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A claim has been made by certain writers in the USA that "native Americans added a little limestone that had been burned to ash" to their maize, for health reasons. This is complete nonsense and results from ignorance of ancient cooking methods.

Research into the cooking methods used by some native groups in Utah between about 200 AD and 400 AD shows that they regularly cooked with hot stones dropped into water contained in the stomach lining of an animal - such a container could not be heated over a fire, so "stone boiling" was the logical answer. Limestone was the stone of choice and pieces would be heated in a nearby fire before being transferred to the cooking "pot" - leaving ash as a by-product in with the maize.

Any nutritional benefits of the presence of limestone were purely accidental, not intended, so it is not true to say that native Americans added limestone ash to their maize deliberately.

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