A
>> The diet consisted of roots, leaves, berries, seeds, nuts,
>>flowers, etc.
>
>Right. But not members of the grass family which didn't exist on earth two
>million years ago.

Grasses were around a lot longer than man.
>
>> The vegitable matter he injested was
>>nothing like the refined domesticated plant foods at the supermarket today,
>>which has been selected for with lower fiber and more sugar and starch and
>>fat in mind.
>
>Generally things are selected to maintain shelf life.

The major changes in our plant foods took place long before supermarkets
demanded longer shelf life.  Our fruits and vegetables evolved with man
since earliest agriculture, just as did pigs and dogs and cows and
chickens.  The wild ancestors of our plant foods, many still can be found,
had much more fiber and much less starch and sugar.
>
>
>But not enough is produced to keep us from getting cavities when we eat
>these foods.

Amylase is not intended to keep cavities from developing.  It enters the
starchy foods in the mouth so that digestion of starches can begin early
and start even as it is in the esophagus and stomach.  Tooth decay has come
as much because our diet is poor in fibrous tough plants as because of
sugar.  People in poor countries that eat huge amounts of whole grain rice
and other grains and lots of unprocessed food have little or no caries,
presumably because their diet is full of fibers that "brush" and "floss"
the teeth.  In dental school we had to buy skulls for study, and these came
from Bangladesh.  These were adults in middle age mostly.  Their teeth had
lots of wear unlike any teeth I see in the US, but there was absolutely no
decay.  We can presume these were no people who ate a lot of meat.  Almost
certainly they got their bulk of calories from grains, probably very
unprocessed, and other rough plant sources.
>

Paul Getty
Morehead City, NC
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