Talk: Dieting
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Paleolithic diet
- There is info at http://www.paleodiet.com --Juan M. Gonzalez 19:07 Aug 29, 2002 (PDT)
- As I understand it, the theory is that our digestive systems evolved before we had grains and beans to eat, so the healthiest things for us are meat, fish, fruit, nuts and whatever vegetables don't have to be cooked. (You don't have to eat them raw, but they have to be edible raw - unlike, say, a potato.) There are finer points. I'll do a page soon. zadcat 19:24 Aug 29, 2002 (PDT)
What makes potato inedible raw?
I don't make a habit of it, but I do eat bits of them raw while I'm chopping them. -- Zoe
- The classic demonstration of the contribution of smell to taste is to eat a raw apple and a raw potato while holding the nose and to not be able to tell the difference. Ortolan88
- According to the data at [1], raw potatoes, even with solanine and chaconine, don't seem too dangerous. Juan M. Gonzalez 19:44 Aug 29, 2002 (PDT)
- I don't think you'd want to eat very much raw potato at a sitting. I wasn't implying it was poisonous (although the green parts of a potato plant are no good for you, I seem to recall). zadcat 19:52 Aug 29, 2002 (PDT)
- They are difficult to digest because of protease inhibitors, which interfere with the digestion of protein. Eating raw potatoes in significant quantity will give you gas for this reason. --Silverback 08:00, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Could be something about the starches being harder to digest. I'm on a seafood diet myself ... ;-) -- Tarquin 01:09 Aug 30, 2002 (PDT)
Being underweight
Something that often seems to be missing from these type of articles is information about weight gain for those who might be seriously underweight. Of course, those are underweight are a minority, but I think they deserve some information too.
Potatoes and raw edibility
Potatoes are edible (if not very palitable) raw, but are slightly toxic. A few people do die from eating raw potatoes each year somewhere in the world but this is usually because they have been improperly stored and have started to sprout. It is in the eyes and the sprouting parts that the toxins are concentrated.
The reason that potatoes are excluded from the paleolithic diet is that their non-domesticated ancestors are significantly toxic without cooking and they are therefore neccessarily a post agricultural food. As well as the alkaloid toxins listed here a paleo-proponent might also be concerned about the lectins in potatoes and their possible role in autoimmune disease.
You might also want to look at the Arpad Pusztai affair which involved the toxicity of potatoes. Many argued that the rats were killed merely by the natural toxins in the potatoes rather than the anything present in the potatoes due to genetic modification.
