Microscopic crystals from the rinds of squashes and gourds are helping scientists to discover the origins of agriculture in the New World. It was previously thought that plant domestication started some 10,000 years ago in the upland regions of Mexico and South America, but scientists are learning that agriculture may actually have originated in the lowland regions of Central and South America.
Microscopic plant crystals, known as phytoliths, as well as tiny starch grains and fossilized pollen reliably record the earliest use of domesticated plants.
Fossilized pollen evidence from cultivated plants similar to modern forms of maize were found in the Mexican state of Tabasco was dated to around 5,100 BC--about 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.
According to scientists, since the ancient pollen was found so far from its native habitat, it indicates that people brought the seeds there to be planted. The plants would have been selectively bred over thousands of years to produce the type of corn we see today.
Finding plant remains can be difficult since leaves, wood, fibers, nuts and cobs quickly rot in tropical lowland regions. Upland regions were searched more commonly because access was easier and the chances of finding evidence were higher.
Despite this, some archaeologists did search lowland regions and found microscopic plant remains that had been overlooked for some time. Scientists say that research has shown that pollen, starch grains, and phytoliths are reliable evidence that can be linked to the origins of domesticated plants to prove where and when agriculture began.
Science Blog February 14, 2003
As for grains in the human diet overall, there is fairly strong Paleolithic evidence that 10,000 years ago most humans did not consume many grains. They were hunter-gatherers who subsisted mostly on vegetables and meats. Ten thousand years is a mere blip in a biological sense for humans; over 99 percent of our genetic make-up was in place, in fact, before we ever started consuming grains.
When considered from this perspective alone, it is not too surprising that grains can cause a wide array of health issues: contemporary humans have not suddenly evolved mechanisms to incorporate the high carbohydrates from starch- and sugar-rich foods into their diet.
In the early spring of 2003, Putnam will be publishing my first major book called The No-Grain Diet, which will be available in bookstores throughout the United States and beyond. The No-Grain Diet will provide you with a comprehensive and practical approach to implementing an individualized dietary plan with the aid of nutritional typing that leads to your healing, ideal weight and optimal health.
In addition to its focus on my nutrition plan, what will set The No-Grain Diet apart from other dietary and health books is my focus on maintaining the healthy habits you adopt; whether people change their diet to lose weight, heal a disease, guard against illness, or simply improve their health, they are often successful at the start.
However, as time goes by, most fall right back into the old patterns that sabotaged their health in the first place. This is because there was only a focus on changing negative physical habits, not changing negative emotions contributing to those habits. In The No-Grain Diet, I will show you how, by using EFT, you can eliminate those negative emotions and far more easily maintain your healthy eating plan and lifestyle for good.
Some of my patients ask me why, if grains "are bad," the Bible would reference them as acceptable. I am no biblical scholar and so cannot comment on whether the words used in the Bible (and translated from original sources) actually mean "grains" or food in some larger sense.
But, I am not making an absolute blanket statement that grains "are bad;" instead, I am stating that most of us would definitely benefit by either drastically reducing or eliminating them from our diet, and throughout Mercola.com, and in my forthcoming book, The No-Grain Diet, I show you why.
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Dangerous Grains The Paleolithic Diet and Its Modern Implications Scientific Support for A No/Low-Grain Diet
Dangerous Grains
The Paleolithic Diet and Its Modern Implications
Scientific Support for A No/Low-Grain Diet