On Tue, 13 Jul 1999, Ken Stuart wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Jul 1999 12:51:15 -0600, Richard Keene <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >Oil is not Paleo.  It is processed and concentrated.
>
> Okay, this is a point that I still haven't seen clarified by anyone (such as
> Ray, Loren, Don, Todd, or anyone else who thinks they understand the theory).

The premise of Neanderthin is to eat only foods whose
*ingredients* were available to prehistoric people.  Olive oil is
acceptable because olives were available to prehistoric people.
Cottonseed oil is not acceptable because, as far as I know,
cotton seeds are inedible.

That is the basic principle.  Where it gets murky is in the
application and in the secondary principle of avoiding "unnatural
concentrations" of otherwise acceptable foods.  Thus, we are
supposed to be cautious about eating fruits because their sugar
content is higher than that of their ancient wild counterparts,
and "in the wild" they are only available for a limited part of
the year.  Refining generally makes substances available in
unnatural concentrations.

This secondary principle is applied inconsistently in
Neanderthin, resulting in many discussions here.  For example,
suet is the hard fatty deposit around an animals kidney.  It has
a waxy consistency and contains,in addition to fat, a lot of
gristly material.  I doubt that one could each much of it raw.
Rendering the suet to extract the tallow, to make pemmican, is a
technology for producing a refined fat.  There is nothing
paleolithic about this technology. So, does this make tallow
"illegal"?  Obviously Ray Audette doesn't think so, but if we
applied the same reasoning to animal fat that he applies to
fruit, we would have to recommend caution.  Ray has pointed out
that fat deposits on game animals are seasonal in nature.  For
most of the year, wild animals don't carry much fat.  In the
fall they store fat for the winter.

So, there is a fair amount of room for each person to decide how
much they want to go in for actually emulating paleo diets and
food cycles and concentrations, and so on.

> Another example is sugar cane, which is quite edible raw.

Exactly.  Sucrose is also present in significant quantities in
many fruits, such as oranges.  As an ingredient, it is as "paleo"
as olive oil, but nobody around here thinks it is a good idea to
consume large amounts of the stuff.

Todd Moody
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