Name: What foods did your ancestors love?
Uploaded: 2020-06-30T20:03:01Z
Duration: 14 min 30 s
Description: Around the world, Indigenous food cultures vanish because of industrialized agriculture and a shifting, Western-influenced concept of the ideal diet. Food researcher Aparna Pallavi explores why once-essential culinary traditions disappear from people's lives and memories almost without notice -- and serves up a subtle solution to revitalize our connection to the foods we eat.

Around the world, Indigenous food cultures vanish because of industrialized agriculture and a shifting, Western-influenced concept of the ideal diet. Food researcher Aparna Pallavi explores why once-essential culinary traditions disappear from people's lives and memories almost without notice -- and serves up a subtle solution to revitalize our connection to the foods we eat.

What foods did your ancestors love?

Generations-old foods, from wild tubers to moth larvae, are vanishing as communities internalize shame about their traditional diets. In India, nutritious staples like mahua flowers have been recast as signs of poverty or backwardness, leading even elders to abandon them. This disappearance happens quietly, fueled by social pressure, imported foods, and the belief that ancestral meals are uncivilized. Rekindling respect and curiosity for these lost foods is essential for cultural resilience and health.