Members of this list may find this of interest.  I composed it for
the members of the evolutionary fitness list, but it is entirely
applicable to the issues discussed in the Paleodiet list.


John wrote:

"Art, you mentioned some research that really sounds
interesting.  I would be very interested to hear of your work in
the area of .
. . . (was it?) the microbiological content of the paleolithic diet.
Neanderthin refers to agriculture based proteins as "foreign."
This suggests
that even though it is fairly easy to achieve "complete" proteins through
combining, in doing so we may be getting some other biochemical
substances in
quantities that we are simply not evolutionarily equipped to handle."

John's question is one I am trying to answer using both data and
mathematical modelling of carcasses, plants, stomach capacity, etc.
I am far from finished and have many other things to do (including
a week of lectures in Mexico later this month).

One hint at the issues revolving around foreign proteins is to
realize that the space of possible proteins is so large that all the
computational resources that ever existed in the universe are not
enough even to enumerate the members on the list (only about 10^120
or so are feasible using every particle and nanosecond in the
universe for as long as it existed as your computer).  The protein
space contains approximately 20^200 members, that is 20 to the 200
power.

The dimension of this space is so vast that there are an infinite
number of novel proteins to which the immune system may have no
defenses or which it may confuse with pathogens, etc.

The amino acid chains that comprise the proteins fold into
geometric objects and are recognized as "self" or "foreign" on the
basis of their shape, as well as the complex of antigens on their
surface.  Each protein has a unique shape because of the way the
amino acids are sequenced and bind.

The thymus is the "editor" that deletes non-self proteins and, like
any editor, it only has so much critical ability.  Both the novelty
as well as the total flux of foreign proteins may present a
critical threshold where autoimmune diseases are triggered.  That is
why one of my eating strategies is to diversify your toxins and
proteins by having a varied and changing diet, within the scope of
evolutionary eating.  The underlying key strategy is to attempt to
choose foods edible in the evolutionary period (of your choice,
though mine is about 40,000 years ago) for they would be least
likely to present novel proteins.

It took about half of the time life existed on earth to evolve
multicelled creatures.  This has puzzled many, but the answer may
lie in the vast dimension of the possible proteins.  Evolution may
have needed that long to work through space of possibilities to
discover proteins capable of sustaining multicellular life.  From
that point on, the possibilities for life form became very great.
The last 2 billion years are a period of experimentation on the
possibilities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arthur De Vany
Professor
Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences
3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA  92697-5100
714-824-5269
[log in to unmask]
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/mbs/personnel/devany/devany.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~