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

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 20:02:19 MDT

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    On Tue, 15 Apr 2003, Hal Finney wrote:

    > The gene pool in a population
    > subjected to new selective pressures can change very quickly; as Damien
    > says, in just a few dozen generations.

    Hal, are you certain about this? Such a claim seems rather fast
    if the selection effects are weak (as I suspect diet would be).

    There is no doubt that there are founder effects when someone goes
    off, starts a new "tribe" and has a particular set of genes. But
    humans seem to have evolved sufficient ability to consume just about
    anything (from veggies to meat) that I don't think a few dozen generations
    would be sufficient to tune the genetic makeup much one way or another.

    Robert

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