Phosphor wrote:

>If you are genuinely interested to discuss this issue, let me ask a
simple
>question...
>what plant food did the aborigines use to provide bulk calories? give
me the
>full scientific name, don't just say 'tubers.' Or did Cordain provide
such
>information [no, of course not]. How then did he arrive at the magical
23%
>figure? which tribes consumed this amount?

*He* didn't.  Don't you understand what research is?  He consulted the
work of anthropologists who have done field studies.  As I said, the
citations are in the bibliography of the paper that I quoted.  When I
am next in my office (which is where that paper is at the moment) I'll
post the full citation that he used.

>aborigines ate a lot of plants, but none have been commercialised as
food.
>because they are relatively useless as a source of calories.

23% is not useless.

>Even if we grant this figure [which i dont] what we have is 77% of
calories
>derived from animal foods. This is the rock bottom of paleo eating: the
vast
>majority of calories from animal foods.

Cordain -- after quite a bit of research, all fully documented -- has a
table of plant and animal ratios of various hunter-gatherer
populations.  The aborigines are at the low-plant end of the list,
though not at the bottom.  The outliers are the traditional Inuit, with
only about 1% of energy from plant foods.  The next rung up is at
around the 20% mark, where the Australian aboriginese and a few other
groups are (I don't remember the particulars).  The media would be
somewhat higher.

>The point i was making [perhaps too subtly] was that Cordain is an
authority
>in the same vein as Drs Weil, Ornish, Sears, Atkins  etc etc..resident
>clowns of the diet industry. Can you really take seriously someone who
>recommends cooking with flax seed oil?

I'm sure we all have our differences with Cordain.  I know I do.  But
many of his views are buttressed by an impressive amount of research,
which I respect.  And he at least has the sense to point out that it is
possible to stray rather far from paleo while still getting the vast
majority of calories from animal foods.  I think there's wisdom in that.

Todd Moody
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