Hunter gatherer diets have far greater levels of vitamins and antioxidants,
which protect against cancer. They also lack lead arsenate, which was the
main agricultural pesticide for many years. This was also used to retard
apple maturation- by painting the trunk (and making the tree sick) thereby
delaying maturation of the fruit for convenience etc.. Now, lead is a
well-known neurotoxin, and arsenic has been proven to be carcinogenic to
multiple organs, especially skin, but I believe bowel too- but I haven't
found any superb references, I do have that on good authority.

So, if your Mum peeled your apples for you, you've got an extra 4 IQ points
and less risk of cancer.

HG's also miss out on other agrochemicals, forced ripening, and ate fruits
in a different state (vine-ripened seems to be the talk). May I add that as
they don't have refrigerators, they were far more dependent on root
vegetables (not potatoes which are tubers anyway). There is very little
information on the properties of root vegetables. I've been unable to find a
single reference to their antioxidant level (direct-measured, not inferred
from vitamin content). As they can store for months or years without
refrigeration, I tip high levels of antioxidants. Anyhow, they're the major
unexplored staple (maybe berries need more examination too), and I continue
to tip that root vegetables will eventually be shown to be of major health
importance. I particularly think they'll protect against colonic cancer. Of
course, I could be really wrong- root vegetables long life could be the
preservative effect of antinutrients proteins such as those found in grains.

Ian Billinghurst's dog-feeding book, Give Your Dog A Bone, makes it clear
that he believes the enzymes in meat play a very important bioactive role-
cooking inactivates them. ANY COMMENTS?? I found this interesting as I'm
fascinated by the ability of grains antinutrients to inactivate digestive
enzymes. So, I'm going to try to eat more rare meat over the next month-
though I'll find this difficult to do.

Ben Balzer


----- Original Message -----
From: Anna L. Abrante <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 1999 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [P-F] burned meat


> In a message dated 09/02/1999 6:03:54 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > I would think that the way meat is prepared is also quite important.
> >  Our ancestors used to eat meat raw. Now meat is cooked, very often
> >  to the point of being burned. The last week virtually every single
> >  time I went out to eat and got meat (burgers, steak tips) they
> >  were burned on the outside even when I asked for rare. Charred
> >  pieces could cause cancer of the colon all on their own.
> >
> >  Ilya
> >
>
> Aside from the issues of controlled fire being older than we thought,
> so cooking meat might be very very old.....
> don't we have HG cultures that cook meat over open flame,,and yet
> don't get colon cancers?  Has charred meat actually been
> shown to cause it, regardless of the daily diet used?,,,
> I've heard all the propoganda about the
> burned fat changing in structure so as to be carcinogenic, but I am
> wondering how true that is, since HG do it too and don't get sick.
>
> Anna 8-)