To be fair - it is food - it's just food of last resort - where the benefit (calories) and the problems (as described in Taubes' book) come concurrently.  It's not difficult to imagine any of our ancestors consuming the seeds of wild grasses, beans etc. if they were hungry enough. (Just as bears or even wolves will do when their natural food selection is severely diminished).  But the key is "hungry enough."  
   
  When people promote whole grains etc. as being healthy, they really have a misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of the human animal - that our species are not designed to eat this food, even if we can consume this food and derive calories from it.
   
  The real threats to society are the animal rights groups.  In the US groups like PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine - set up by PeTA to be the "scientific/medical" voice of the animal rights movement).  PCRM's Director - Neal Barnard, MD (a psychiatrist) has written diet books including one to prevent breast cancer all extolling the virtues of a vegan diet.  He's been in major newsmagazines and was even on NBC's Today Show (a morning show viewed by 20-30 million everyday)  promoting his books and his ideas as a "medical" expert.  
   
  I was surprised that Taubes' did not write about this aspect of the misrepresentation of dietary science.  These groups have profound influence on the dietary habits of millions of people - not to the extent of the USDA and AHA etc. - but a profound effect nonetheless.
   
  gale
  

william <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  Joseph Berne wrote:
> All living things contain proteins. Proteins are long molecules made of
> amino acids, the way a lego pirate ship is made out of lego building
> blocks. The amino acids are the blocks. Amino acids come in different
> types, some of which we can manufacture in our bodies (the non-essential
> ones) from other amino acids and some of which we can't (the essential
> ones).
>
> Not all proteins have every type of building block, which is how you get the
> so-called "incomplete" proteins - they are missing some of the essential
> amino acids, so you can't get all the building blocks you need by ingesting
> those proteins.
>
> 
Like some boats don't have all the hull needed to keep the water out.
I'm not buying such a boat, nor the argument that a useless collection 
of amino acids qualifies as protein.
This is after all the paleoFOOD list, and if it ain't food, it's a 
veggie plot.

William



       
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