RE: evolution and diet (was: FITNESS: Diet and Exercise)

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Thu Apr 17 2003 - 04:00:20 MDT

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    From: gts [mailto:gts_2000@yahoo.com]
    > It's extremely likely that hominids have been eating
    > fermented fruits for millions of years. Also organisms in our
    > gut are producing alcohol constantly.

    Can you provide references for the two statements above? I haven't
    heard either of them before and would like to learn more.

    > In fact we've evolved
    > an enzyme for the specific purpose of metabolizing alcohol
    > (called alcohol dehydrogenase, if memory serves). The
    > evidence suggests very strongly that the human genome expects
    > modest amounts of alcohol.

    The liver enzymes involved in metabolizing alcohol also metabolize a
    number of other compounds. For example, they're important in the
    metabolic clearing of GHB (which is part of the reason why combining
    GHB and alcohol is dangerous).

    For that reason, I'd be cautious about over-interpreting the presence
    of these enzymes as evidence for co-evolution of humans and alcohol
    consumption. That might be why the enzyme is there, or there might be
    some other reason(s).

    Very interesting theory on prehistoric alcohol use though. The
    consensus among anthropologists is that every human culture yet
    studied has used chemical or ritual means to intentionally explore
    mental states (e.g., "get high"), so if there was some easy way for
    our hunter-gatherer ancestors to extract alcohol from the environment,
    it wouldn't be too surprising for them to find and make use of it.

    cheers,
    mez



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