When the first Europeans arrived in the New World, they found that the Natives were making a dried meat product that did not need to be consumed immediately and they instantly knew that jerky would be beneficial to them. What the Native American tribes called “pemmican” was jerky meat added to either crushed dried fruit or animal fat. The Native Americans taught the settlers how to cut and prepare the meat into long strips and later shared with them the entire jerky-making process and some variations of seasonings to make different recipes. With this newfound knowledge and time-tested recipe, the European pioneers found themselves cooking and consuming jerky more than ever before; it was absolutely the snack of choice.
Jerky reached its height of popularity during the expansion into North America, where traders and explorers prized it as an essential source of nutrition as they traveled to new areas with limited accessibility to fresh food and supplies along the way. The fact that meat could be hunted anywhere along the trails that the settlers were following to the West made this method of preparing meat an extremely valuable skill. This was also the introduction of other jerky meat types such as turkey, goose, and other wild game. As the industrial age in America approached many companies saw the potential of producing jerky products in large quantities for mass consumption. Today millions of people around the world now enjoy jerky products. Join the bandwagon and enjoy the world’s healthiest and best tasting snack!
Peanut Butter
The health benefits of peanut butter for children include good supply of protein for body development, good supply of essential fats for brain development, supply of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and supply of resveratrol which is good for the immune system. Peanut butter, a breakfast spread is so popular that it is almost a household item and without it most people’s breakfast is not complete. In the United States alone, peanuts and peanut butter are consumed to the extent of 1.5 billion pounds every year.
As many people believe, the making peanut butter is neither new nor was it invented in modern United States or in the Europe. But, it was first made by Aztecs, one of native American groups, thousands of years ago. Peanuts are believed to be the native to American soil and it was convenient for the Aztec to make roast and ground peanuts during high peanut season and consume it for the rest of the year.
Peanut butter is a high risk food for babies under the age of 1 year. The risk of developing peanut allergy is high in babies and hence, it is recommended not to give infants, younger than 1 year of age peanut butter. Only after your baby is at least 1½ years old, you might want to try peanut butter.