The differences between the remains of people who were Paleolithic and
those who were Neolithic is both obvious and striking.  Those coming from
neolithic stone age sites show a much shorter lifespan and stature as
well as far more signs of degenerate disease.  The few (nearly)
paleolithic people studied in the last 100 years (Inuit, Aboriginals,
etc) have all shown superior health when compared to the "more advanced"
neolithic people studied during this same period of exploration.  For
more on the differences between paleolithic and neolithic health, pick up
a copy of "Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture" by
anthropologists Mark Cohen and George Armelagos (Academic Press, 1984).
This short lifespan of neolithic people is often cited as an disadvantage
to a stone age diet although it only applies to neolithic people.
Lifespan increased slowly in the bronze age, the iron age when new
technologies could feed more people effeciently. Lifespan increased most
of all in the age of steel which produced the standard american diet
(reintroducing the concept of daily red meat) and lifespans in the early
20th century that aproximated those of hunter-gatherers.  Even
subtracting statistical years of lifespan added by medical technologies,
people eating the modern western diet still live longer than people
eating an iron age diet diet (as does much of the third world).

Although even late paleolithic people had cooking, anyone who consumes
grain is by definition consuming a neolithic diet. Although all grains
are grasses, not all grasses are grains.  Grains are grasses that after
thousands of generations of selective breeding, have neotinized to the
point where the mature seeds no longer seperate from the stem. Regular
(non-domesticated) grasses cannot be harvested as efficiently as grains
and produce very little calories after subtracting the effort needed to
harvest them.  The requirement for threshing that makes grain harvestable
also makes it very hard for the plant to reproduce without human
intervention.  Thus a situation of mutual dependance (symbiosis) arises.

That our neolithic cultural expressions of this symbiosis make meat
eating politically incorrect and try to portray paleolithic people as
gatherers-hunters rather than what the physical evidence portrays is not
germane to this list.  This list concerns what people who have only that
level of technology defined as paleolithic, eat.  When you are following
the herds on the savannah, even soaking beans overnight is a pain.  That
some neotinized beans need to be sprouted in order to reproduce (makes
bean sprouts econimically/caloriticly viable)is of little concern to a
nomadic hunter-gatherer with mega fauna to eat.

As one who hunts everyday on the savannah for much of the year, I
ask: where could you survive without technology without relying on large
amounts of animal food?  Not the rain forest where pigmys must kill
elephants with little sharp sticks to survive.  Certainly not the
savannah where trees of any kind are nonexistant and the remaining
vegetation is predominatly grass.  Even in Bavaria it might be tough
finding fruits and vegetables in winter.

There are lots of books about neolithic nutrition.  There are also books
about bronze age nutrition, iron age nutrition, steel age nutrition and
new age nutrition.  NeanderThin is about Paleolithic Nutrition!

BTW, anyone who wants to go hawking with me on the Ute reservation (1.4
million acres in Utah) during Thanksgiving week (late Nov.) please e-mail
me privatly.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin:A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"
http://www.sofdesign.com/neander