# Did "New World" foods cause any widespread GI issues after global distribution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322 "2020-05-23T01:19:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/21 "2020-05-23T19:05:55Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > … a lot of misunderstandings about how to eat the proper part of the plant and the way it was served… That was funny. Something similar happened with Tea when it was introduced to Americans : “ Many colonists put the tea into water, boiled it for a time, threw the liquid away, and ate the tea- leaves. In Salem they did not find the leaves very attractive, so they put butter and salt on them” Home Life in Colonial Days - By Alice Morse Earle ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/22 "2020-05-23T19:14:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Everyone has a different mix of gut bacteria. If you introduce something new to your diet, your flora and fauna may have a hard time adapting. A nutrient that’s new to you, or unusual (like lactose for an adult) sure. But most new-to-you vegetables are made of pretty much the same stuff as other vegetables. I’m a picky eater, but I like to try new foods. I actively seek out new meats, fruits, and vegetables to try. I can’t recall ever having any intestinal issues after trying any new food. Well, when I decided I liked Jerusalem artichokes and ate a whole lot of them, I got gas. But that’s a common problem with Jerusalem artichokes, and independent of whether you’ve eaten them before. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/23 "2020-05-23T19:18:03Z")
Post-infancy lactose intolerance is most common in east Asia. It is somewhat common in west Africa, the Middle East, Greece, and Italy. It is rare in northern Europe. This is according to the link below. This sort of kind of vaguely correlates with what some people think of as whiteness: > **[Lactose intolerance: MedlinePlus Genetics](https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/lactose-intolerance/)** > > Lactose intolerance is an impaired ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products. Explore symptoms, inheritance, genetics of this condition. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/24 "2020-05-23T19:19:22Z")
Vaguely. But India is full of very dark-skinned people who are lactose tolerant as adults. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/25 "2020-05-23T19:20:22Z")
One New World crop that often needs special preparation is [cassava](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava), aka manioc or tapioca. The root comes in “sweet” and bitter varieties, with the latter containing potentially toxic levels of cyanide-producing compounds and requiring special preparation in order to be safe to eat. However, the roots are equally toxic to anyone, and Old World peoples were not especially susceptible to them. Spanish colonists sometimes complained that cassava bread gave them digestive problems, but this could have been due to poor preparation or other issues. Today the crop is used widely throughout the tropics, including Latin America, Africa, and Asia. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/26 "2020-05-23T19:28:36Z")
The French philosopher Voltaire was an early proponent for cultivating potatoes in Europe (and influenced his friend/sometimes enemy Frederic the Great, who propagated the potato in Prussia and thus changed German cuisine forever), but at least there seems to have been a reputation of the potato for being hard to digest. I remember a documentary citing Voltaire in that context (from memory) “The potato might be hard to digest, but what are some winds in the guts of some peasants compared to a safe nutrition?” Sorry, no cite, I didn’t find it online. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/27 "2020-05-23T19:29:55Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Please provide a cite for the claim that “milking populations have tended to be white “. > > As per my reading the cow was first domesticated in the Middle East. > > In India, many people are vegetarian and milk is considered to be vegetarian and consumed by much of the population, old and young. If I remember correctly cattle was reared in the Indus Valley civilization circa 3300 BC. They are related closely enough to Europeans that in classifications (obsolete, as they all are) that pigeonhole everyone into a limited number of “races”, they were often classified as [Caucasian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race). Of course, since race is a construct, how much you are genetically related to someone is not a perfect correlation with what race people classify you as. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/28 "2020-05-23T19:29:48Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > What part of the tomato plant is poisonous? Anything green, other than the green tomato fruit. So… stems and leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/29 "2020-05-23T19:31:23Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > What part of the tomato plant is poisonous? Anything green, other than the green tomato fruit. So… stems and leaves. The same applies to potatoes. Anything green has toxin in it. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/30 "2020-05-23T19:34:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > This sort of kind of vaguely correlates with what some people think of as whiteness: Cite please. So you are saying Indian food is not considered Ethnic aka non-white food ? > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Vaguely. But India is full of very dark-skinned people who are lactose tolerant as adults. Cite please. After US, India is the largest producer of milk. [Milk - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk#Production_worldwide) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/31 "2020-05-23T19:51:24Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Please provide a cite for the claim that “milking populations have tended to be white “. > > As per my reading the cow was first domesticated in the Middle East. > > In India, many people are vegetarian and milk is considered to be vegetarian and consumed by much of the population, old and young. If I remember correctly cattle was reared in the Indus Valley civilization circa 3300 BC. You do understand that “have tended to be” /= are always, don’t you? A lot of people can’t seem to grasp this simple fact. That said, it’s true that milking and the domestication of cows is traced back to the Middle East. But the use of fresh milk was minimized there by the high temperatures. To make milk last they either fermented it into yogurt or kefir or cheeses, among others, all of which are low in lactose so high percentages of tolerance in the population wasn’t necessary. Dairying moved north and east and anthropologists have shown it has a high (high is not perfect, remember) correlation with the spread of Indo-European languages. (see [this map](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048992/).) That’s why there is a dairying culture in [India but not in Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance#/media/File:Lactose_tolerance_in_the_Old_World.svg). The use of fresh milk products increased as temperatures dropped, so that gradients of tolerance can be seen across Europe with the highest percentages of tolerance in Scandinavia and England, who brought their dairy culture to America. The usual explanation involves the need for white skinned peoples to have difficulty getting enough vitamin D in areas of short summers, while the calcium in milk helps with that. (Some dark skinned peoples have high percentages of tolerance, but from specialized situations in local environments.) If you would like to know more about lactose intolerance, I highly recommend my book,[Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living with Lactose Intolerance](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816031274/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6), a work that a reviewer on Amazon called “too thorough.” ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/32 "2020-05-23T20:06:31Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > You do understand that “have tended to be” /= are always, don’t you? A lot of people can’t seem to grasp this simple fact. Thank you Exapno Mapcase for the good explanation - makes sense to me. Also want to say that as a person of Indian origin, I’m not sure most Americans (I live in the south) understand that India and Europe has a common history. Forget IE languages, most people (I come across) don’t know that anthropologically many Indians are Caucasian too and Caucasian is not about skin color. Thanks again ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/33 "2020-05-23T20:09:03Z")
am77494, do you not understand the idea of something being approximately correlated with something and yet not precisely correlated with it? This is true of most cases of correlation that you will discover. Look up how correlations are calculated: > **[The Correlation Coefficient: What It Is, What It Tells Investors](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/correlationcoefficient.asp)** > > The correlation coefficient is a statistical measure of the strength of the relationship between two data variables. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/34 "2020-05-23T20:22:02Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > … Cite please. > > After US, India is the largest producer of milk. [Milk - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk#Production_worldwide) Well, your cite supports my claim. Seriously, Indian cuisine is full of milk. That would be weird if most Indians couldn’t digest lactose. Here’s a cite: “Madhur Jaffrey’s _An Invitation to Indian Cooking_”. Quite a lot of the recipes include butter or yogurt. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/35 "2020-05-23T20:37:14Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Also want to say that as a person of Indian origin, I’m not sure most Americans (I live in the south) understand that India and Europe has a common history. Forget IE languages, most people (I come across) don’t know that anthropologically many Indians are Caucasian too and Caucasian is not about skin color. You should be aware that while Indian populations have been classed as “Caucasian” in the past, this is not a classification that is currently much used by anthropologists. The population of Indian is a very complex mixture. Some populations, especially in the north, are more closed related to Europeans, while others, especially in the south, show links to Austronesians. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/36 "2020-05-23T20:38:58Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Well, your cite supports my claim. Seriously, Indian cuisine is full of milk. That would be weird if most Indians couldn’t digest lactose. > > Here’s a cite: “Madhur Jaffrey’s _An Invitation to Indian Cooking_”. Quite a lot of the recipes include butter or yogurt. Butter is virtually lactose-free. Old-fashioned yogurt (not the modern fortified and sweetened American stuff) is quite low in lactose. Used in moderate quantities, neither would bother someone unless they are exceptionally lactose intolerant. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/37 "2020-05-23T20:55:35Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Well, your cite supports my claim. Seriously, Indian cuisine is full of milk. That would be weird if most Indians couldn’t digest lactose. > > Here’s a cite: “Madhur Jaffrey’s _An Invitation to Indian Cooking_”. Quite a lot of the recipes include butter or yogurt. Puzzlegal - I misread your post. Specifically read tolerant as intolerant. My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/38 "2020-05-23T21:18:13Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You should be aware that while Indian populations have been classed as “Caucasian” in the past, this is not a classification that is currently much used by anthropologists. The population of Indian is a very complex mixture. Some populations, especially in the north, are more closed related to Europeans, while others, especially in the south, show links to Austronesians. I am aware and hence I specifically said in my post “many Indians” not all Indians. Not all Europeans are Caucasian and agree that the term is outdated. But if you use the term, be sure to understand that it doesn’t mean white. > [@](#): > > **Some populations** , especially in the north, are more closed related to Europeans,… \ I am not sure there is a study on “some” or “majority” and I think that’s a matter of opinion . North India is pretty big and holds significant population percentage of India. Here is a study that cites the different states with Indo-European ancestry and it has almost all of the big population states: [Reconstructing Indian Population History - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2842210/#!po=0.833333) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/39 "2020-05-23T21:25:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Butter is virtually lactose-free. Old-fashioned yogurt (not the modern fortified and sweetened American stuff) is quite low in lactose. Used in moderate quantities, neither would bother someone unless they are exceptionally lactose intolerant. My daughter has trouble with yogurt. Maybe it’s not old-fashioned enough? And I’d been claiming butter was low in lactose until a lactose intolerant friend said she couldn’t eat it. I looked up the numbers and they were higher than I would have expected. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322/40 "2020-05-23T22:21:00Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > I’m not sure this is a thing. Eating something poisonous, sure. Eating a potato or corn for the first time? It’s not like we need special bugs for digesting them. From [here:](https://theconversation.com/moving-to-another-country-could-mess-with-your-gut-bacteria-106095) > [@](#): > > The combination of species that make up our gut microbiomes is strongly influenced by our diets, and so people from different parts of the world tend to have different bacteria. Western guts commonly contain lots of Bacteroides species, which are good at digesting animal fats and proteins. The guts of people with non-Western diets rich in plants tend to be dominated by Prevotella species, which are good at digesting plant fibre. [Wikipedia:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_gastrointestinal_microbiota#Geography) > [@](#): > > Gut microbiome composition depends on the geographic origin of populations. Variations in a trade-off of Prevotella, the representation of the urease gene, and the representation of genes encoding glutamate synthase/degradation or other enzymes involved in amino acids degradation or vitamin biosynthesis show significant differences between populations from the US, Malawi or Amerindian origin.[38] > > The US population has a high representation of enzymes encoding the degradation of glutamine and enzymes involved in vitamin and lipoic acid biosynthesis; whereas Malawi and Amerindian populations have a high representation of enzymes encoding glutamate synthase and they also have an overrepresentation of α-amylase in their microbiomes. As the US population has a diet richer in fats than Amerindian or Malawian populations which have a corn-rich diet, the diet is probably the main determinant of the gut bacterial composition.[38] > > Further studies have indicated a large difference in the composition of microbiota between European and rural African children. The fecal bacteria of children from Florence were compared to that of children from the small rural village of Boulpon in Burkina Faso. The diet of a typical child living in this village is largely lacking in fats and animal proteins and rich in polysaccharides and plant proteins. The fecal bacteria of European children were dominated by Firmicutes and showed a marked reduction in biodiversity, while the fecal bacteria of the Boulpon children was dominated by Bacteroidetes. The increased biodiversity and different composition of gut flora in African populations may aid in the digestion of normally indigestible plant polysaccharides and also may result in a reduced incidence of non-infectious colonic diseases.[46] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-new-world-foods-cause-any-widespread-gi-issues-after-global-distribution/854322.md?page=3)