Ashley Moran:
>   - and if alkaloids are the only problem, what's wrong with
>     selectively-bred potatoes?

Starch is another problem. The fact that butter, salt, gravy that includes
wheat or starch, hydrogenated oils and the like are usually added to
potatoes is another problem.

> I think Todd is probably on the right lines saying that maybe they
> weren't listed as forbidden because they are so commonly used, and
> Audette wouldn't want to harm sales of his book over something
> relatively minor.  Or at least, his publishers wouldn't... 

But if Audette was looking to include as many foods as he could and make the
diet easier then why did he prohibit beets and turnips, which Cordain
allows, and why did Audette prohibit cheating, which Cordain allows for 1-3
meals per week?

> My copy of Neanderthin is buried under a huge pile now so it's not
> easy for me to check what he said about nightshades. 

He says nothing I can find beyond that potatoes are bad because of
alkaloids, vitamin A deficiency, fungus (common scab--which also affects
some root vegetables that he says are OK, but he may not have been aware of
that), and carbs (briefly mentioned indirectly), whereas the other
nightshades are in his permitted list. It's possible he just didn't know
that the other nightshades contained toxic levels of alkaloids in their wild
form, or maybe Todd is wrong about all nightshades having been toxic in
their wild form. I don't know.

> Maybe he was
> aware that tomatoes and peppers contain some alkaloids, but less than
> potatoes, and the fact that potatoes are nutritional garbage tipped
> the balance.  Also, he was diabetic so probably not too fond of them.

Strangely, Audette didn't say much about the carb aspect of potatoes. He
focused on the alkaloids and fungus--possibly for the shock value.

It looks like the crux of the issue is whether all the nightshades were
toxic in their original wild form or not. All I found on this was people
saying that tomatoes were thought by some to be poisonous in their early
forms but they really weren't and only the green leaves and stems were
actually toxic. I have read that potatoes have been made less toxic over the
years, but I haven't seen that about the other nightshades anywhere.