Cow's milk is designed for the digestive system of an herbivorous
animal. The proteins in cow's milk are not recognizable by the human
immune system as a part of the body's natural diet. By definition, this
means that consumption of milk causes a confused immune response in your
body, in which the immune response succeeds in attacking both the alien
milk proteins and your body's own tissues-- the classic definition of an
autoimmune disorder. The only milk fit for human consumption is human
milk.

If you don't understand the connection between a natural diet and the
immune system, you've missed the most basic idea of Paleolithic
nutrition. Forget nutritional analysis (fat, protein, carbohydrate,
vitamin, mineral content) for a minute. Whether a food is meant for
human consumption or not is solely determined by whether that food is
edible without the intervention of technology (i.e., whether eating it
causes the body to attack itself). In the case of cow's milk,
domestication (one of the earliest manipulations by man of his
environment, and, thus, a technology) is required. Try milking a wild
buffalo without a tranquilizer gun.

A Brazil nut or its wild equivalent meets the sole criterion for human
food: It's edible when you're naked with a sharp stick. Thus, eating it
won't cause your body to attack itself.

Troy Gilchrist <[log in to unmask]>
Co-author, NEANDERTHIN: A CAVEMAN'S GUIDE TO NUTRITION


Gary Jackson wrote:

> What is paleo?  Paleo must be whatever is the correct food for our health.
> I believe we have to constantly challenge our preconceptions. While it is
> very likely that dairy was never consumed in the paleo diet, it is equally
> unlikely that a brazil nut was. The argument that the brazil nut is close
> enough nutritionally to other nuts can be countered with the argument that
> human milk contains lactose and casein and is therefore close enough to
> cows milk.