In a message dated 9/19/02 4:10:04 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

>It is possible to have very long seasons and an
>abundance of fresh, locally grown plants in the diet in a tropical or
>sub-tropical/mediterranean climate. So many people assume that paleo man
>lived in upper Northern climates; however, before modern man sequestered
>the
>prime real estate (ocean front property and lush, vegetative areas), many
>early groups could have inhabited such climates and eaten a diet that was
>rich in vegetables and fruits all year round.
>

My reading indicates that even in the tropics at the equator there are
distinctive fruiting and non-fruiting 'seasons' . Wiley in "Lights Out" for
example says that Borneo has "periods of high fruit production about every
seven years, when all the indigenous species of fruit come into season
together. Alternatively, smaller crops of various fruits flourish every year
atthe same time." Cheryl KNott of Harvard spent over 15,000 hours observing
orangutans -- she even put plastic down underneath their trees to collect
their dropping so she could analyze what they ate, etc. During the fruiting
season season, the orangutans put on fat. During the non-fruiting season,
orangutans ate twigs, grasses, termites, ants and the occasional meat of
another primate (sounds like high protein to me); lived off their fat base
and burned ketones. During the non-fruiting season, their urine indicated low
levels of insulin (also low estrogen).  During the fruiting season, the
animals had high insulin, put on a fat base and had high estrogen. We, like
them, were originally seasonal breeders and needed a carbohydrate source to
reproduce.  Obviously an ice age was not necessary to make orangutans into
carbohydrate energy savers!

Namaste, Liz
<A HREF="http://www.csun.edu/~ecm59556/Healthycarb/index.html">
http://www.csun.edu/~ecm59556/Healthycarb/index.html</A>