New Insights Into Healthful Compounds In Native American Diets In an advance toward understanding the early California Native American diet, food scientists have identified the full range of phytochemicals in tanoak acorns. Acorns were a staple in the diet of early Native Americans in California, comprising up to 50 percent of total food intake, Alyson E. Mitchell and colleagues note in a report in the current (Oct. 4) issue of the ACS biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Acorns are still used by Californian Native Americans -- special processing is needed to make the nuts edible -- to make...