On Tue, 14 May 2002, Tom Bridgeland wrote:

> Dry beans start showing up in the caves and shelters of paleo man just
> before they became neolithic man. Green legumes would not survive to
> today in the record, but we can be fairly sure that dried/mature beans
> were not a big part of the paleo diet.

That's right, but the difference between the mature and immature
legumes is the *concentration* of toxic or inedible substances,
not their absolute presence or absence.  And, as Annette Stahl
points out in Hominid Dietary Selection Before Fire, the same is
true of many other plant foods.  The difference between that
which is edible and that which is inedible is the concentration
of "secondary compounds," i.e., toxins and antinutrients.  These
secondary compounds are found in many so-called paleo foods as
well.

So, when we cook mature beans we reduce the level of secondary
compounds to something comparable to that of the immature beans.

Todd Moody
[log in to unmask]