>I think if you will check a seed catalog you will find mulberries listed as
>an ornamental and not as a food item.  I'm not saying they are not edible,
>its just that they are small.  I cant remember ever eating one of them.

Mulberries grow on trees. There is an ornamental variety which has been
selectively bred to not produce mature berries. However, fruited mulberry
trees do exist and I find the berries quite tasty and abundant. The ones
I've eaten were a whitish-purple and about the size of two joints of my
little finger. Unless they are pruned, mulberries make a thicket with many
low-growing branches, which makes for easy picking. The mulberry tree is a
very vigorous grower, almost like a vine in terms of how quickly it grows.
I think it's a virtual certainty that berries of various kinds were an
important part of paleo diets in areas where berries grow. As an aside,
mulberry trees have been deemed illegal in our city because many people are
allergic to their pollen.

As for Diane's position, I think it's useful to divide food into three
categories. I'm ignoring here the ebb and flow of liver glycogen which
occurs from one feeding to the next.

Level One consists of the essential nutrients we need to operate and repair
our bodies. This includes the essential fatty and amino acids as well as
various vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients. Sadly, many (if not
most) modern diets are significantly deficient in these essential nutrients.

Level Two consists of the additional calories we need to burn for fuel. In
some ways it doesn't matter whether these calories come from carbs, fat, or
protein, although the oxidation of protein does produce nitrogen compounds
which must be eliminated. This is the area where all the disagreement seems
to be among the various diet theories. A fat-loss diet must by definition
be deficient in this area so that the fuel calories will be taken from
stored fat.

Level Three is those calories which we take in that are in excess of our
needs. Ultimately these all get stored as fats, regardless of whether they
are originally carbs, fats, or proteins. Excess proteins become carbs and
excess carbs become saturated fats. Fats which are ingested generally
retain their form.

If you think about it in this way the arguments about whether the Level Two
foods should be carbs or fats seems to lose its importance. I think the
answer is "either."