On Fri, 16 Jul 1999, Ben Balzer wrote:

> Simply stated, paleolithic diet classes are fruit, edible leaves (eg
> lettuce), edible roots, berries, meat and fish.

This class approach is an interesting variation on the paleodiet
idea.

> Now,
> I know some people express the opinion that nuts are protected by a hard
> shell and therefore don't need toxins to protect them- I tend to disagree
> and think that people eating paleo for treatment of disease (eg arthritis,
> autoimmune disease) should consider giving nuts the flick until they are
> stabilised and only reintroduce them cautiously and furtively.

But we have absolutely no reason to doubt that paleolithic humans
ate nuts.  Your reasons for treating them with suspicion have
nothing to do with the dietary choices of those humans.  If the
idea of the paleolithic diet is to eat what paleolithic humans
ate, then the diet should include nuts and seeds of various
sorts.

I don't deny that there might be reasons for some people to avoid
these foods, but these reasons should be seen as *overriding*
paleodiet principles, not as implementing them.

> Grains/cereals/ beans all contain toxins and are inedible raw. Cooking
> renders them edible. In the view of paleodoods, they are still not good for
> you.

Beans in the immature state are edible raw.  Peanuts are edible
raw.  Some grains are edible raw in the "green" state.  Grains
can be made edible by sprouting, a procedure available to humans
with only "sharp stick" level technology.  Some beans, such as
lentils, can be made edible by soaking, which involves
essentially the same low-level technology, i.e., an animal
bladder to hold water and the stuff being sprouted or soaked.

> I propose that phylogenic/ class effects of foods are more important than if
> they're New World or Old World.

But it is certain that phylogenic considerations were irrelevant
to paleolithic people.  Isn't it odd to say that we can eat
tomatoes but not lentils, when tomatoes were definitely not there
for our paleolithic ancestors to eat, but lentils grew wild in
the Fertile Crescent and could be made edible by the relatively
trivial process of soaking?

Todd Moody
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