razzle
Sat, Jan-04-03, 16:01
I was reading From RS McElvaine's Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History, and came across this on pages 92-93:
"Evolution does not produce traits that are harmful to the organism in the current environment, but neither does it check predelictions that carry no current danger. Another example of such a no-longer adaptive predisposition is the appetite humans have for sugar. In the wild, this craving was useful, and there was no danger of getting too much of it. But, as the dental bills in the prefluoridation era attested, that is no longer the case.... Our once adaptive appetite became dangerous when something that had been scarce became abundantly available. [He then quotes evolutionary biologist Leda Cosmides on how fast food places cater to cravings for foods that were rare but crucial to eat in limited amounts when we were hunter-gatherers.] In the ancestral environment, salt, sugar, and [animal] fat were "slow food"; humans could not obtain them quickly, or in large quantities. So we have no innate means of resisting them now that what was once slow food has become fast."
I'm curious as to what my fellow paleo folks think the sugar cravings or tastebuds are primarily for--fruit during its short season? safe vegetables? (Some of the healthiest veggies are pretty bitter to my tongue, still, like dandelion leaves.) What foods did these sweet taste receptors help us find that were necessary to survival?
"Evolution does not produce traits that are harmful to the organism in the current environment, but neither does it check predelictions that carry no current danger. Another example of such a no-longer adaptive predisposition is the appetite humans have for sugar. In the wild, this craving was useful, and there was no danger of getting too much of it. But, as the dental bills in the prefluoridation era attested, that is no longer the case.... Our once adaptive appetite became dangerous when something that had been scarce became abundantly available. [He then quotes evolutionary biologist Leda Cosmides on how fast food places cater to cravings for foods that were rare but crucial to eat in limited amounts when we were hunter-gatherers.] In the ancestral environment, salt, sugar, and [animal] fat were "slow food"; humans could not obtain them quickly, or in large quantities. So we have no innate means of resisting them now that what was once slow food has become fast."
I'm curious as to what my fellow paleo folks think the sugar cravings or tastebuds are primarily for--fruit during its short season? safe vegetables? (Some of the healthiest veggies are pretty bitter to my tongue, still, like dandelion leaves.) What foods did these sweet taste receptors help us find that were necessary to survival?