At 07:38 PM 05/22/2000 +1000, you wrote:
>Eric,
>Potatoes are Not paleo. Most people are going for a low-carb paleo diet,
>especially if they wish to lose weight (as it gives lower insulin levels
>therefore assisting fat burning), but it is quite OK to have a normal carb
>paleo diet and indeed the original paleo diets of Boyd Eaton etc were fairly
>high in carbs, but NEVER potatoes.
>Above all, paleo diet is about low levels of toxins or antinutrients (same
>thing). Potatoes are very high in the types of antinutrients found in wheat
>and beans (enzyme blockers, lectins) which are mostly destroyed by heat, but
>they also contain glycoalkaloids (GA) eg solenine that ARE NOT affected by
>heat, even deep frying. Yes, solanine gets very high in bruised, cut or
>green potatoes. There are a least 30 medically proven cases of people dying
>from eating raw potato, according to Loren Cordain. So, of grain, beans,
>potatoes, potatoes are the most toxic, especially after cooking, IMHO. (that
>just leaves dairy products and sugar from Ray's hit list (and salt should be
>on that list too)).
>POTATOES ARE THE WORST POSSIBLE CHEAT on a paleodiet. They are the poxiest
>vegetable of all- and are so marginal they barely rate as edible even after
>cooking. The only vegetable I know of that is worse is the chickling pea
>that certain peoples eat if they're near starvation, and causes lathyrism, a
>devastating neurological illness. (not chick pea). Hey, but then they cook
>the potatoes in high-trans-fat oils- what a health disaster! Potatoes also
>have a high glycemic index....
> Remember, Neolithic
>foods are just cheap tummy filler that people came up with when times were
>tough. They are marginal, second-class foods that aren't specified in our
>genome. Paleo foods are all first class foods that are specified in our
>genome and therefore are easily processed (without causing diabetes) give us
>the full range of micronutrients and, above all, are lacking in toxins.
>Ben Balzer

        I often have a great resistance to patients dropping potatoes from their
diets even after explaining the above info. They seem to have this romance
with their ancestry about potatoes being a staple in their diets. It comes
as no surprise that they have much the same ancestors as myself: Scottish,
Irish, and Russian. All famine plagued countries!

Dave