On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 19:52 theta sigma wrote:

>H James Rhodes wrote:
>
>> I've been worried
>> that maybe I was sabotaging my diet that
>> way but at least it seems that
>> coffee may be a paleofood.
>>
>Whoa - I guess that depends on how you consume the coffee.  If you use
>roasted beans and then brew the beans then it probably isn't Paleo - at
>least I would't think so.  Chewing the raw bean (and they are available
>at specialized coffee shops) should be Paleo though.

Two observations:

1.  Whether a particular food was consumed by some of our ancestors in
some regions does not necessarily make it 'Paleo'.  The point is whether
consumption (or avoidance) of that food contributed (or detracted from)
their survival through natural selection.  I leave it to you to judge for
yourselves if coffee was consumed in quantities sufficient to have an
effect upon survival.

2.  Tamir Katz, in his great book, writes:

"... several studies have shown that unfiltered coffee raises cholesterol
levels (mostly the LDL) because of a certain oil in the coffee beans..."

Tamir's reference for this appears to be a 2001 paper "Coffee Consumption
and Serum Lipids..."in the American Journal of Edidemiology (vol 153, pp
353-62) by S A Jee.

Can I take this opportunity to recommend Tamir's book, available through
his website:

http://www.tbkfitness.org/

It's a rewarding guide to Paleo eating, Paleo exercise and Paleo life
generally and it totally lacks both (a) the macho bias and (b) the
dogmatism of some approaches to this bunch if issues.

Keith