Eating a Balanced Diet
Like people today, ancient Indians needed to eat a balanced diet with protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. From about 2,500 to 1,000 years ago, many Indians from the Upper Midwest to Tennessee depended on a diet of hunted meat (white-tailed deer, elk, turkey, and fish in particular), gathered wild nuts and fruit (especially hickory and acorn), and the cultivated and domesticated suite of starchy and oily seeds (see "The Three Sisters"). The three starchy seeds of maygrass, chenopod, and maize are comparable in the amount of kilocalories they possess (320-370). As expected, the oily seeds of sumpweed, sunflower, and squash are higher in kilocalories (535-560), and hickory is higher still (673). Oils and fats were valued not only for their high energy, but also for the taste that they added to meals. Bear fat and hickory nut oil were two major sources of oil in the diet of southeastern Indians. Oils were not only incorporated into food, but also were used as a base for body paints and for dressing people’s hair.
The oily seeds of sumpweed and sunflower and the starchy seed of maygrass are high in protein, thiamin, and iron. Yet, as is true of many starchy seeds, including maize, maygrass is low in many of the amino acids, and particularly in lysine. A balanced diet could be provided only by supplementing the starchy-seeded crops with amino acid-rich proteins such as meat or roots.
The oily seeds of sumpweed and sunflower and the starchy seed of maygrass are high in protein, thiamin, and iron. Yet, as is true of many starchy seeds, including maize, maygrass is low in many of the amino acids, and particularly in lysine. A balanced diet could be provided only by supplementing the starchy-seeded crops with amino acid-rich proteins such as meat or roots.
© Gail E. Wagner, 2014. The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of the page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of South Carolina. Page last updated 13 Sept. 2014.