At 11:30 PM 3/16/03 -0500, Ray A wrote:

<snip>
We evolved eating certain plants, and I think that these are
>generally "safe" from a paleo perspective. Basically, any "old world" (not
>from the Americas) plant edible raw is okay. Also, I think that plants
>such as broccoli bred from other plants that we can eat (broccoli was bred
>from cabbage) are probably quite safe to eat.


My understanding is that all the members of the cole/cabbage family contain
anti-thyroid chemicals.  If a person has an underactive thyroid, it is
important to eat these cooked or not at all.  I like broccoli, and for
awhile, I was peeling the stem and eating it raw.  It has a sweetish taste,
not what I expected at all.  Not too long into this, I started to feel not
up to snuff.  Then I was reminded about eating coles raw, stopped eating
the stem and just ate the tops steamed.  Pretty soon I was back to my
normal.  My blood work comes back low normal for thyroid, so it is not
strong, and just  two raw broccoli stems a week did it in. I hope anyone
else with borderline or full-blown hypothroidism will keep this in mind.

Jane
Southern Arizona