Marilyn Harris wrote:
> I wonder though, if rejecting his advice altogether because he 
> suggests to use Green Drinks (among other foods), is like throwing the 
> baby out with the bath water?
> 

I agree it would be and I wouldn't do that. I just thought it would be
helpful to reveal that the book and product are not Paleo to avoid possible
confusion, given that this is a forum dedicated to the Paleo diet.

> I would agree with you that the powdered Greens drink may not
> be of much help (at least in the prevention of cancer - a 
> book I read during the 
> summer:
> (http://www.amazon.com/Foods-That-Fight-Cancer-Preventing/dp/0
> 771011350/sr=8-1/qid=1167782589/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-2222461-92
> 58805?ie=UTF8&s=books) 
> states that powdered greens are of no use for the prevention 
> of cancers since they do not retain certain effective 
> cancer-fighting phytochemicals). *If* I recall correctly 
> (going by memory).
> 

That book looks interesting. It appears that most or all of the foods that
Beliveau and Gingras say fight cancer are Paleo.

How To Fight Cancer With Food
by Dr. W. Gifford Jones
Sunday, August 20, 2006 
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/health082006.htm

<<...Beliveau and Gingras say that there are a variety of foods that contain
cancer-fighting molecules. In particular, phytochemicals in fruits and
vegetables have powerful anti-cancer activity. But not all fruits and
vegetables are created equal.

For instance, turnips, tomatoes, grapes, broccoli and cranberries contain
anti-cancer molecules, but garlic tops them all.>>

> However if they still provide a supply of vitamin K (is it 
> Vit K that he cites as the active ingredient that helps 
> calcium deposition?), 

It is one factor that improves calcium absorption, which should reduce
calcium deposition and formation of calcium placques. I would think that
species appropriate food sources of vitamin K and vitamin K supplements
would be better (and cheaper) sources of vitamin K than grass powders.
Deficiency of vitamin K can lead to easy bruising. Changing to a Paleo diet
and taking vitamin K supplements for a while eliminated that symptom for me.

> Beliveau's book along with that vegetarian website (that 
> Philip posted) gives me a sense that plants do play a *very* 
> important role in maintaining 
> good health.
> 
> I think we are, firstly, physiologically adapted to an 
> omniverous diet with the larger emphasis on consuming 
> vegetable matter, and sociologically 
> adapted to hunting (as a learned behaviour).
> 
> Marilyn

How ironic :-). I felt sure that a vegetarian article that acknowledges the
role of hunting and meat eating in human history and biology would, combined
with the reams of other evidence, convince most people that wild meats and
seafood are at least as important as, if not more so than, plant foods in
maintaining good health (the issue gets cloudier when the meats and seafood
are commercial rather than wild or fed naturally). It was refreshing to see
some vegetarians acknowledge the important role of meats, even though they
maintain that meats should form a smaller part of the diet than plant foods.
If they are pure vegetarians in spite of recognizing the place of meats in
human history then I would have to guess that their reasons for their
vegetarianism have more to do with (misguided but well-intentioned) ethical
or environmental concerns.

My cousing developed type 1 diabetes in his 30's some years after adopting a
vegetarian diet. His son developed type 1 at age 3, having been fed a
near-vegetarian diet (with some fish) from conception. Ray Audette's reports
his type 1 went into complete remission after switching to a Paleo diet.

A 2005 study has shown that a raw food vegetarian diet is associated with a
lower bone density. (Fontana L, Shew JL, Holloszy JO, Villareal DT. Low bone
mass in subjects on a long-term raw vegetarian diet. Arch Intern Med. 2005
Mar 28;165(6):684-9. PMID 15795346)

Marilyn Harris wrote:
> Bears eat grasses and they are certainly not ruminants.
> However I believe 
> they eat the very tender young sedges that come up in the 
> spring mostly. 

Interesting factoid, Marilyn. Thanks. 

> We
> can eat these too probably -  if we really needed to (in lean times).
> 

Sounds plausible to me, and I did mention that grasses could have been
starvation or supplement foods for ancient humans, I just haven't seen any
evidence for this.