On Fri, 2 Jan 1998, Jean-Louis Tu wrote:

> On the other hand, if you cook to make "edible the inedible",
> you will introduce some "alien proteins" that humans are not
> genetically adapted to. Potatoes, for instance, are toxic in
> their raw state and couldn't have been consumed by early
> hominids.

I understand, but here is my problem.  What makes proteins
"alien" is the supposed fact that we have not had time to adapt
to them.  If simply soaking beans makes them edible, then it
would seem that we *have* had time to adapt to them, since
soaking can be accomplished at paleolithic technology levels.

> Pemmican shouldn't be toxic, since the raw components it is
> made of are edible in their raw state, so eating pemmican
> doesn't introduce alien proteins. On the other hand, cooked
> potatoes are considered as toxic since they contain som alien
> proteins.

I agree that pemmican is probably not toxic, although I'm not at
all sure how edible raw suet is.  Not to quibble about the
meaning of toxicity, I think we can agree that there are factors
other that alien proteins that can make foods problematic.  As
John Pavao and others have mentioned, modern cultivated fruits
have been bred for higher sugar content than their wild
counterparts, and this unnatural *concentration* of sugar can
cause problems unrelated to alien proteins.

If the sugar is unnaturally concentrated in a supermarket apple,
then surely so is the rendered fat in pemmican.  For that matter,
the apple juice concentrate listed as an ingredient in
Neanderthin barbecue sauce (p. 105) must also be regarded as
unnaturally concentrated, and far more so than the modern apples
from which it was made.

> I think that beans, at least the edible short sprouts, are not harmful when
> ingested in small quantities. Obviously, a paleo-fooder shouldn't consume them
> every day.

This seems reasonable, and as you say some are more edible than
others.  I used to enjoy Lupini beans, which seems to be mainly
an Italian specialty, at least here in the US.  These are picked
young, soaked, and sold in brine.  You have to rinse them to
eliminate the saltiness, but they are very tasty, and contain
about equal parts protein and carbohydrate.  If you want to avoid
the phytates in the skin, it is possible to nip them with your
teeth and then squeeze the bean right out of the skin into your
mouth, leaving the skin between your fingers.

Todd Moody
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