On Sat, 21 Jul 2001, Jim Walsh wrote:

> > The reasoning is faulty.  Peanuts and cashews are edible raw.
>
> But, they are legumes. Aren't all legumes ruled out regardless of edibility?
>
> Or is the no-legume idea based on the no "New World"
> foods you mention? (I think I read that legumes contain a toxin.)

Peanuts are legumes; cashews are nuts.

The no-legume idea is Ray Audette's.  But the word "legume"
refers to a botanical category, not to any nutritional properties
of foods.  I think it is safe to say that paleolithic people did
not base their food selections on botanical categories.

It is true that most legumes contains toxins and antinutrients in
various concentrations, and thus are not edible raw.  In fact,
many plant foods contain toxins and antrinutrients.  What makes
many of them edible raw is not the complete absence of these
compounds, which is uncommon, but sufficiently low levels of
them.  Some legumes are in fact edible raw, and other primates
actually eat them during part of the year.  Immature ones
generally have fewer toxins and antinutrients, and are edible.
Snow peas, for example.

The no-legume rule is based on two false assumptions.  The first
is that nonhuman primates and paleolithic humans couldn't have
eaten any at all.  The second is that they contain secondary
compounds (toxins and antinutrients) completely absent from other
foods.  The truth is more complicated than this.  My source for
this information is Annette Stahl's "Hominid Dietary Selection
Before Fire," for which you will find a full listing in the
bibliography of Neanderthin.

Having said all that, it's pretty clear that legumes were not a
*staple* food during paleolithic times.  Like nuts and berries,
and probably certain grains, they would only have been eaten
during a short period of time of the year, when the beans were at
just the right stage of immaturity.  So I tend to think of
legumes as minor "adjunct" foods.

These are just my heterodox opinions, of course, and not official
"paleo doctrine," whatever that might be.

Todd Moody
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