If the french writer and famous foodie Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) would have been sitting among us at the breakout session about “Role of indigenous (forgotten) foods (plants and animals) in food diversification: what don’t we know?” he would be very dissapointed to see what we human kind has become. “Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are” wrote once Mr. Savarin. If we consider that from the 7.000 plant species and several thousand animal species used for human nutrition over the past 12.000 years, 98% of our modern diets relies only on 12 plant crops and 14 animal species, what would we answer if he asked us: who are you then now? A result of increasingly simplified diets which is the mirror of increasingly simplified agroecosystems. Indigenous and poor people could definitely give the better answer to this existential question dealing with diet diversity. Indigenous dietary regimes include leaves, fruits, honey, geophytes, seeds, nuts, mushrooms, insects, flowers, wild animals, as presented by Mr. Edmond Dounias from the Center for International Forestry Research. However, as stressed by Mr. Dounias, “diet diversification is not only a matter of diversified food resources and diversified nutrient intake” but also a reflection of cultural diversity, which is often neglected from research. The challenge is to recognize the complexity of food systems and start considering all different components to get a full picture. It is not enough to answer the “what we eat” question of Mr. Savarin, but additional questions must be addressed: who eats when, where, how…and with whom! An example of the specificity of food behaviour is the Punan ethnic group of Borneo which is used to share their meal with their dogs! During the discussion time the question arose: if food is embedded in local culture, getting to know more about indigenous diets might only have a local relevance with low transferability to other contexts. Are the investments in such kind of highly contextual research efforts justified? In terms of diet diversity it seems to me that indigenous groups have great lessons to teach us and we should humble enough to learn from them.