At 16:59 1999-10-31 +1100, Ben wrote:
>Considering the world's problems is a heavy task. It's dreadful to see what
>people do to each other. Diet may be responsible for a lot of it. I draw the
>distinction between antisocial and delinquent behaviours which seem to
>benefit no-one, as opposed to war like tendencies between tribes on a
>territorial basis which may be more "normal" evolutionarily.

There is a good explanation, with diet as an indirect factor.
The original foraging way of life meant that You would eat Your food
within a few days, share with the band, and go get more from mother
nature when needed. No storing. Equality. No power hierarchy.
Once You need to store food, there will be someone who stores more, or
manages the storing ("Kings and Cannibals"), and so there is a power
hierarchy, greed and other things. This is the first step, and is
typical for american west coast indian cultures depending on salmon.
The second step is when _grains_ become a staple food, as they are not
only storable but also transportable. This means that "grain-based"
cultures can suppress other cultures by the means of big wars far
away, and also concer others food stores.
All this is the base for a severe change of our minds.
(Read http://www.algonet.se/~hans-k/eMKochE.html to understand.)
This change of mind is the reason why everybody has narcissistic hurts,
which we individually handle in different ways, some people doing
dreadful things to each other.
So grains are not a double edged sword, they are much worse than that...

- Hans