Dia Michels posted a pro-Margie Profet note, about her new book on pregnancy
and diet and morning sickness.  LactNet readers should know that Margie
Profet is NOT an "evolutionary biologist".  She has undergraduate degrees in
philosophy and physics, but dropped out of graduate school.  Yes, she got a
MacArthur genius grant and sits around her apartment in California pondering
the universe.  No, she is not held in high regard by scientists.  Her
theories about menstruation, for which she received a lot of media
attention, are pure poppycock, based on a fundamentally ethnocentric view of
women's biology.  She proposed that menstruation evolved as an adaptive way
for a woman's body to expel bacteria and viruses carried in by
sperm/penises, and therefore it was a wonderful, healthy process and we
should all be glad we menstruate month after month, year after year, decade
after decade.  Of course, this makes absolutely no sense evolutionarily, as
for all but the last 50 years, and still in most of the world today, women
hardly ever have menstrual periods because they spent the vast majority of
their reproductive years either pregnant or lactating and having lactational
amenorrhea.  A typical woman living in a hunting and gathering tribe, not
using any modern birth control methods, might have 10-15 periods during her
entire adult life.  Not exactly helpful for ridding the body of toxins
brought in by men.
        Her book on pregnancy and morning sickness has likewise been panned
by researchers in the field.

Just my .02 worth, as usual.

Kathy Dettwyler