As a dentist and someone who is somewhat interested in teeth as they relate
to the evolution of animals, I can tell you that our dentition is LESS able
to process vegetable matter no than during earlier levels of man's
evolution.  The fact that most of us have only two molars in each arch that
are functional in most people (the wisdom teeth are not generally very
useful) tells me that we didn't need to process huge amounts of vegetable
matter and all that cellulose, because we had flesh.  That, along with the
fact that our brains were taking up more space and things rearranged to the
point that the wisdom teeth were taking up space that could better be used
for gray matter.

Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wally Ballou" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: Naked with a .. stick and fire?


> On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 06:24:14 -0500 Marilyn Harris <[log in to unmask]>
> writes:
>
> > Our teeth, however, are mostly that of a vegetarian (and omnivore)
> > and not a strict carnivore implying that we have been vegetarian for a
> very
> > long time.
>
> Sorry...  regardless of how you want to describe our teeth, we still do
> not, and cannot eat most of the vegetable foods that Amadeus and his ilk
> consider essential.  Whether for reasons of being unable to chew things
> like grains in sufficient quantities to gain any significant nutrition,
> or for reasons of some vegetable foods being inedible without cooking or
> other "technological" processing, they simply could NOT have constituted
> any significant part of a pre-technological human diet.
>
> We are, as you say, OMNIVORES.  We can eat a wide variety of foods, and
> it gets even wider when we add our techology.  But before that
> technology, there were simply foods that we COULD NOT, and therefore DID
> NOT eat.  You can play games and try to fiddle with numbers and push back
> the widespread use of fire and other food technologies, but the
> inescapable fact remains that the human animal has evolved relatively
> little in terms of dentition and metabolism since the advent of those
> technologies.
>
> Plant yourself in the middle of a wheat field so large that you can't
> walk out...  There are small streams, so you can get water...  You're
> naked with a sharp stick...  how would you survive?  It sure wouldn't be
> by eating the wheat...  insects, small rodents (both feeding on the wheat
> plants), and maybe some fish from the stream... Sure, there might be a
> little "salad" at the stream too, but you couldn't survive without
> consuming the animal  life...  Wheat won't do it, rice won't do it
> (especially in their natural states), soybeans won't do it...  but grab
> yourself a rat, or a handful of grasshoppers, and you've got yourself a
> substantial meal...
>
> These are the most basic concepts behind "paleo."  It's not a game, it's
> not fiddling with numbers...  If you can't deal with it, why are you
> here?
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