on this diet, even though I could. The only pork that I can find is non-free-range, and I have a big problem with that. I do not want to be ingesting anything (at least on my non-cheat days) that my body shouldn't have in it. What I have learned is that whatever the animal ate, you're eating. So if the pigs were fed corn, I'll be eating corn, and I do not want to do that to myself. Therefore, it's organic and 100% free-range, wild-caught for me. So no pork. How sad.
Chickens. "Radio carbon dating shows the El Arenal chicken lived sometime between A.D. 1321 and 1407, well after Polynesians settled on the islands of the South Pacific." - Wikipedia
Since chickens come from China originally, it's not so far fetched to imagine that by the time they had crossed over into French Polynesia, chickens had made their way to the Southeast Asian countries from which the Polynesians came.
Eggs. Because, chickens.
Crab
Coconuts. "In prehistoric times, it spread naturally on ocean currants eastward to the tropical Pacific islands". - Google
Coconut Milk. Because, coconuts.
Coconut Water. Because, coconuts.
Coconut Flour. Because, coconuts.
Coconut Oil. Because, coconuts.
Sweet Potatoes. "Archeological remains appear to place sweet potato cultivation in the core of Polynesia by the year 1200." - Arstechnica While it appears that yams are actually natural to the islands, they do not sell them at Whole Foods, and I can't say I see a genuine authentic yam anywhere else around these parts, so sweet potatoes will have to do - even though I really don't like them.
Taro. "Taro were carried into the Pacific islands by Austronesian peoples from around 1,300 B.C." - Wikipedia
Breadfruit. "Native to greater New Guinea, Polynesians have been carrying and cultivating breadfruit on their explorations through the South Pacific for thousands of years." - BBC Travel This also will not be available to me, since I cannot find it.
Plantains. They are from Southeast Asia originally and therefore, I'm including them in my diet.
Tangerines. From my research it appears as though no one knows for sure where tangerines come from, but it is suspected from Southeast Asia. If this is the case, I will go out on a limb and assume that the Austronesians brought it with them to the islands.
Bananas. "Rough estimates surrounding the dates of their voyages place their explorations between 1500 B.C. - 1,000 A.D." - historyofyesterday.com; "Bananas were carried throughout the Pacific by the earliest indigenous voyagers." - University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
Sugarcane. "It was introduced to Polynesia...via Austronesian sailors". - Wikipedia; "From 2000 BCE they assimilated (or were assimilated by) the earlier Paleolithic Negrito and Australo-Melanesian Papuan populations. They reached as far as Easter Island to the east..." - Wikipedia
Tahitian Chestnut. Research indicates - but is not clear - that it originated in several locations, including French Polynesia. These are not found at Whole Foods, therefore, there will be no Tahitian Chestnut pour moi.
Oranges, Limes, Lemons. From what little I'm able to gather online, it sounds like these three citrus fruits were brought over by the Austronesians when they first made their voyages.
Rice. "...is one of the most ancient Austronesian staples..." Wikipedia. Therefore, it's not hard to draw the conclusion that they would have brought it with them when they made their voyage to the Polynesian islands.
Rice Flour. Because... rice.
Mountain Apples, Water Apples, Java Apples. "...They were all carried by Austronesians into the Pacific and planted deliberately." Too bad I can't find these at the grocery store here.
Tumeric, and Ginger. "...were cultivated extensively by Austronesians for food, medicine, weaving materials and for religious purposes." - Wikipedia. I gotta be honest. Not a fan of either of these unless it's in Indian cooking, and even then I hate the smell of tumeric while it's cooking. I'm not a fan of ginger either, but I will give it a go as it is important to learn to love all the foods that God has given us - even if it's just experimenting with them at first.
Lemongrass. Since this is from Southeast Asia, I'm including it in my diet.
Daikon Radish. It's also from Southeast Asia.
Chinese Eggplant. It's from Southeast Asia too.
Napa Cabbage. From Southeast Asia.
Choy Sum. It's from Southeast Asia. But, Whole Foods does not carry it, so you can scratch that off the list.
Cucumbers. They are thought to be from Southeast Asia, but evidence is not super clear. I'm still going to eat it though because there are so few vegetables in this diet of mine.
Cloves. They are from Indonesia, and since that's in Southeast Asia...
Nutmeg. Also from Indonesia. And where is that?
Endive. It is also from Indonesia. However, the only type of endive that I can get at Whole Foods is Belgian Endive, but that's okay because it's lettuce, and I really miss lettuce. I'll be honest too, I don't really understand the difference between the two, and since it doesn't seem like there is much of one, I'm gonna go ahead and sleep okay at night having eaten my Belgian Endive.
So that's it. Those are the ingredients for the month. You may have noticed, there is neither garlic nor onion on this diet...so that's going to be...rough, for me. I don't know how to make anything taste flavorful without at least one of those items, but we will see...
Are you excited to see all the neat-o, healthy recipes I'm going to come up with? I know I am... let's go!
“Though your beginning was insignificant, yet your end will increase greatly.” - Job 8:7
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