Has anyone considered the possibility that evolution
will never help us to tolerate grains and other "farm
foods?" In order for us to adapt, these foods would
have to kill the weaker of us before we produce
offspring, ensuring that only babies that can eat
grains with no ill effects will be produced. I don't
see this happening. Since the diseases of modern
civilization seldom kill those that are too young to
have children, we will adapt at a far slower rate, if
at all (unlike the birds given in a previous example).

I know this is simplistic - my mind is not as fine as
many of yours. However, it might be something to think
about.

Jen in NC

--- Ken Engelhart <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think that it does make sense to apply a
> non-uniform standard of evidence.
> An short article last year in Skeptic magazine
> commented on the difficulty
> in doing studies to determine what is good to eat.
> The author suggested
> that it may be several generations before we have
> all the answers.  My
> reaction to the article was: "Well what are we
> supposed to eat in the
> meantime?"  I think the Paleo diet gives us a "null
> hypothesis" that we can
> start with.  Studies that encourage us to eat
> non-Paleo foods should be met
> with extreme skepticism.  As Carl Sagan said,
> extraordinary claims require
> extraordinary proof.  If that is proof is
> forthcoming, start eating.  ( I
> for example have convinced myself that red wine has
> passed the test.   But
> maybe I lowered the standard.)  Similarly, studies
> that show that paleo
> foods are bad to eat should be met with skepticism.
> But again, given
> sufficient proof we should not eat those foods. Ken
> ----- Original Message ----- >
> > Perhaps, on the other hand, we should simply
> accept or reject foods on
> > the basis of known health problems.  If so, then
> we would have to
> > include so-called paleo foods in our scrutiny, and
> in particular we
> > would have to apply something like a uniform
> standard of evidence.  That
> > is, it would make no sense to accept uncritically
> any study that appears
> > to validate the food choices that we have already
> decided are paleo, but
> > then become arch-skeptics of studies that appear
> to contradict them.
> >
> > Todd Moody
> > [log in to unmask]


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/