----- Original Message -----
From: Don Wiss <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 1999 2:47 AM
Subject: [P-F] Abstracts posted in a newsgroup


> Newsgroup: sci.med.nutrition
> Subject: The Myth of the Paleolithic Diet Exposed!
> From: "John Gohde" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 12:26:27 -0400
>
> Cavemen did not eat exclusively meat.  The facts point out that cavemen
ate
> mostly plant foods.  And, that meat eating was seasonal.  Cavemen did not
> start eating a lot of meat until he learned how to domesticate animals.
> Further, any meat eaten by the cavemen was significantly different from
> modern domesticated meat.  Hence, merely switching to modern red meat will
> in fact produce health problems due to the high saturated fat content of
> domesticated meat.
>
etc
etc
I don't like John Gohde's opinion

My reply on that newsgroup:
Unfortunately, you obviously don't understand the principles of paleolithic
nutrition. The use of the word "Myth" in the title is not justified by your
data following it.
As you point out down the page, there was obviously a lot of variety in
paleoltihic diets- after all, they didn't have refrigeration or long
distance transportation. Therefore the diet had to vary according to season
and location. Maybe some Paleolithic nutrition people focus on meat, but
that's not what paleolithic nutrition is about.
You have lumped plant foods all together- this shows that you are totally
ignorant of the principles of paleolithic nutrition. Beans, grains and
potatoes are excluded- these are Neolithic foods that only gained popularity
10-20,000 years ago when farming started. They are also the main source of
plant food toxins in the diet (ref: Toxic Constituents of Plant Food
Substances, Irvin Liener, 2nd ed 1980). These foods are full of protease
inhibitors, haemagglutins etc which is why they are inedible raw (fact). Not
all of these toxins are destroyed by heat, and they are implicated in the
causation of disease. References available on request.

Next time, get your facts straight.

Ben Balzer