On Monday, September 29, 2003, at 01:52  AM, Rundle wrote:

> I agree Erik that gene interpretation is more significant, [the name
> is Dedy BTW, Rundle being our surname].
>
> this however takes me to my next 'bee' under the bonnet [no honey
> there I'm afraid]... recently, some people on the list have express
> 'worries' that we shouldn't eat 'new world' produce as in tomatoes,
> peppers, avocados, chillies etc. because *we* [who's that?] haven't
> had enough evolutionary time to adapt to those.... by the same token
> hardly any of us not indigenous to the tropics should eat coconut and
> it's products, palm oil, tropical fruits etc.... no one but some
> Chinese people should eat citrus fruit or many other fruits commonly
> now grown all over the world which originated in china... similar
> restrictions would be placed on kiwi fruits....
>
> of course the 'gene interpretation'  of paleo nutrition would provide
> the answer here too... guess it's the whiff of faith/dogma from some
> quarters that gets my 'bees' buzzing...
>

Ha Ha! Certainly! We have to take a great deal on faith. But, most of
us have personal experience that helps too. I feel much better on an
everyday basis since going paleo, though I don't notice much
improvement over the Atkins approach, to tell the truth. We have a few
logical guidelines, but in the real world they don't go far enough to
answer every question, thus the recurring debates over salt, flaxseed
oil, milk or whatever. The basics are easy, it is the stuff at the
margins that is fun to discuss.

By the way, your list of questionable foods, new world stuff, citrus,
kiwi, all these are things I have to limit now, because they give me
heartburn! Plus non-paleo things like coffee (the worst!), chocolate,
tea (not really paleo I don't think, ever try to eat a tea leaf? I
have. Yuck.) macadamia nuts and peanuts. None of these foods were
either African or European until recent times. Could be that for east
Asians or Australians these foods are fine. They were fine for me too
until I started to overeat them. As for coconuts, well, all of us have
our roots in tropical countries. I suspect there are lots of African
foods we are well adapted to that we don't eat any more. Maybe 40000
years is long enough to lose that adaptation, maybe not. Coconut is one
of those foods lots of people seem to be allergic to.