On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Phosphor wrote:

> > It seems to me that to say cereal seed were not eaten on an
> > "as available" basis  long before cultivation;   ignores
> > reality.
>
> I think this is a good point, much as i hate grains.  Are you saying here
> that they were just nabbed and eaten raw, without processing of any kind?
> Could it be these wild seeds had a protein versus carbohydrate content than
> modern grains?

Grains can be eaten raw when they are in the immature state, not
quite ripe enough to fall off them stem.  There is a rather
famous passage in the New Testament that describes Jesus and
disciples accused of working on the Sabbath because they
"harvested" and ate grains in the fields they were walking
through.  We recently had some discussion about the eating of raw
oats as well.

I don't know about the protein versus carbohydrate ratio of young
seeds, but Ann Brower Stahl points out that many primate species
exploit young shoots of various plants as an important protein
source.  When the shoots are young, they have less cellulose, so
their protein and carbohydrate is available.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the paleolithic consumption of
grains in the course of a year was not zero, but was probably
something like 2% of total calories.

Todd Moody
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