> Paleo Phil wrote:
...
> > Do you know why Cordain and Audette consider nightshades Paleo?
> >

Todd:
> A further fact is that tomatoes and many peppers (including bell
> peppers) at least are New World foods, and so didn't enter the human 
> diet until the Americas were inhabited--and didn't enter the European 
> diet until a few centuries ago.

Yes, but like I mentioned, winter squash and avocado also are New World
American, as is turkey, and these are fine. I think the New World factor is
a minor one that can provide hints, but nothing conclusive.

Todd:
> I'm not sure what Cordain says about
> it, but Ray Audette basically takes the view that they pass the "sharp 
> stick" test, and so are paleo.  This, of course, gets it backwards, 
> since the sharp stick test is supposed to give an idea of what paleo 
> people might have eaten, but shouldn't trump other information that 
> tells us what they couldn't have eaten.

If they were toxic enough to make people mildly ill in a period of days or
hours in their original wild, raw form before being detoxified through
selection by farmers over many years then they wouldn't pass the sharp stick
test, right? That seems to be the question.

Todd:
> My suspicion is that both
> authors allow these foods because tomatoes and peppers are low in 
> carbs and are used in many recipes.  To forbid them would make the 
> diet more fanatically restrictive than it already is, and few would follow
it.

An interesting hypothesis, but I don't find it entirely convincing, since
Cordain has yams on his forbidden list while telling people when questioned
that they're not that bad (though he might theoretically do that to remain
consistent on starch), and since Cordain seems honest and willing to correct
mistakes, given that he admitted his error on cooking with flaxseed oil.
Audette is, if anything a purist, so it doesn't seem likely for him either.

Robert Kesterson:
> I'd never heard that about tomatoes.  The *plant* (leaves, stems, roots)
is toxic, but the fruit isn't.  As far as I know, the selective breeding
that has been done on tomatoes was to increase the size and number or
variety of fruits, not to detoxify.

Me neither, and a search turned up nothing about it beyond what you said,
though potatoes, maize, wheat and other foods have been reported to have had
their antinutrients reduced over the years by selecting for less toxic
varieties.