On Mon, 9 Sep 2002, Wally Day wrote:
>
> Dairy is considered by this list to be non-paleo,
> mainly (I think) because of the 'foreign protein'
> hypothesis (of which I am skeptical). But, I have also
> read that pre-digesting food seems to negate the bad
> effects of foreign proteins (in fact, I believe Ray's
> book is where I read the first hint of this). And, I
> have also read that cheese and yogurt are, in fact,
> processed very differently by the body than 'straight'
> milk.
>
> Problems with quasi-proteins (lectins) and broad based
> allergic reactions I can understand. But, I'm not sure
> why one should automatically dismiss cheese.

This is a perennial controversy here.  The argument against
cheese is roughly this:

(1) A modern paleodiet should exclude foods that actual
paleolithic people did not regularly consume, because humans are
not adequately adapted to those foods.

(2) Paleolithic people could not have regularly consumed cheese
(or other dairy foods) prior to domestication of cattle and
pastoralism, which occurred only shortly before agriculture.

(3) Therefore a modern paleodiet should exclude cheese and other
dairy foods.

The counterargument contests premise (2), on the hypotheses that
(a) paleolithic hunters regularly killed suckling calves of various
mammalian species and (b) ate stomach contents.  The stomach
contents of a suckling calf would be rennet-fermented milk, or
curd cheese.  In favor of (a) we have the fact that it is common
for hunters of many species to kill the oldest and/or youngest
members of the herd, for the simple reason that they are the most
vulnerable to predation.  In favor of (b) we have the practice of
hunter-gatherers such as the Inuit, who consume stomach contents
of caribou, etc.

But the controversy persists because we don't know how regularly
paleolithic people indulged in "Bambi cheese," and we don't even
know how regularly they would have to do so for us to be adapted
to it.  In fact, we don't even know much of anything about what
it means to be adapted to a food in the first place, despite the
fact that we all accept premise (1) in some form.

Todd Moody
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