Ward Nicholson wrote:
>Recently I was talking privately with a Paleodiet
>researcher (who may or may not be on this list yet, I don't know), who said
>the often-cited estimate of a ratio of 65% plant/35% animal foods for
>humans during Paleolithic times has turned out to have been based on
>mistabulated ethnographic data.

This is a very important debate for all of us in order to know whether there
is evidence of an optimal balance of macronutrients (carbohydrate, fat and
protein) for humans.

Let us start with asking what edible items were found in the African
savanna, items which all contemporary humans are expected to be adapted to.
How much vegetable foods were available? I fear that we may only be able to
get learned guesses even from quarternary biologists and
paleoclimatologists (do we have any on this list?) but I am not sure.
Incidentally I asked one today and I will forward the question to a couple
of more of them (Raymonde Bonnefille, Rachid Cheddadi, Daniel Livingstone
and Jim Ritchie; Any other suggestions?).

It has been put forward e.g. by Brand Miller (Brand Miller JC, Colagiuri S.
The carnivore connection: dietary carbohydrate in the evolution of NIDDM.
Diabetologia 1994; 37: 1280-6) that human diet was low in carbohydrate from
the time of H. habilis up to sapiens leaving Africa, allegedly because dry
climates during the Ice Ages would result in grasslands being the main
edible plants instead of roots and fruits.

I know at least two subscribers to our list who have well founded opinions
on this matter: Loren Cordain and John Allen. I hope both will give us
their view.

Staffan Lindeberg