On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, Phosphor wrote:

> i wrote "all kinds of plant foods," not "all plant foods."
> There were all kinds of plant foods that your, and my, ancestors
> didn't eat. my ancestors, not being from the amazon, did not eat
> brazil nuts.  they didn't eat flax seeds either.  or yams, none
> of which exist in northern europe, or carrots, which did not
> exist in their curent form until the 1500s.

Then it is equally true that there were all kinds of plant foods
your ancestors did eat.  See
http://www.cast.uark.edu/local/icaes/conferences/wburg/posters/nconklin/conklin.html

From the standpoint of trying the implement a paleo diet, the key
question becomes whether we include or exclude foods individually
or according to "kind."  Tomatoes are botanically a fruit, which
is a kind of food our ancestors clearly did eat.  But they are a
particular fruit that our ancestors never ate.

There is, of course, no reason to restrict the kinds of plant
foods to those available in northern Europe.

Todd Moody
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