At 07:13 PM 4/27/97 +0200, you wrote:
Good comments, Jean-Louis...

>Maybe we have partially adapted to grains, but starch is not the whole
>thing (similarly, lactose doesn't solve the problem of milk). There
>are enough gluten intolerants to at least prove that bread is not
>good for everyone.

That is surely true, but a great deal less frenziedly prohibitive than some
caveats I have read here. I am coming to believe taht these foods should be
considered as possible
causes of some health problems of some people--but I balk at the statement
that they cause all disease in all people because of underlying genetics.
This seems too broad, too frightening, considering the dependence of a huge
% of the population upon cheap grain and powdered milk. Been there---done
that---

>>But there are perhaps a billion healthy Asian's whose
>>diet includes a great % of calories from wholegrain cooked rice.

>Let me add a few comments:
>1) wheat is probably worse than rice

Accepted. The allergic segment is put on rice alone for three weeks and then
foods added one by one to determine thier sensitivity.

>2) rice is usually boiled, whereas the temperatures used for bread are
>much higher.

Oh-ho, I hadn't thought of that, very interesting! It is certain that the B
vitamins are heat labile. Good grief, thanks, that makes beautiful sense.

>3) Most asians eat white rice

Sure? Or hypothesis? Our cookbooks always show white in recipe pictures,
but-----I'm from Missouri!! If YOU ate rice, would you choose white or brown?

>4) Those who eat wholegrain rice are generally among the poorest, so
>they probably do not thrive on their diet (lack of diversity)

I accept possibly, but not probably (without more statistics---I'm so hard
to please, aren't I?)my understanding is that the less affluent cultivate
their own gardens,as do the french; and they fish.

Pat