On Sat, 24 Feb 2001 12:35:35 +0300, Phosphor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>yes they eat yams, and other starchy items. i didnt say they didnt. i was
>pointing out the relevant importance of kangaroo and other meats versus
>tubers.  There's simply no comparison.  If tubers were so important they
>would have cultivated them.

Tubers are an abundant resource for gatherhunting cultures.
They needn't be "cultivated" (but some are usually left over to spread again
by gatherers).
There are dozends of different tubers, about 50% of them are edible
uncooked. Much more tubers can be found if rainforest changes to savannah
(source: Wrangham research).
What was called yams, may be yams or one of the many similar species, people
are not used to distinguish like sweet potatoes and yams or cassava.

Much more tubers are available as wild game on a similar area, and this is
what decides how good a ecological niche is.
Exploiting a new ecological niche is what led to human evolution, to changes
in morphology like brain size and dentition.

>> May I suggest a test? Just try to live on kangaroo only for 2-3 weeks.
>> I bet you'll not stand it without adding some fat from beef or else.
>
>deceptive or idiotic again? they ate the kidney fat.

Look at the kangaroo table and see how far you come with kidney fat.
 Tissue          % carcass wt.   Organ wt. (g)   %fat    total fat (g)
 muscle          0.50            22,000          0.02    440
 bones           0.13            5720            .03     172
 liver, organs   0.075           3300            0.04    132
 washed GI tract 0.06            2640            0.02     53
 blood           0.012             526           0.02     11
 marrow          0.004             176           0.51     90
 brain           0.0014              62          .093       6
 skin            0.13             5720           0.10     572
 storage fat     0.0026            114           0.82      94
 GI contents,
 hair,nails etc  0.085           3740            na      na
 Total           1.00            44000           na      1568

Eating hunted kangaroos, lizzards or maggots is a good protein source and a
lousy fat source.
Unlike in some modern cultures protein is not a scarce resource for
gatherhunting people. For animal food the bottleneck is to get enough
calories *different* from protein. More than 35% calories from protein can
kill you, Loren Cordaine sais.

Given this it's easy to understand why aborigines are reported to just leave
a hunted kangaroo if it is not fat enough.

>> I guess this is the reason why all Irish people for 300 years suffered
>from
>> hyperinsulinemia.
>
>its certainly one part of their health problems. Irish and Scots have
>extensive health problems associated with hyperinsulinemia - heart disease,
>diabetes, depression.

Not today, but in the some 100 years after introduction of the potatoe.
Before the beginning of the "refinement" area.
Ireland, beeing exploited by Brittain of this time were left to a diet with
not much more than potatoes (though the celtic tradition demanded barley and
oats). I never heared of hyperinsulinemia at this time.
People died of famine.
Today western people eat "refined" western food. *This* is associated with
such problems.

Modern potatoes are higher in starch, compared to paleolithic tubers and to
other tubers like sweetpotatoe (E.Somer points this out too). This reduces
the vitamins and minerals available per kalorie. According to my own
computations with thiamin, modern potatoes are at the border of having just
enough thiamin to metabolize the starch. Cooking them in water - and
throwing away the water begins to work like sugar for a small part of the
starch.
Potatoes are at the border of still beeing ok, according to my computations.
All further and other "refinement" (=devitaminazon) is the entrance to
hyperinsulinema and follow-up diseases.

Amadeus S.