When I first went paleo, 15 years ago, it became apparent that there were
factors involved in what we eat that went beyond biochemistry.  Works in
anthropology and evolutionary studies pointed out that no species exists
in a vacuum, we are products of complex relationships between species.

Hominid relationships changed forever because of the domestication of
animals such as dogs in the late paleolithic era (mesolithic) and plants
in the neolithic era.  This change was so profound that if you came to
Earth from another planet, on casual observation you would clasify
several crop species as the dominate species on the planet and the humans
as their slaves.  As anthrpologists view civilization as a process of
agricultural intensification, you would be correct in your assumptions
(which probally explains the crop circles).

This domestication however has happened too rapidly for us to fully
adjust to a non-primate diet.  We are essentially the same as
Neanderthals, only a neotenized (domesticated) gracile form of the same
creature, hence NeanderThin.  The paleolithic diet of our ancestors is
not the same as the neolithic diet they began adopting 10,000 years ago.
The maximum human exposure to the forbidden fruit is only about 300
generations (thats 10 years of white mouse generations)not enough to make
those kind of changes.  Even those blessed with glucose, gluten and
lactose tolerance experence high rates of diseases that don't exist in
Nature.  The ideal is closer to the diet of Neanderthal than to even the
earliest neolithic people.  Going back further also makes you more
equally related to all people on earth at that time and makes racial and
geographic differences in people less important (sorry blood type
theorists).  It also helps to explain why our optimum diet may not mirror
modern hunter-gatherers who lived in an enviroment very different than
that of the last million years during which the mega fauna thrived.

As a modern hunter-gatherer, you will be subject to the same pressures to
become civilized that eliminated this way of life among indigeous peoples
all over the world in this century.  Knowing the basis for these
pressures gives one strenth to veer from the cultural norms of dining.

BTW, Amazon.com now offers rare and out of print books.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin:A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"

Nieft / Secola wrote:
> Also, what difference does it make whether we are or aren't direct
> decendents of Neanderthals or CroMagnon? I can't see that any of the basic
> tenets of your book would be negated if it were called CroMagnonThin. What
> am I missing?