Hi Don, 
I think this raises an interesting issue that is relevant to some work I am
doing now. It seems to me that each of us made up of a slurry of genes which
echo a unique adaptation to a variety of environments. Especially in the
last several centuries, there has been tremendous mixing of genes as people
have become increasingly more mobile. My own heritage speaks to that. I have
blue eyes, a fair complexion and my hair was blonde until I was about ten.
Yet I have recently traced my maternal great-grandmother who was part Cree.
On my father's side, his mother descended from a group of Cajuns, many of
whom had negroid features. My grandmother was no exception. Added to this
racial mix, I have also found English, Irish, Scottish, German or Swiss, and
French in my background. So my genes are not restricted to the old world and
I may also be genetically connected to Africa. So the Paleofood perspective
is a murky one for me. It gets worse as I look at the various regional
adaptations that I may or may not have inherited. 

I have therefore adopted a different approach. I monitor my daily fasting
glucose, resting blood pressure, urinary ketones, and weight. The
combination has taught me a great deal about myself. And I can see some
echoes of my heritage in my dietary needs. The working title of my current
project is "Discover Your Genetic FoodPrint". I think it is instructive far
beyond the basic springboard of the Paleofood perspective. And it transcends
the idea that the shift to Paleolithic lifeways was a one-and-done event. To
some extent that transition is still operating in a few isolated cultures.  
Best Wishes, 
Ron        

-----Original Message-----

Geoff Purcell wrote:
>>that even then we should only eat those palaeo foods originating  >in the
Old World,  since the New World(North and South America) wasn't  >supposedly
discovered until around the Mesolithic period. However, if  >humans were
already >>over there right into the Palaeolithic era, then  >it's presumably
fine to eat potatoes and other new world foods.

>I disagree. It should be foods that our ancestors ate on a regular basis.
Long enough to have adapted to them. But the big killer here is none of
those early paleo people that made it to the New World were our ancestors.
>Only if you have some Native American ancestry could there have been an
adaptation to potatoes.
>Don.