Kendra \"NeanderTwin\" wrote:

> That brings me to my first question.  I am familiar with Neanderthin but wonder if Paleo is different and how?  I have looked through the archives and on occasion see some things that may differ.

The Paleofood mailing list initially started as a support group for people
following the Neanderthin program.  A number of the participants have done
research into what paleolithic humans might actually  have eaten, and their
conclusions are somewhat different from Ray's program.

For example, there is evidence that preagricultural humans collected and ate
small amounts of grains, cooking them by parching (hot rock next to the
fire).  There is considerable evidence that preagricultural humans dug and
ate quantities of tubers and roots.  There is an ongoing rancorous debate
on the list about whether paleo people ate any non-human dairy products
(*please* don't stir this one up again).  There is also a difference of opinion as to
whether plant seeds (such as sunflower seeds) should be included in the
diet.  From the paleo perspective, this type of seed would have been used
where available.  But from the perspective of avoiding plant toxins often
occurring in seeds, or from the perspective of increasing Omega-3 oils
relative to Omega-6's, sunflower seeds would not be good.

Eating raw meat or fish is not essential either to Neanderthin or to "paleo"
as defined on this list,  though some people here are dedicated raw-fooders
and others are experimenting with it.

My take is that paleo humans ate a very wide variety of foods, seasonally
available, always including food from animal sources.  Obviously, paleo humans
never ate milled grains, processed foods, artificial colors/flavors/preservatives,
quantities of sweets or dairy products, food from distant areas (such as
tropical foods in temperate climates, or Western hemisphere foods in Europe),
vegetable oils, canned or frozen foods, or genetically altered or irradiated foods.
What most of us have in common on the Paleofood list is the belief that
a few thousand years is not enough for the human to accommodate itself
genetically to such radical changes in food, thereby causing or aggravating
ill health.

Lynnet