Todd,
I disagree. There are several paths to approach what is paleo. My
preferred
way is that paleo foods are those (and those similar to them), which
were
eaten by our ancestors in sufficient quantity and for a sufficient
period us
to be genetically adapted to them. So, even if our ancestors ate the
odd
legume, it doesn't recommend it to me. They may well have only eaten
them
when there was nothing else to eat. As becomes obvious reading
Crawford and
Marsh's "Nutrition and Evolution", evolution isn't all that's it's
cracked
up to be (yeh, quote me on that one). There are some very definite
limits as
to what biochemical changes can be made. (Classic example is the
inability
of animals to synthesise omega 3 despite 2 billion years of time, and
their
critical necessity). I'll say something about evolutionary adaptation
in a
new thread now.

Paleo foods are those that are "specified" in our genes. It's as
simple as
that. This means that, if necessary, we have adapted to any potential
toxins
in them. It means that our bodies are adapted to the balance of
nutrients,
minerals and micronutrients etc in them. "As part of a balanced diet"
as
they say.

Also, as Loren Cordain is the world's leading expert on paleolithic
hunter-gatherer nutrition, and he recommends against them (personal
correspondence), I have no doubts about the issue. Not that I wouldn't
argue
with him if I needed to. Like most of this list, I am born heretic.
No-one
from Salem here is there?

As for eating garden peas, well I used to love them when I was kid
too, but
there is no doubt that pea lectin has toxic effects on mammalian
lymphocytes
and perhaps other cells. Thus it is another pleasure I have chosen to
forgo.
Just because it tastes nice, doesn't mean it's good for you. Maybe
I'll
start a thread on taste. So, peas become a cheat, and in my opinion a
bad
one. They are VERY out for people with immune disorders (including
arthritis) or gut disorders.


Ben Balzer

>Todd Moody wrote:
>Ben, this is a non sequitur.  The only thing that makes a food
>"paleo" is whether it was eaten by our paleolithic ancestors,
>with the added assumption that if it *could* have been eaten by
>them, it probably was.

>If some legumes could have been eaten by paleolithic humans then
they are paleo, regardless of what modern research has to say
about them.  There may well be reasons to avoid certain paleo
foods, but those reasons are irrelevant to the food choices that
were made by paleolithic people.

Todd Moody
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