Posted on 12/09/2004 10:44:58 AM PST by Helms
- 03-22-2004, 07:40 PM
By Gilien Silsby and Gia Scafidi
When our human ancestors started eating meat, evolution served up a healthy bonus - the development of genes that offset high cholesterol and chronic diseases associated with a meat-rich diet, according to a new USC study. Those ancestors also started living longer than ever before - an unexpected evolutionary twist.
The research by USC professors Caleb Finch and Craig Stanford appeared in the Quarterly Review of Biology.
"At some point - probably about 2 1/2 million years ago - meat eating became important to humans," said Stanford, chair of the anthropology department in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, "and when that happened, everything changed."
"Meat contains cholesterol and fat, not to mention potential parasites and diseases like Mad Cow," he said. "We believe humans evolved to resist these kinds of things. Mad Cow disease - which probably goes back millions of years - would have wiped out the species if we hadn't developed meat-tolerant genes."
Finch, the paper's lead author, and Stanford found unexpected treasure troves in research ranging from chronic disease in great apes to the evolution of the human diet. They also focused on several genes, including apolipoprotein E (apoE), which decreases the risk of Alzheimer's and vascular disease in aging human adults.
Chimpanzees - which eat more meat than any other great ape, but are still largely vegetarian - served as an ideal comparison because they carry a different variation of the apoE gene, yet lack human ancestors' resistance to diseases associated with a meat-rich diet.
While chimpanzees have a shorter life span compared to humans, they demonstrate accelerated physical and cerebral development, remain fertile into old age and experience few brain-aging changes relative to the devastation of Alzheimer's seen in humans today. Finch and Stanford argued that the new human apoE variants protected the chimpanzees.
In a series of "evolutionary tradeoffs," the researchers said, humans lost some advantages over those primates, but gained a higher tolerance to meat, slower aging and longer lifespan.
Still, if humans developed genes to compensate for a meat-rich diet, why do so many now suffer from high cholesterol and vascular disease?
The answer is a lack of exercise and moderation, according to the researchers.
"This shift to a diet rich in meat and fat occurred at a time when the population was dominated by hunters and gatherers," said Finch, a USC University Professor and holder of the ARCO-William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging.
"The level of physical activity among these human ancestors was much higher than most of us have ever known," he said. "Whether humans today, with our sedentary lifestyle, remain highly tolerant to meat eating remains an open question researchers are looking into."
Stanford, co-director of the university's Goodall Research Center, said that modern-day humans "tend to gorge ourselves with meat and fat."
"For example, our ancestors only ate bird eggs in the spring when they were available," he said. "Now we eat them year-round. They may have hunted one deer a season and eaten it over several months. We can go to the supermarket and buy as much meat as we want."
"I think we can learn a lesson from this," Stanford said. "Eating meat is fine, but in moderation and with a lot of exercise."
Yes along with there were no seasons. They ate them when ever they could kill them. One deer would last a family a week or so at the most. If it was the main meat source.
Pass the A-1. ;')
well said.
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Sounds like USC needs to stick to football. "Chronic diseases associated with a meat rich diet"? How do predators survive and how do chimps, who eat lots of meat, survive??
Then I hope you're a guy.
I'm a vegetarian once removed...I let the pigs, cows, & chickens eat all that vegetarian stuff - and I eat them. :)
The reason to eat meat is simply that is tastes better than anything else. If it doesn't to you, then perhaps you have inherited primitive monkey-like veggie chomping genes. Or perhaps you watched too much of Capt. Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans when young.
8-{]
So9
All right, I'll admit it. That mushroom comment has me flummoxed. (And I'll eat eggs-they come from a friend of mine who keeps show hens as a hobby. I'm lactose intolerant, otherwise.)
Invited by vegetarians for dinner? Point out that since you'd no doubt
be made aware of their special dietary requirements, tell them about
yours, and ask for a nice steak.
Mushrooms are not vegan material. At least not if they want to be 'pure' as their philosophy demands.
Basically if you eat mushrooms you are indirectly eating meat.
I was invited, and they turned out to be cannibals, living under a vegetarian cover. The scoundrels! I barely escaped. Whew. ;')
My best friends invited me many times during their vegetarian years (they decided to quit meat-eating early in their marriage) and the food was generally pretty good. I don't eat meat at every meal anyway. :')
No. Next!
First, catch one vegetarian.
Gut, drain and skin in a standard manner for large game.
Remove head, hands and feet, reserve with skin on for final presentation.
Given the lean quality of most vegetarian flesh, stewing is an excellent cooking method. Poaching or braising will also work well. Roasting, frying, or broiling will require basting, tenderizing or added fat for best results.
Cube meat into one inch square, leaving excess in larger chunks for freezing.
Marinate in herbs (recommend rosemary, thyme, pepper, and perhaps juniper berries) and good red wine for several hours, to help tenderize.
Set water to boil in an appropriately sized cauldron or pot. You may need an extra large burner or open fire if you're making a very large quantity.
Add several bones to the water and boil briskly.
Brown meat lightly, in small batches, in a large skillet with butter and chopped onion. Brown lightly and drain when finished on a paper towel.
Remove bones from water and add barley, if desired.
Add carrots, parsnips, and meat.
Add bay leaves, bouquet garni, and a few generous splashes of Worcestershire sauce and more red wine.
Add celery, mushrooms (wild recommended), chopped onions and firm fresh green beans.
When done, serve hot with crusty bread. Can be presented in large tureen with seasonal greens or flowers intermingled with head, hands and feet arrayed around the serving bowl.
Especially festive for a holiday meal!
Next time: Vegetarian sausage and a modern haggis, plus making your own parchment!
I would try the recipe, but you know the old saying, "you are what you eat." ;')
I'm reminded of the Far Side Cartoon where everyone decides to become a vegetarian, and through a reducto ad absurdem argument such as you are offering, end up hanging upside-down on tree branches because they don't want to step on bugs, either. The vegetarian rule is simple: don't eat anything which has eyes, parents, or screams when you kill it. I've heard a hundred variations on the silly "plants live off dead matter" argument; you're hardly original.
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