>Good points. I am interested in the ones that WERE eaten.

It would be interesting to know, but unlikely that we will find out. Based
on reports on modern hunter/gatherer diets and most especially how they eat
(on-the-spot for most gathered foods, including small animals and insects,
only the largest and most prized being taken back, shared and thus deposited
in any quantity or with any truly identifying marks), I infer that an
accurate picture of a truly "paleo" diet is extremely difficult or
impossible to find.
On the other hand, as mentioned above, there are still modern
hunter/gatherers. I doubt very much that they are, aside from minor local
variations and a few extreme cases, significantly different in diet from
our/their ancestors.

>Foods that it may be perfectly fine to eat occasionally, have become
>daily staples, so whatever negatives become amplified. I don't doubt
>our paleo ancestors ate the occasional toasted grain, and that it had
>no negative effect, because they just didn't do it all year long, every
>meal.

Agreed.

>People who argue for an all-raw diet I think are slightly off base. We
>have come a long way from the all-raw days. We can do that now mainly
>because we have lots of domesticated plants that have had their
>defenses artificially reduced to the point that we can stand them. It
>is an odd evolutionary path. The all raw meat eaters may be closer to
>the point.

On the other hand, most of our domesticated food plants have been selected
from palatable and less/non-toxic wild varieties or species. Wild animals
also prefer the less toxic/more tasty ones, and modern practices of picking
varieties and stages of maturity that keep their shape, attractive color,
and don't rot as quickly may be selecting for more toxicity.
As far as cooking goes, it may be one of those adaptations that has little
effect on the individual, but when applied over a wide area greatly
increases survivability of the species. In this case, perhaps by generally
increasing the possible sources of nutrition, which may outweigh the
drawbacks of increased toxicity in the diet and ill-adaptation to some forms
of nutrition (such as inulin, which is indigestible raw but partially
converts on long, slow cooking to fructose) just by increasing the overall
population.

Ellie

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