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 In the misty distance of the gray millennia, another secret has disappeared from us forever, which we will never know. It is more difficult to solve it than, for example, to determine when approximately this or that ancient civilization began to cultivate cereals.
There, specific tools of labor found during excavations, stones that were used to grind the grains into flour, the remains of pottery, and other evidence suggesting that the former gatherer and hunter settled on the ground, became a farmer, help. But when he became, for example, a "gardener", it is impossible to find out. Indirectly, we can assume that the fruit collector once realized that it would be better if the plant food that he loves grew closer to his dwelling, that he once had the mind to understand that trees and plants for the most part reproduce by seeds that are easy to collect and toss to the right place. I realized and ... took a giant step forward towards my human future. It seems that it was many, many centuries before the man mastered the rudiments of the culture of grain farming.
We can also (according to our current logic) build a version that he, our great-grandfather, began to notice that even homogeneous plants differ in yield, and began to choose the best seeds. We can also complain that our super-great-grandfather “pulled” for too long with the solution of selection problems, but we did not have to “root” for him, as in the stadium (“Come on, dear, give it some more! It's so simple. Move your brains!”) ... Yes, it took him thousands of years to realize the now obvious. But what do we want from a man who, crawling out of his cave, was not sure that a saber-toothed tiger was not guarding him at the entrance to it?
However, speculation and jokes aside. The main thing is that the fact is obvious: man as a biological species managed to survive in the era of his ignorance about the advantages of grain nutrition, and not least because he "tamed" edible plants that carry him in the form of stems, fruits and roots a sufficiently voluminous mass for a quick satisfying hunger. To this day, vegetables and fruits dominate among most peoples in terms of the quantitative ratio of heterogeneous food introduced into the body. Moreover, the expediency of such a ratio is also supported by modern science.
Of course, she is also right that animal protein is the most complete in our diet and that it is very difficult to do without it if we want to establish a rationally balanced and healthy diet. But people can do without it. On earth, there are not only convinced vegetarians, but also entire tribes rejecting any food other than plant foods, and they are all right with their health, ability to work and longevity.
It is not hard to guess that these people are "rescued" by crops, the nutritional wealth of which was discussed in the initial chapter of this book. Vegetables and fruits, of course, cannot keep up with this wealth, but let's still feel and reflect on how they captivated us and benefited us.
 Take, for example, the "second bread" - potatoes. Although this is not an "exemplary" protein product, but even it contains about 2% of high quality protein, which is not much inferior to the animal. But in addition, potatoes are energetically "charged" with carbohydrates (starch), contain a significant amount of vitamins C, B1, B2 and others, not to mention biologically valuable mineral salts.
Vegetables, greens and fruits, despite their poverty in proteins and fats, have a miraculous property to enhance the process of assimilation by the human body and the animal proteins themselves - up to 85-90%! This means that in their "accompaniment" you can use meat, fish, cottage cheese, etc. much less than would be required for saturation without them, and the nutritional effect will not suffer from this.
With a normal human consumption of 500-600 g of vegetables, herbs and fruits daily, he receives a rich set of vitamins and mineral salts in full abundance. In the initial chapter, we partially touched on the effect of these substances on the body, so here we will only supplement the picture with the missing information. So, it is not out of place to recall that cereals almost do not provide us with vitamin C, and, on the contrary, the gifts of the garden and garden actually completely satisfy our need for this "king of vitamins". And he, as you know, actively influences metabolism, and energy tone, and the activity of red blood cells, and the strengthening of the walls of blood vessels, and the neutralization of toxic substances and many, many vital processes.
Our body could suffer no less if there is a lack of vitamin A and the substance that forms it (provitamin), called carotene. With this vitamin deficiency, a person usually immediately loses sight (especially in low light). If you do not take action, the trouble progresses: dryness of the mucous membranes of the eyes and respiratory tract appears, a person loses its previous resistance to infection, in addition, other serious disorders occur in the body. (It is curious that the latter seems to "know" about this danger and protects himself from it, putting the excess vitamin in the liver in reserve). Among vegetables and fruits, the main suppliers of vitamin A for us are all those that are yellow, green or orange. This and apricots, and cabbage, and carrot, and spinach, and tomato, etc. What is especially important, from heat treatment carotene and vitamin A are practically not destroyed.
Vitamin P has its own “specialty”: it increases the elasticity of blood vessels, preventing them from rupture and hemorrhage. In addition, it contributes to the preservation of the necessary supply of vitamin C in the tissues and liver. It remains to add that paprika, potatoes, rutabagas, cabbage, deciduous lettuce, black currant, rose hips are quite rich in vitamin R.
It is well known that vitamin D, which is so necessary for us to prevent rickets, anemia, fragility of the formation of teeth and other anomalies and ailments, is found in abundance in fish oil and in a number of other animal products. But this does not mean at all that fruits and vegetables have nothing to do with it. Many of them supply us with ergosterol - a provitamin of vitamin D, and the latter is already produced in the subcutaneous layer of a person under the influence ultraviolet rays of the sun.
 Another most valuable of the vitamins, K, which is responsible for rapid blood clotting and, one might say, saves from death with internal hemorrhages, is also formed under the influence of sunlight. But not under human skin, but under the skin of lettuce leaves, cabbage, spinach, carrot tops etc.
Among the richest set of almost all trace elements and mineral salts that fruits and vegetables bring us, it is worth highlighting iron. (By the way, our blood is red because its atoms are part of hemoglobin). Loss of iron is anemia, poor supply of cells with oxygen, pallor, lethargy, apathy, etc. The human body (especially female) needs a constant influx of this element with food in significant quantities. The need per day is 15 mg.
Many fruits and vegetables are rich in iron, and especially apples, cabbage, leeks, celery, parsley, root vegetables.
The therapeutic and prophylactic effect associated with eating vegetables, their stimulating properties have been appreciated by people since time immemorial. So, the soldiers of ancient Greece were supposed to eat a lot of onions (it was believed that it adds not only health, but also courage). In the Middle Ages, knights wore an onion on their chest as a talisman. And with what respect, for example, does Russian folklore address the topic of vegetables? «Onion - from seven ailments ". “Elnik, Bereznik is not firewood? Fuck and cabbage is not food? ". "There are five dishes in the radish: tricha radish, lomtiha radish, butter and butter, kvass and so on."... Still not knowing about vitamins, our ancestor aptly and figuratively assessed the special benefits of a raw food diet of earthly gifts: "The wolf ate raw, but spun high" (i.e. jumped)!
B.P. Brusilov - Culinary savvy
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