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The Human Branch

May 23, 2005 03:38 PM

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Vegans sometimes argue that during the bulk of the evolutionary history of hominids vegetables were the primarily or only source of food. That seems to be true of many hominids, but it is not true of humans or even chimpanzees and baboons. Up until about 2-3 million years ago, hominids did feed mostly on plants.

Note where A. boisei and A. robustus split from the human branch of the hominid family; about 2.5 million years ago when humans began eating meat. Boisei and Robustus were vegetarians. They are gone, a dead end in the hominid family.

Dental isotopes of Neanderthals show them to be just below the wolf in their carnivory. Almost obligatory carnivores. Neanderthals passed from the scene about 35,000 years ago. Cro Magnon (homo sapiens sapiens) dentition reveals just less than this level of carnivory, and they are the predecessors to us all.

In Evolution and Nutrition, Crawford argues that the human brain requires more fatty acids (EPA and DHA in particular) than can be produced by a human consuming only plants. We, and other carnivores, rely upon other animals as a source of these brain-essential fatty acids. (Children raised on very low fat diets may have diminished brain development.)

Aiello argues that humans traded stomach tissue for brain tissue. Both tissues metabolize energy at about the same rate. When the human stomach diminished because we had access to high density nutrients and fatty acids in the tissues of prey, the metabolic costs of some stomach tissue could be allocated to brain tissue. This is the expensive tissue hypothesis.

Does that mean you can't be a vegan? Of course not, many are. There also are many vegan dropouts with sad stories to tell. Remarkably, I have been told by vegan students that potato chips are an acceptable food and they consume them avidly. Its your choice, but you have to be sophisticated to be a well-nourished vegan.

Our vegetables today are not as nutritious as when our ancestors consumed them, so that presents problems. On the other hand, the meat we usually buy is far from what our ancestors ate too. Too much saturated fat, trans fats, hormones, and antibiotics.

Hard choices.

I opt to derive the bulk of my food from plant and nut sources. But, I do eat a lot of meat. [Sidenote: the buffalo ration to a man in frontier forts was 6 pounds a day.] Wild fish and free range animals are my preferred choices, but they pose problems and are expensive. I get them when I can. Open range animals are raised on clean range land which preserves open space. Vegetables and grains take up open space and turn it into monocultures.

Open range cattle eat a variety of plants and insects and have little body fat or saturated fat. Game is excellent food and my favorite restaurant here in Utah is Buffalo Bistro in the little town of Glendale along Higway 89 on the way to Bryce Canyon from Zion. Their boar sausage is terrific and the buffalo steaks are the greatest.

· Evolutionary Fitness

Comments

Posted by: Flower Online [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 12, 2006 6:42 AM

I've stopped discussing the meat issue with vegans. I now suggest that they read "The Hunting Apes" and let them come to their own conclusions.

Posted by: Kevin Mullins at May 24, 2005 7:21 PM

Yes, Danny.

Up highway 14 there are two restaurants that are good. The highest of these is outstanding. I go by it often when I ride my KTM over Kolob Reservoir Road, a fast, beautiful dirt road high on the plateau over Zion, and then loop back to my home on the road leading out from Navajo Lake back to the eastern gate of Zion.

An amazing ride and a great restaurant. I wish they were open for lunch.

Posted by: Arthur De Vany at May 23, 2005 8:14 PM

I think I have eaten there! Cedar City also has a couple of places on the way up the canyon to Cedar Breaks well worth the time...the trout is fantastic.

Posted by: Danny John at May 23, 2005 7:05 PM

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