Native foods: Bush lollies, medicinal source, climate-change tool

Whether you call them traditional foods, native ingredients, bush tucker or something else, what’s harvested here is unique. Australia’s a “megadiverse” country, home to around 700,000 species. 65,000-year-old grindstones found in a Kakadu rock shelter reflect the long, rich history of First Nations foods here and many plants are nutritional wonders – Kakadu plum has the highest vitamin C level in the world and even Captain Cook used Warrigal greens to save crews from scurvy. But witchetty grubs appear in Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum and native ingredients are largely absent from supermarkets, so are First Nations foods misunderstood and unfairly overlooked? In this episode, Lee Tran Lam talks to proud Bundjalung woman and cookbook author Mindy Woods, Chinese Australian chef Kylie Kwong and proud Mbabaram woman/Torres Strait Islander and nutritionist Sharna Motlap.

Episode 6 of the Should You Really Eat That? podcast, hosted by SBS, titled "Native foods: Bush lollies, medicinal source, climate-change tool" was published on March 19, 2025 and runs 37 minutes.

March 19, 2025 ·37m · Should You Really Eat That?

Summary

Whether you call them traditional foods, native ingredients, bush tucker or something else, what’s harvested here is unique. Australia’s a “megadiverse” country, home to around 700,000 species. 65,000-year-old grindstones found in a Kakadu rock shelter reflect the long, rich history of First Nations foods here and many plants are nutritional wonders – Kakadu plum has the highest vitamin C level in the world and even Captain Cook used Warrigal greens to save crews from scurvy. But witchetty grubs appear in Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum and native ingredients are largely absent from supermarkets, so are First Nations foods misunderstood and unfairly overlooked? In this episode, Lee Tran Lam talks to proud Bundjalung woman and cookbook author Mindy Woods, Chinese Australian chef Kylie Kwong and proud Mbabaram woman/Torres Strait Islander and nutritionist Sharna Motlap.

Episode Description