Sandy
>Could someone give me a quick synopsis as to the paleofood concept of
>nutrition is?

Welcome.

This list is _not_ a instincto list and lots of members get
justifiably
annoyed at raw food preachers who sometimes roll into town. In any
case,
instincto is probably the most radical paleodiet, since it is entirely
raw
and unmixed. The rawfoods list is a more appropriate place for
instincto
discussions and you'll find a wealth of instincto info/discussion in
the
raw food archives at

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/raw-food.html

The paleodiet practiced by most here is often cooked and often largely
meat-based. The book Neanderthin by Ray Audette describes such a
cooked
paleo-diet.

That said...

>Also, since I see  the last few posts discussing roe, I wonder if you all
know
>of the high mercury levels in the hair analysis of zephyr and his friends
who
>eat a lot of raw fish. Any thoughts?

Sandy speaks of a couple longtime instinctos who have had various
health
challenges and now find they have _extremely_ high levels of mercury.
Each
had eaten a few pounds of (smaller) raw tuna per week for several
years
purchased fresh from the Hilo port on the big island of Hawaii. The
head
was considered the best part, esp behind the eyes--perhaps these are
important accumulation points, who knows?

Any thoughts? Well after it is confirmed that the tuna has high levels
of
mercury (probably very soon--samples are being tested in the mainland
now)
then I would say I'll eat lower on the ocean food chain. And eat less
seafood. And get a mercury test done once in a while if I'm eating a
lot of
seafood. And, maybe, eat roe instead of flesh since it is a far more
nutrient dense portion of seafood (though maybe it is more
contaminated, I
don't know.)

It is a very troubling thing since good brain fats are found in fatty
fish--the same fatty fish that bio-accumulate toxins in the ocean. And
most
people have no source of entirely pastured beef muscle, fat, organs,
and
marrow (though ironically they are easily available on the big island
of
Hawaii) which would, theoretically, contain some of those brain fats
as
well. But perhpas the cattle are bio-accumulating toxins as well.

Overall, Sandy, I wouldn't rush to generalize from a couple hardcore
instinctos to the whole of paleodiets, most of which are somewhat
cooked.
For example, it is rumored that many European instinctos consider that
"too
much meat" (or tuna!) leads very quickly to the development of
tumors--which disolve away when meat is limited (to say 10%). It
appears
that many folks here eat as much or more meat (and over a longer time)
as
an instincto does when s/he's on top of it. And I have yet to here any
tumor problems reported here. But of course, only instinctos are
eating raw
meat exclusively. Who knows? Perhaps mercury (and/or other toxins) is
less
absorbed if the seafood is cooked. I have heard various reports on
that so
I don't know what to trust yet.

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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