Re: that book I was trying to tell you about

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

--- Elaine <http://www.hotmail.com/~et> wrote:
> Yes -- I remember that one.  Also, the one I want to read (after I get a job 
> 
> and have time) is the new one "Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality 
> Shaped Human Evolution" by Leonard Shlain
>
> I heard him on KPFA

I did, too.  It was interesting.  I would like to see Natalie Angier and
Leonard Shlain duke it out.

> and missed the talk at Stacey's in Nov but his theories 
> are interesting.   Evolutionary psychology and evolutionary behavior are 
> still in their infancies but moving fast.  One of the most interesting 
> courses I took at Cal State was evolutionary biology.  That was 10 years ago 
> -- it would be fascinating to see all the research that's been done since.   
> 
> I was reading yesterday about a new theory about anorexia -- that the 
> disease has nothing to do with psychology and sex except as a starting 
> point.  The young girls do try to get thin like the models but then a deeper 
> evolutionary gene kicks in that served our species well during our long 
> millenium of hunter/gatherer.  The ability to be energized by starvation 
> helped the group gear up to move on the another hunting/gathering ground.  
> This voluntary starvation is what kicks in after the body weight goes down 
> below a certain level.   That is why the girls then can't eat even if they 
> want to.    The same reason we're all overweight -- the genes allow us to 
> pack in food energy as fat because the food supply was sporadic until 
> agriculture started.   I wish I could find that original book I had read out 
> of the library about paleo-nutrition.  There are others now but that one was 
> written by two nutritionists and two evolutionary biologists.    They 
> advised keeping our diet as much as we can like our paleolithic ancestors.

Leena Berman on KPFA advocates this, too, except she thinks that it should
mostly be meat-based.  I know that most vegans disagree with Leena
Berman's analysis; I guess I disagree with her, too.

> You're already doing it as a vegan (except that we did on occasion acquire 
> very lean game).    My dietary restriction now (no tomatoes, no spices, no 
> hot peppers, no coffee or tea, no acid (although I break that one for 
> citrus) makes it hard to get taste in a vegan diet.  Tomato and spices are 
> important in veganism -- otherwise, a lot of stuff is really flat.

One cookbook I have uses very few spices: People Who Love Animals
cookbook.  We don't use it much since it is so bland, but it's heavy with
tahini.

> P.S.  Were you the one who mentioned something about an artificial sperm?

Yes, I mentioned it.  I did not see the story on the internet, so I may have
misheard the story.