>Could you be more specific about "early men" who planted and ate corn?
>To my knowledge this is an oxymoron.

Corn did not just appear on plowed fields one day.  Somewhere men began
using an early ancestor of corn which presumably was much less delectable
(less starch, more fiber, small grains) than the corn of today.  He first
used the wild form as food.  When he began to plant it he would probably
plant the seeds from the better plants....bigger kernels, more starch, etc.
 I can only give you the common sense notion that there would not be corn
on earth today if a long time ago man did not eat the wild plant from which
corn evolved.  The same story goes for wheat, rice, barley, etc.
>
>In B. N. Ames studies on carcinogens he shows that corn is the vector
>for the number one carcinogen in the American diet: aflatoxin. This is a
>substance that grows on corn, peanuts and other plants in the typical
>agricultural diet. Aflatoxin is EXTREMELY carcinogenic--approximately
>200 times moreso than PCB's.

Remember that it is not the corn that causes the cancer, it is chemicals
that are produced when corn is infected with a certain mold.  When cattle
are infected with mad cow's disease, the results are even more horrible.
E. coli infects many kinds of meat and plant foods.  Salmonella, the same
story.  You take some chances eating today.
>
>Also, if you were to do a geographical analysis of the historical
>migration of corn and rheumatiod arthritis you would need but one set of
>pins for the map.

A lot of other things probably went along with that migration, like, not
eating a varied diet with lots of other plant foods besides corn,
overworked soils, deficiencies of vitamins and minerals in the diet, etc.
>
>Pancreatic cancer is the number five killer of humans in Africa due to
>the high prevalence of cornbread in their diets.

Too much corn and not enough of other foods is a bad thing.
>
>Corn has no natural counterpart. It is a creation of agriculture.

Many of our domestic animals raised for meat have no natural ancestor
today.  We don't have ours either.


>Admittedly some people seem to be able to tolerate corn in small
>amounts. So if somebody wants to eat corn occasionally on a paleolithic
>diet, perhaps their immune system will allow them to get away with it.
>But if you're going to choose to occasionally indulge in agricultural
>foods, certainly corn is, statistically the worst choice.

I'm sure that all grains are harmful in large quantities, esp. since their
high caloric content means that better foods will not be eaten sufficiently.

Paul Getty
Morehead City, NC
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