On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Don and Rachel Matesz wrote:

> >Mon, 16 Aug 1999 21:36:10 -0400 Todd Moody wrote:  For those who do not
> >If the scientists,,, in the article are correct, the use of fire for
> cooking goes back almost 2 million years,,, it has profound implications
> ...since it means that the "naked with a sharp stick" principle must be
> abandoned in favor of the "stone, spear, and fire" rule.  This adds many
> foods to the menu, especially foods that can be roasted without a lot of
> other processing involved.  1.9 million years is a long >time.
>
> My husband, Don, wrote a lengthy response.  Here's the short version.  Visit
> the Paleodiet Symposium for the version with the citations and all that!
> Wrt the article on cooked vegetables "Early humans got smart by cooking
> veggies, study says":  This idea that we got smart by cooking vegetables,
> not by hunting and meat eating, may be politically correct, but it is
> illogical and biochemically incredible.  Here are my reasons:

I read the response, which was excellent.  Actually I was not
interested in the dubious claim that fire was the key to human
intelligence, which is what Don focused his critical attention
on.  Rather, I am interested solely in the possibility that
humans have used fire to prepare foods for almost 2 million
years.  If this is correct, then we have had quite a long time to
adapt to some foods that would be otherwise inedible.

Todd Moody
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