In a message dated Wed, 22 May 2002  7:12:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Erik Hill <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>>
>
>Are you saying that cooking food with toxins to destroy those toxins
>will, for example, make us more sensitive to those same toxins in the
>future?  Or do I misunderstand you?
>
>

what I am saying is that I had acute reactions to several non paleo foods as an infant.  The doctors told my parents to limit (but not remove) them in my diet and that i would "grow out" of the intolerance.  They did and for my childhood and adolescence I was fine.

Then beginning in my twenties I had increasing obesity and increasing respiratory problems, in addition to flatulence.  Then I went on a first-low carb and then later paleo diet.  The obesity, flatulence and the respiratory problems went away.  Those early childhood intolerances were never part of my diet and I was healthy again.  Then on rare occassion I reintroduced them in small quantities in my diet and I experienced acute respiratory and digestive problems within 24 hours.

All reintroduction in small doses as a child did for me is create the foundation for adult illness.  All reintroduction as an adult does now is make me sick.

I am not evolving in any way that would make eating these foods likely to be a good thing any time soon.  The evidence is that with each year of adulthood I become less able to tolerate these foods and remain healthy.

And it is counterintuitive to me to believe that doing something that is very bad for my body could be any good for my species in the future (ignoring the fact that I added my last personal contribution to the gene pool 14 years ago).

Do we adapt?  Of course we do.  But in ancient china didn't a little girl's feet adapt to be bound?  What was good about that?

As a species we will survive.  But will we thrive?

Aren't there indigent people who live on trash dumps who adapt to develop a need for excessive nitrogen (I'm not sure which element it is) and can't breathe well on clean air?  Based on this do we then argue that we should all expose ourselves to noxious vapors so that we can all live on landfills?  Of course not, we campaign for clean air.

An argument that we should continue to eat non paleo foods to ensure the survival of the species seems ridiculous to me.  If I want to lay down my life for mankind I think I might choose an activity a little more heroic than drinking milkshakes.

Kathleen