Hi, all

I'm new to list, having been lurking for two weeks and reading much other
information at the same time.  I'm terribly impressed with the level of
education on this list.

In my reading, I believe I've seen a good deal of information that suggests
that early hominids ate all sorts of vegetable matter, depending on season
and food scarcity.  Some of the evidence was dental--microscratches on teeth
surfaces--some was regarding carbon 13 and some seemed intelligent guesses
based on what we know.  I did a couple web searches; "early human diet" may
have been my most fruitful one.

(in interesting related news, it seems at one time a majority of people were
left-handed...but left-handers are more fragile when it comes to toxic
substances, so as experiments with vegetation increased due to food
shortages, they started dying off.  Even today, their life expectancy is
considerably shorter.)

I found the metabolic information on the inverse relationship between gut
size and brain size compelling, as well.  Seemingly, meat made us
smarter...then we were better able to catch meat...then we got smarter...and
finally we got so overly smart we spawned vegetarians, I suppose (j/k!).

Anyway, hi, and thanks for such a lively and informative listserve.

Oh yes, and a question--I've read cashews are legumes; I've read they are
nuts.  Does some botanist here know what they are?

Lou