> Paleogal wrote:
> Andrew was known as Phosphor.  I enjoyed his posts.  He was very 
> outspoken. I laughed a lot over his passion.  Another favorite was 
> Jean-Claude.  He was an instincto eater and raw.  Very knowledgeable. 
> [log in to unmask]
> 

Thanks, Paleogal, I found Andrew/Phosphor's posts, but didn't really see
anything that effectively refuted the view held by some that yams were
consumed in significant quantities by Paleolithic people. It looks like
Amadeus and Todd Moody actually had the upper hand in that argument. 

Andrew's best point was probably from Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and
Steel." It discussed the protein deficiencies suffered by the swollen-belly
children of the Tuber Tribes of New Guinea who lack sufficient large game
and therefore depend on yams as their main food. The children are less
capable of dealing with plant anti-nutrients than the adults. These children
show that a protein-deficient diet based largely on yams is not healthy, and
that yams cannot serve as a primary food the way that meat and organs did
for the traditional Greenland Eskimos, but it does not necessarily follow
that Paleolithic people in Africa did not eat yams or that yams cannot play
a role in a healthy diet. It does undermine Wrangham's hypothesis that yams
were the key food that enabled the evolution of the larger-brained homo
erectus.

I am someone who does not eat yams and came to this issue with the view that
yams are not Paleo. I am now beginning to question that, based on what I
have been learning. I am still not convinced that yams are healthy, but it
looks like at least some Paleolithic peoples may have eaten them regularly. 

Could it be that the geographic distribution of yams was too narrow for most
of humanity to adapt to digesting them effectively? When I read about the
origins of yams, I find reference to Guinea, Africa and northern China.
Perhaps yams were not consumed much outside of these regions. If evidence is
found of ancient yam consumption in other areas, that would of course
undermine this hypothesis. 

Yams are certainly not as clearly modern as other starchy tubers like white
potatoes. Even Cordain has admitted that yams are probably not as bad as
most other modern foods. Maybe we will discover in the end that they are
somewhere in between (ie., semi-Paleo--foods humans are partially adapted
to).

> -----Original Message-----
> Tom Bri wrote:
> 
> Ice age Europe, is the one that springs to mind. Evidence of Vitamin D 
> deficiency in leg bones, probably from long winters spent in caves and 
> wrapped up head to toe. I don't know any environment that is not 
> subject to at least occasional food shortages. I imagine ice age 
> Europe had long periods when people were stuck in camp and could not 
> get out to hunt due to the weather.
> 
> I don't keep references, just read a lot and sometimes remember some 
> of the interesting bits. So take it with a grain or two of salt...
> 

There is evidence of underdevelopment (hypoplasia) of tooth enamel
attributed to malnutrition (not lack of sunlight) in Neanderthal remains,
but no specific connection to vitamin D deficiency that I know of. The only
references to vitamin D deficiency in the long bones of Paleolithic peoples
I have seen are the claims by some creationists that Neanderthalers were
actually fully modern humans who happened to have vitamin-D-induced rickets.
These claims were disproved. Could this be what you were thinking of?


Vitamin D deficiency could theoretically have contributed to the enamel
hypoplasia, but then so could have TOO MUCH vitamin D
(http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/1/12). I know
of no evidence supporting either hypothesis.


"the nutritional deficiencies were the main cause of hypoplasia and eventual
tooth loss" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal


<<Claim CC051.1: "Neanderthals were modern humans with rickets." 
www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CC/CC051_1.html

Response:
1. The signs of rickets differ from Neanderthal fossils in several respects,
including the following: 
a. People with rickets are undernourished and calcium-poor; their bones are
weak. Neanderthal bones are fifty percent thicker than the average human's. 
b. Evidence of rickets is easily detectable, especially on the ends of the
long bones of the body. This evidence is not found in Neanderthals. 
c. Rickets causes a sideways curvature of the femur. Neanderthal femurs bend
backward.>>


"Evidence of rickets is easily detectable, especially on the growing ends of
the long bones of the body. Radiology courses routinely teach the symptoms.
It has never (so far as I know) been detected in Neandertals or Homo
erectus." http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/a_neands.html