At 03:43 PM 2/24/01 +1100, John McKenzie wrote:
>Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, 23 Feb 2001 23:41:09 +0300, Phosphor <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>>
>> >>
>> >> Generally tubers are *the* perfect paleo food
>> >
>> >funny, Aborigines didnt know this.
>>
>> funny, apparently they did know, you didn't read the
>> citation of Ashley, did you?
>> " The Tiwi of Bathurst and the Melville
>> " Islands north of Australia eat yams; in fact, yams are sufficiently
>> " important that they base an important ritual around them.
>
>Going back to my hazy memory from primary school, these same people
>had unexplained loss of health switching to a western diet.
>I don't remember the specifics, and wish I could but it was traced to
>the difference between native "sweet potato"(which I think is yams) and
>normal potatoes. Switching back to sweet potatoes removed the problem.
<snip>

as there is a *big* difference between sweet potatoes and yams (despite
what they're labeled in the US), which is it?  Yams are a lot like white
potatoes, nutritionally speaking and *require* cooking to be non-toxic;
they're primarily a starch.  Sweet potatoes are the ones that can be eaten
raw and while they have a fair amount of carbs, they're also the ones high
in betacarotene--switching between sweet potatoes and white potatoes would
have a big impact if it was your primary source of Vit A...

oh yeah, and yams aren't sweet, either :)

Dianne