On Jun 19, 2008, at 1:07 pm, Jim Swayze wrote:

> Again, my definition of paleo is that a particular food has to be of  
> a similar *type* as what we consumed for the overwhelming majority  
> of our time here on earth.  That'd be just about any kind of animal  
> and many bugs, lots of fruits and true vegetables, the occasional  
> honey cache.  An American bison is just as paleo then as a native  
> European wild bovine or as an African musk ox or as an Arctic seal.   
> But what counterpart does cocao have?  It's a drug new on the scene.

Actually this is a good point.  Why can humans metabolise theobromine  
so quickly, when it is poisonous to dogs and pigs?  There must be  
something that gave us this ability.


> So can you tell me -- and this is a serious question, I'm not trying  
> to be cute -- what European foods we've been eating that have no  
> African counterpart?

It surely depends on how you define "counterpart".  If you classify  
all roots and tubers together, you could argue in favour of eating  
potatoes.  Likewise if you just describe cocoa as a seed or nut, you  
could classify it with hazels, almonds, pine nuts etc.

Ashley