On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, judy genova wrote:

> But back to amaranth.  We have a noxious weed in our area called pigweed or
> red root.  It literally takes over the garden.  Years ago, I recall someone
> telling me that it was also called amaranth.  It would produce a bushy red
> seed head at maturity.  I assume that is where all the tiny amaranth seeds
> were located.  I imagine if one were to collect those heads, and shake them,
> voila, amaranth seeds!!!  So why wouldn't it be paleo?
>
> I guess I am going in circles here, so could  someone out there help me stop
> spinning...

Welcome to the paleo Twilight Zone.  We have these various rules
by which we determine what is paleo and what isn't.  One rule is
"no grains," and another rule is "you can eat anything that is
edible raw."  And the Master Rule is supposed to be: "Eat only
what our paleolithic ancestors ate."

The problems is that these rules individually give inconsistent
results.  Example: tomatoes are edible raw and are not grains,
but our paleolithic ancestors didn't eat them (because they are
New World foods).  Or: oats are edible raw but are grains as
well.  As for the Master Rule of eating only what our paleolithic
ancestors ate, the problem is that we don't know in detail what
they ate, and probably never will.  Hence the "edible raw" rule
is supposed to tell us what they *could have* eaten, but it
doesn't tell us whether they actually did.  Again, since oats
grow everywhere and are edible raw, our paleo ancestors could
have eaten them.  But did they?

So amaranth is another food that gets a mixed result from the
rules.  It's not technically a grain, and may be edible raw.  But
since it's from a New World plant, it wasn't available to
paleolithic people.

So flip a coin, I guess.

Todd Moody
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