>
>So how many historical, common diets were 'balanced'?
>
The answer is virtually all. If they were not, the societies in which they were
consumed would not have survived. It doesn't take much to suffer from vitamin
deficiencies-- pellagra, rickets, scurvy, rickets, etc. Without protein the
body decays quickly. Without meeting basic nutritional diets, people would
therefore die before reproducing.

One problem is the "statistics" that are used to describe people's diets
usually refer to products sold or major products cultivated. Most people
consume much greater variety than statistics suggest.

I've always loved the quote for Joseph Fielding:

"How can any man complain of hunger," said Peter, "in a country where such
excellent salads, are to be gathered in almost every field?"

[Joseph Fielding. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His
Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. London: A. Millar, 1742.]

Also, it isn't just what you eat, it is how it is prepared and what you eat it
with. Diets of indigenous peoples in Central America, for instance, are 70
percent corn (maize). By nutritional standards they should be dead. But they
prepare the corn through a process call nixtimalization, which frees up
necessary proteins. They also combine corn with beans, and the combination
produces different proteins than consuming the foods separately, etc.

Andy Smith