Sheryl Canter wrote:

I hadn't heard about the "new world foods" thing.  What makes these "new
world"?  I love tomatoes and peppers--I eat them all the time, and they are
growing in my garden.  What is wrong with these foods?  They are all
nightshade family, but they are not poisonous.  I eat tomatoes and peppers
raw.  (I'm also a chocolate fanatic, though I recognize I will have to give
that up.)

foods that come from the "New World", introduced from the time of Columbus.
Many of us have not had very long to genetically adapt. Foods often in the
Nightshade family, have alkaloids in them that are sometimes hard to handle.
They cause me real problems and others too.


<<Don't go too low carb unless that works for you. Paleo does not always
mean
low carb, though it usually means moderate carb compared to SAD.>>

What is "SAD"?  I've been thinking I should go low carb because I've read so
much that says so.  I have a history of bowel problems (ulcerative colitus),
and most nutrition books link this to a diet high in carbohydrates
(especially refined carbohydrates).  I have not been able to find hard
information anywhere on what percent of the paleolithic diet consisted of
carbohydrates.  Does anyone know?

it depends if you eat tubers and fruit which are paleo but may be high carb.


Speaking of carbohydrates, does the paleolithic diet allow any starchy
tubers?  You can't eat white potatoes raw (the eyes are poisonous).  I don't
think you can eat beets raw.  I'm not sure about parsnips or turnips or
sweet
potatoes.  I love roasted roots.  Didn't paleolithic people roast roots in
winter?

you can eat beets raw, and ditto parsnips and turnips, so they are paleo. I
eat them all the time. It is very hard for me and many others to go low carb
and ketogenic, so I now try to eat significant amounts of tubers, carrots,
etc. and get perhaps 70g or so of carbs each day

I've gained 5 pounds recently, much to my distress, and I believe it's from
eating a lot of nuts, which are high in carbs as well as fat. Did
paleolithic people have nuts available to them in significant quantities?
I've been eating lots of almonds. These grow on trees.  Maybe they are hard
to pick?  What about flax seed and sunflower seeds? Flax seed is very
small--smaller than wheat berries and so I'd think it would be difficult to
gather. I've grown sunflowers and hulling the seeds is a pain in the neck.
Maybe it's best to keep nuts and seeds to a minimum? What do you think?


nuts make a lot of people gain weight



I also am wondering about the lacto-fermentation thing. I was eating a lot
of lacto-fermented food--homemade 24-hour yogurt (made from milk hot from
the
cow--I live in rural Vermont), and homemade dill pickles and sauerkraut.
When making the lacto-fermented veggies, I innoculate with some whey
(drained from the yogurt I make) so I don't have to use so much salt. It
seems that all my fermented food is "out" with the paleo diet, but I thought
this was very good for me. How am I going to populate my intestines with
good bugs if I don't eat fermented food? This is of special concern to me
because I have ulcerative colitus. Perhaps the intestinal flora is mainly
for digesting the complex carbs that I'm not supposed to be eating? I don't
know.


I don't know about this, but I avoid dairy completely except for butter and
occasional small quantities of cheese. I would follow medical advice, but I
will say that I have had some intestinal problems that disappear on paleo
and reappear when I cheat.


--Richard