Very interesting,
I was coming to similar conclusions- that morning sickness" represented a
heightened sensitivity and rejection/ avoidance of plat-food- toxins. This
is a very logical and sensible basis for such a phenomenon.

I too have an interest in plant food toxins. I was amazed that the vast
MAJORITY of these toxins are in NEOLITHIC foods- Paleofoods have the least
amount. Books on plant toxins read like they're written by paleodoods and
they're not!!! This provides the basis for the strength of my belief in
paleodiets.Cauliflower and Broccoli have always worried me as they are
obviously seed filled flowering heads.(are they paleo?).

Consider this- paleofoods are virtually all edible raw. (note that they may
have small amounts of toxins- some of which ARE destroyed by cooking, and
some that ARE NOT destroyed by cooking).
Now, NEOLITHIC foods are INEDIBLE raw- why so?- because of food toxins-
fairly obvious as if they didn't have toxins then we could eat them raw.

So, as well as looking at paleo from the historical point of view (ie "they
did it way back when so it must be good"), I look at it from the toxin
viewpoint.

There are whole families of toxins- as well as Thiocyanates, more common are
Protease inhibitors and Haemagglutins which are very high in grains. There
are some other families.

Most of these toxins have a role as natural insecticides or natural
preservatives (remember that the wheat in King Tut's tomb still grew
thousands of years later). These are the most POTENT enzyme inhibitors
known. Many of them are destroyed by heat and therefore cooking makes the
food edible- however a fair amount is heat-stable and therefore still
persists in the cooked food. I believe that many of these toxins are
responsible for Neolithic disease. They also interfere with digestive
enzymes markedly, etc.. I'm sure this paragraph agrees with Ray Audette's
views espoused in Neanderthin (but I don't want to put words in his mouth).
Which foods contain the most toxins (or antinutrients as they're called
sometimes)?- potatoes, soy then followed by grains.

I reason that nature would also put these toxins into the skins of fruit and
vegetables and therefore I now peel all my fruit and veges (that also
reduces my exposure to chemical spray. I don't have any facts on the actual
content of skins for toxins- it's simpler to peel my apples than to find
out, and the sprays make it a moot point anyway.

So, if I was pregnant and looking to treat morning sickness by avoiding
toxins, I would pursue a paleodiet, with cooking allowed, and with all fruit
and vegetables peeled. the beauty of this is that paleofoods are very high
in folic acid which is great for pregnancy. Also, Neolithic foods are fairly
empty calories- paleofoods have a high nutrient density (vitamins per
calorie).  It's probably worth a try. However if the carbohydrate intake is
too low, then one is forced to add in some Neolithic foods (boiled rice
would probably be preferable to wheat based products as rice has less
antinutrients I think)(any comments?)( do Asian women get less morning
sickness?).

I think she's on to something. Unfortunately, I disagree with Proser's
conclusion to eat grains etc. I'd be interested to take this up with her
(perhaps if someone has her details, we could invite her to talk about this
on this group).(Can't find her email address on the search engines).

Ben Balzer



----- Original Message -----
From: Hans Kylberg <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 1999 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: [P-F] Pregnant Wife


> Good article:
> http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/profet2.html
>
> - Hans