On Sunday, October 23, 2005, at 12:30  AM, Phil wrote:

> One objection I get to the Paleo diet from people unacquainted with it
> is
> that the wild predecessors of today's domestic cattle, such as the
> aurochs, likely ate some wild grains amidst the grasses they grazed on.
> That is likely true, but my guess is the proportion of the diet that
> grains made up was quite small. Is there any data on the estimated
> proportion of the wild grazers' diet that was grains? I am guessing
> less
> than 1%.

That is an interesting site. Thanks.

Grains are just grass seeds. Some grasses start setting seed by late
spring. So wild cows could be eating 'grain' from at least May-June
through November. Most of the year. But this is not limited to one or
two species of domesticated grain, but would be from dozens of
different wild grasses throughout the year. So there would be no
build-up of unnatural levels of certain fats. Also, as you said the
amount of grain would be low.

Beyond that, your friend is making the mistake of thinking cows eat
mainly grasses in the wild. In fact cows are browsers. Given the choice
they will strip trees of their lower leaves. We kept cows when I was a
kid, in a small woods. That was just like a park, with no underbrush or
low tree limbs, because the cows kept it all eaten down. Forests with
cows in them are perfect for humans, no branches below head height to
bang your head on, no briers to catch your feet in. The Auroch was a
forest species, not plains like the American bison. So its natural food
would be browse more than grass. We feed cows grass now because it is
easier to manage, and produces higher biomass than forest.