Richard Archer wrote:
I cited Dr.Stoll:
>>A grain of wheat is a perfect little package.
>>It has just enough of the 48
>>micronutrients to digest exactly the amount of energy (starch) that
>>is present in that grain of wheat. It is designed to last till the
>>plant can grow enough root and leaves to make its own energy.

Richard:
>So, a wheat grain contains just enough micronutrients for a baby
>wheat plant to digest the starch.
>But what if the human digestive process is different from a wheat
>plants digestive process.

Thats just the fascinating point about it:
All the living beeings (on earth) have the just the *same*
method of breaking down ("burn") carbohydrates to gain energy.
The Krebs Cykle is the same in plants and animals,
in a grain, a nut and a human.
Its not a matter of digestion, but a matter of using.
Digesting the starch (or sugars in other plants) to form glucose
or lower sugars is a well understand process.

>For example, if these micronutrients are protected within a
>cellulose envelope, they would be unavailable to humans, as we
>can't break down the cellulose.

If you take the example of a cereal grain, the micronutrients are
protected inside the cellulose shell.
A grain swallowed whole may come out like it went in.
Milling or grinding coarsely breaks the shell and makes
the nutrients inside available.
I've never heard that the water soluble thiamin or starch
might be undigestable. A whole cereal grain is the best thiamin
source available from nature, only surpassed by yeast
(yeast is *the* sugar munching microorganism).

But you needn't stick to grains, the same applies to every seed -
nuts for example, and that is why they are so good vitamin-B1

sources.
Fruits i understand as a food supply made by the plant to the
fruit eater (so that it may eat the fruit and spread the kernel).
A sufficient thiamin supply in the fruit-flesh is therefore *not*
vitally necessary for the plant kernel to grow.
It's only some sort of kindness of the plant to supply the thiamin
too, that is needed to digest the sweetness of the fruit.
In  genetically modified fruit (also by cultivation) we can
experience that the sugar/starch content is higher than the
vitamin-B1 supply that comes with it.
Bananas for example are at the boudary. They have slightly less
thiamin than the 3mg per kg carbohydrate.
Less perfect packages.

>Also, while there may be enough micronutrients for the baby wheat
>plant to break down the starch, there may also be
>antinutrients that prevent animals
>from gaining access to the necessary nutrients.
>I think there's more to consider than just what's in the seed.

I agree.
The plant seeds' protection lies in some antinutrients to prevent
the animals access.
But we can select the plant of our choice. Only should take the
whole thing - not only the storage part.
I'm sure, any plant eaters (other that fruit eaters) can  cope with
the antinutrients of their food, by having developed
the matching enzymes to break them down for example.
We are plant eaters, aren't we?
(I'm not debating about "only plants")
Primates more than 2mio years away are reported to *have* been fruit
eaters... chimps eat much fruit and include filth only in times of
shortages. Gorillas eat mainly leaves - not seeds.

The antinutrients of cereal grasses are well known to
the paleo-eaters here, as also by the work of Loren Cordaine
and D'Adamo and others.
The antinutrients of cereal grasses are not much known among
vegetarians as well as SAD people.

I attempt a little cereal antinutrient sumup:
The most prominent are phytins and lectins.
There *is* a phytin digesting enzyme: the phytase.
This looks like a sort of adaption to phytin containing plants.
Its made in humans
and can be additionally produced by germination and soaking.
Lectins: Humans are normally protected by a mirco-thin coating
on the gut walls and by macro-sugars wich can inactivate the lectins.
But infections can break down the protecting coat.

The antinutrient protection (and adaption) of humans to cereals
seems to be present and enough to allow its infrequent use.
However the really widespread use of cereals to from a broad
nutrition base for the whole society like in the the last 7k years
was dependent on food processing technologies like
heating (baking) germination (sourdough) soaking.

regards
Amadeus