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

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 09:44:32 MDT

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    From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky [mailto:sentience@pobox.com]
    > The way Paleo diet theory works is that you make sense of the human
    > metabolism by assuming that it evolved to fit a Paleolithic
    > diet, then you feed that metabolism whatever makes it work
    > best, whether or not that constitutes a Paleolithically
    > realistic food supply.
    >
    > Think of it as a two-cycle step:
    >
    > 1) Early humans adapt toward metabolisms making better use of the
    > available paleolithic diet. I.e., metabolism optimized for
    > presented diet.
    >
    > 2) Modern humans deduce which modernly possible diet
    > provides the best fuel for the evolved metabolism. I.e., diet
    > optimized for presented metabolism.

    Thanks for the clarification. My skepticism remains and is focused on
    the concept of optimization.

    Optimized for what? For rapid growth? For least energy used in
    breaking down the food? For greatest free glucose to feed the brain?
    For largest energy supply to hunt and fend off predators? For longest
    life in our ancestral environment? For longest life today?

    These things are not necessarily compatible. A caloric restriction
    diet probably slows human aging but would almost certainly have been
    fatal in prehistoric times due to its side effects and increased
    vulnerability to famine.

    A red meat and refined sugar based diet would have been fantastic for
    our paleolithic ancestors - lots of calories, rapid growth, lots of
    protein for building muscle and healing wounds, lots of glucose to
    fuel the brain. Since our paleolithic ancestors almost all died off
    during childhood or early adulthood, they would never be affected by
    the high rates of diabetes and heart disease that come from such a
    diet. For modern humans, heart disease is the number one killer.

    Here's another example - one of the more promising genes found to slow
    aging in drosophila is the INDY gene. Fruit flies with a mutant copy
    of INDY live almost twice as long as genetical normal fruit flies and
    have normal vigor, behavior, fertility, etc... The only downside we
    know of today is reduced fertility at low food levels.

    How does the INDY gene mutant work? It makes metabolism *less
    efficient* by mucking up a carboxylase cotransporter.

    So again, I'll say that optimizing a diet for our evolved metabolism
    is not necessarily going to produce health, longevity, or fitness
    benefits.

    mez



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