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Such grains were at least in minor usage 100k years ago, so it's not entirely fair to say the paleolithic diet didn't include them http://jetlib.com/news/2010/1

by Female 16y ago

Such grains were at least in minor usage 100k years ago, so it's not entirely fair to say the paleolithic diet didn't include them http://jetlib.com/news/2010/10/18/the-stone-age-food-pyramid-included-flour-made-from-wild-grains/ http://jetlib.com/news/2010/10/18/the-stone-age-food-pyramid... The grains you listed are also not poisonous. I don't see how they can argue that they'd be more poisonous than the other vegetables they advocate eating as part of a paleolithic diet. If anything the opposite is true. Poison tends to be in the leaf or stem of a plant, since this is the part most animals are likely to eat. If those grains those weren't being eaten, there's no reason to evolve defenses against being eaten!

awolf 16y ago
From Robb Wolf's book: "Let's look at this question in a way that paints the human history in a relative scale. If we stood on an American football field we could represent a timeline of human history in the following way: If we started walking from one end-zone toward the other we could walk 99.5 yards, and this would represent all of human history except the last 5,000 years or so... 99.5 of the 100 yards. This is when our genetics were selected for survival in a hunting-gathering lifeway and we were damn good at it. We evolved and adapted to this way of living and the interaction of our genetics and our environment made us who we were, and who we are. Our genetics are virtually identical to those of our early human ancestors from more than 120,000 years ago. The last 10,000 years, the time in which we transitioned from the hunting and gathering lifeway to agriculture, is the last half yard of our timeline." Here's a source for some of this stuff if you're interested : http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v56/n12/full/1601646a.html http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v56/n12/full/1601646a.htm... It's interesting that flour usage may date back 100k years. However the earliest use is not important. What is important is the start of widespread use. This is when our diets shifted and is the absolute earliest that man-kind as a whole could have even begun to evolve for such food sources.
etiam 16y ago
I'd be interested to see if there is any reference to support grains being used as human food 100 000 years ago; as far as I can tell the Nature story seems to indicate roughly 30 000 years for the new findings. Cultivation of grains is usually said to date back about 10 000 years before present. The time perspective to see this in is at least a couple of million years of evolution as what we label the genus Homo, and in the ballpark of 65 million years of evolution as primates. Seeds are rich in energy and nutrients to supply the plant embryo inside during the beginning of it's growth, and consequently heavily protected, be it by mechanical or chemical means. If this seems difficult to believe, consider the impact on a plant's reproductive success of getting its seeds destroyed versus receiving damage to some somatic tissues.

by Female 16y ago

awolf 16y ago

From Robb Wolf's book: "Let's look at this question in a way that paints the human history in a relative scale. If we stood on an American football field we could represent a timeline of human history in the following way: If we started walking from one end-zone toward the other we could walk 99.5 yards, and this would represent all of human history except the last 5,000 years or so... 99.5 of the 100 yards. This is when our genetics were selected for survival in a hunting-gathering lifeway and we were damn good at it. We evolved and adapted to this way of living and the interaction of our genetics and our environment made us who we were, and who we are. Our genetics are virtually identical to those of our early human ancestors from more than 120,000 years ago. The last 10,000 years, the time in which we transitioned from the hunting and gathering lifeway to agriculture, is the last half yard of our timeline." Here's a source for some of this stuff if you're interested : http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v56/n12/full/1601646a.html http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v56/n12/full/1601646a.htm... It's interesting that flour usage may date back 100k years. However the earliest use is not important. What is important is the start of widespread use. This is when our diets shifted and is the absolute earliest that man-kind as a whole could have even begun to evolve for such food sources.

etiam 16y ago

I'd be interested to see if there is any reference to support grains being used as human food 100 000 years ago; as far as I can tell the Nature story seems to indicate roughly 30 000 years for the new findings. Cultivation of grains is usually said to date back about 10 000 years before present. The time perspective to see this in is at least a couple of million years of evolution as what we label the genus Homo, and in the ballpark of 65 million years of evolution as primates. Seeds are rich in energy and nutrients to supply the plant embryo inside during the beginning of it's growth, and consequently heavily protected, be it by mechanical or chemical means. If this seems difficult to believe, consider the impact on a plant's reproductive success of getting its seeds destroyed versus receiving damage to some somatic tissues.