QUESTIONS:

1. Has anyone here had success with abandoning veggies altogether, in favor of fruit?

2. Has anyone here had success with roasting veggies without any oil or seasoning whatsoever?  If so, how (preferred veggies, times, temperatures, methods, etc.)?

3. Can anyone here point me to any solid anthropological evidence regarding whether our ancient ancestors preferred fruits or veggies, and in what ratio?

DETAILS:

I'm new to this forum, but you might say that I take paleo/caveman eating to an extreme.  I try to prepare and eat food as close as possible to how our ancient ancestors might have prepared and ate them (within reason).  I've been experimenting for about 5 years, and I'm currently extremely happy with my meat and fruit intake.  I eat both meat and fruit alone, one ingredient at a time, without any seasoning or mixing, as our ancient ancestors might have (with the exception of salt on meat, since I prefer salt to blood; and yes, I do grill my meat).

What I'm still not sure about is whether and how to fit veggies into my diet.  As I'm becoming better at feeding myself, I'm becoming more of a purist, and I'm at the point where I'm committed to preparing and eating veggies as similarly to our ancestors as possible, just as I do with fruit and meat.  I refuse to use any added fat when cooking veggies, because I doubt our ancient ancestors did so.  I don't enjoy raw veggies whatsoever (please don't try to convince me otherwise).  And I doubt our ancestors steamed veggies.  I can only imagine that they dry-roasted their veggies alongside their meats over an open fire.  I suppose I should try that, but I'm not optimistic that it will turn out very appetizing, compared to meat and fruit.  I've tried grilling veggies without oil, but the veggies tend to burn on the outside and/or remain undercooked on the inside. 

So I'm considering dry-roasting in the oven or on the stove.  I'm thinking of starting with carrots and mushrooms, maybe also brussels sprouts, asparagus, etc.

I'm also considering abandoning veggies altogether and sticking with a diet purely of fruit and meat.  I know, I've read all the stuff about modern fruits being more sugary than ancient wild fruits, but whatever—I'm guessing that domesticated fruits are a heck of a lot closer to a cavemen diet than veggies coated with oil.  I have a hard time imagining cavemen pressing olives or rendering lard.

Thoughts?

If you are going to eat your veggies like a caveman, then you'd need to eat your meat like a caveman, too.

That means favoring:
- Animal brains.
- Bone marrow.
- Other organs.

And then, when you run out of the above, muscle meat.

If you eat muscle meat primarily and eschew veggies you are likely to find with significant deficits in some vitamins or minerals. You can probably find some of them in seafood, if you eat those, but not all.

Here's a very good thread on the issue of meat only.
http://cavemanforum.com/diet-and-nutrition/basically-meat-only/
You'd have solved the vitamin C issue by eating fruit, but will still probably encounter other issues.

I think that paleolithic man probably ate leaves raw, so raw salads would be the way to go for leafy greens.

For root vegetables, you could eat onions or carrots raw.  That said, paleo man might have cooked them.  If they did, I'd guess they probably cooked them under the fire or in the embers.  They might even have been partially cooked in fat - I can imagine roasting meat on a spit and letting the fat drip through the fire and onto the vegetables.

There's unfortunately very little anthropological evidence about vegetable or fruit intake during the paleolithic.  There's substantial evidence for a large meat intake, but whether vegetable or fruit intake was moderate, minimal, or nonexistent, and what the proportion was of fruits to vegetables, we don't know for sure.

Vegetables would have been a more reliable and available food source, however fruit, when available, would have been eaten. I agree that cooking stuff in oil would have been unheard of, but when used as a stuffing, or an underlying layer when baking, vegetables would have been covered with fat.

Humans are animals of opportunity so I don't think it reasonable to assume that vegetables did not play a significant part in our diet. In addition, our digestive tract and dentition point to a mixed diet that includes the grinding of fibrous matter.

Paleo people would have been able to roast on spits, cook in the embers, stuff food with things and bake in pit ovens - either covered with leaves or in the skin. Considering that they were as intelligent and sophisticated as we are it is reasonable to assume that they made use of vegetables in their particular 'cuisine'. They would also have had a profound knowledge of available herbs for medicinal and culinary use. Don't confuse media 'cavemen/neanderthals' with the actuality of early people - who had a rich culture. Oh, Neanderthals were pretty sophisticated too and not the drooling apelike beings portrayed in 'popular' media.

It's not reasonable to assume that paleolithic humans were only able to put dry, unseasoned vegetables on a fire. Your idea of roasting is much better so put the vegetable in with, under or stuffed inside the meat. I don't think that adding salt approximates early cooking (and blood) as much as it appeases modern palates. Salt was a luxury food even in medieval times. In the same way, early humans ate organ meats and therefore more fat in their meat so rendering down lard to cook with is a way of paying lip service to this.

Towards the end of the paleolithic baskets were woven and hide pots would have been in use. They don't look great but they can be used for cooking

Veggies coated with oil are like veggies coated with fat, but many modern fruits are like fruits coated with sugar - they have been bred for size, juiciness and sugar content and are eaten out of season and geographical area.

If you like the way you are eating that's fine but I don't think it accurate. I also do not think that paleo eating should be about (a severely restricted) re-enactment. We have better technology and it's reasonable to use our metal cookware and better form of ovens and new methods, as you do when you use a grill.