> On Wed, 22 Nov 2000, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
> > What's really the reason for the rule "no grains"?

Domesticated grass seeds ( grains) are not eaten by any primate species
because they can't reproduce without mechanical threshing and thus are
unavailable except in cultivated areas.  Like all grass seeds, grains
deliver less than 15% of their nutritional content when consumed raw and are
thus not worth gathering.  Wild grass seeds also contain far less available
nutrients than do domesticated ones.  Soaking grains makes them a more
palatable mix of flour, fiber and water ( in French paper mache ) but does
little to increase bioavailability of nutrients until starches are broken
down by the action of yeast.  Some anthropologists have speculated that beer
may have been the first food utilizing grain based on residue found in
ancient pots.  Until the yeast produces enough alcohol to kill the bacteria
the resulting mixture is an ideal medium for growing many toxic pathogens.
For this reason, soaking grains and legumes to induce sprouting had to wait
for the technology to deliver sterile containers and water.  In  our
technologically advanced culture the U.S. FDA has tightened regulation of
manufactures of sprouts because of many cases of food poisoning.

As pointed out in the article "Hominid Dietary Selection Before Fire" ( see
Stahl in bibliography on my web site) no Primates in the Old World or the
New World eat grass seeds, legumes, potatoes, the milk of another species or
refined sugars in Nature.  When you find yourself in a "new world" and are
trying to figure out what to eat, I suggest you try what the other monkeys
are having and leave the grass to the herbivores.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin"
http://www.neanderthin.com