On Fri, 9 Dec 2005 9:16 am, Phil wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:56:23 -0500, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> The dietary picture is a complicated one, not cut and dried, but I
> think
> the basic underlying model of Paleolithic nutrition is sound--that the
> optimal diet contains the types of foods that humans
> generally ate for the
> last 2.5 million years, and especially at around 100,000 years ago,
> rather
> than the agrarian and processed foods of the last ten to twenty
> thousand
> years.

I agree, but I'd want to pay special attention to 300,000 - 200,000
years ago, since that's when anatomically modern humans showed up.

> Would they have
> developed their food allergies at all if their mothers hadn't been
> consuming modern foods during pregnancy and they hadn't eaten modern
> foods
> during childhood? How common are food allergies among hunter gatherers
> today?

I have no idea but I suspect that eating wrong foods in infancy
increases vulnerability to these things.  Just my suspicion.

> Even the comparatively peaceful Bonobo monkeys eat "termites, ants,
> worms,
> small reptiles and squirrels." If chimps and Bonobos can hunt and eat
> small animals, than surely early humans could do the same and more.

Gorillas are often cited as vegetarian apes, but they too consume
insects, etc.  And anyone who thinks that the gorilla's diet is a model
for humans should try eating pound after pound of lettuce, cabbage,
celery, and little else for a few weeks.

> Do you
> have information that indicates that all or most wild grains were
> widespread across the globe from the beginning?

Well, I know that today oats are very hardy and grow in many many
places.  I don't know how it might have been in paleolithic times.

> Maybe the most salient
> question is, what percenta
> ge of the diet did grains fill for most Stone
> Agers?

Probably about as small a percentage as berries, and for the same
reasons.

Todd Moody
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