> On 11 Jun 2008, at 12:34, william wrote:
> 
> > "It is, however, a powerful stimulant, and when ingested will
> > inspire a vast range of physiological responses in the body, as the
> > human organism attempts to neutralize, process, and eliminate these
> > poisons."
> > So how come I don't notice this? I am unfortunately very sensitive
> > to nasties in food and drink.

Those scary warnings seem bogus to me, particularly given that they are not
accompanied by supporting sources or data. There are multiple studies that
find health benefits for cacao and dark chocolate, though most of them were
funded by chocolate manufacturers like Mars, Inc.

> 
> Doesn't *every* plant contain poisons?  

Yes, they do. Luckily, human beings have evolved enzymes over the eons to
neutralize the toxins of many plants. We do not, apparently, have sufficient
enzymes to neutralize all the toxins of some of the plants that did not
become staples in the human diet until the last 10,000 years.

> Well chocolate is my favourite nut/seed type food, and parsnips are my
> favourite vegetable.  I guess I just have a death wish.
> 
> Ashley

They are both considered OK by most experts in the field of Paleolithic
nutrition, with Ray Audette being a prominent exception regarding chocolate
(he wrongly considered cacao to be a bean/legume--it's a fruit seed).

Chocolate is one of those gray-area foods that frequently gets debated in
this forum, including not long ago, as was mentioned. Unfortunately, much of
what I reported does not appear to have had much impact, so I'll repost some
of that info:

Unprocessed cacao can probably be considered Paleo because it's the seed of
a fruit, though some fruit seeds, such as apple seeds, are mildly toxic to
humans and cacao would not have been consumed during the Stone Age, since it
existed only in the Americas during that period (but there are numerous
Paleo foods that existed only in the Americas, such as the plentiful
varieties of squashes). Cacao is not really a bean, despite being called
"cocoa beans." Cacao seeds develop in pods, but cacao pods are not bean
pods--they are actually fruit pods. 

However, chocolate bars are a thoroughly processed food, and part of the
processing of the cacao into chocolate involves fermenting with yeast, so
chocolate bars are technically not Paleo. On the other hand, cacao is very
high in antioxidants and the accumulating scientific evidence for the health
benefits of dark chocolate is indicates it may be one of those foods that
remains beneficial even after processing and/or mixing with modern
ingredients like sugar, dairy products and soy lecithin (though there are
dairy-free and soy-free chocolate bars). Other similar cases include fish
oil, flaxseed oil, wine, and fruit juice, all of which would likely have
been rare or nonexistent in Paleo times in their processed forms, but which
appear to retain some health benefits after processing (though wine and
fruit juice can also have negative health effects in excess).

As Todd Moody has pointed out many times, what foods classify as Paleo is
not as clear-cut as Ray Audette (whose book inspired this forum) made it out
to be, which results in lots of interesting debates here. :-) Dairy-free
chocolate might theoretically classify as Paleo, but given that it includes
sugar, and usually soy, I treat it like a treat :-) and get most of my
antioxidants from fruits and vegetables.