>>I suspect Middle Easterners tolerate grains a lot better than Northern
Europeans do, for that reason. I would love to see a real study done on
this.<<

According to Cordain in an article called, "Cereal Grains: Humanity's
Double-edged Sword", you 
are exactly on the money. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you
will find this article 
and many other good ones at:

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles.htm

The problem is, what Cordain seems to suggest in this article is that the
reason why Middle 
Eastern peoples tend to have lower rates of Celiac disease (linked
definitively to grain 
consumption) than Northern Europeans is because those who were more
susceptible have been 
selected out, i.e. DIED, leaving those with stronger resistance as a higher
percentage of the 
population.

This would seem to be evidence of evolution at work. However, I'm not sure I
want to play along 
so willingly in the "self=selection" game. I don't know if Cordain's research
went beyond 
studying the incidence of Celiac disease, though.

Thanks for all the responses, folks.

Mike W.


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