Well, I ranted too, but I think it is important that we do. I sort of do not understand why nutritionists refuse to change their stance when it is obvious that their recommendations are not working.

Here is theory of mine:

Quite a lot of nutritionists are young, thin women who exercise a great deal. They eat a very low calorie, low fat diet. They have been obsessed with being skinny and eating as little as possible since adolescence.They are convinced that fat people are just gluttonous slobs. I think most of them have the worst combination of personality traits: borderline eating disorder behavior, combined with a smugness about their thinness. The problem is that the way the "profession" of nutrition exists currently, it is just the perfect place for someone like this to thrive.

Oh, you preach it, sister!

When I started it was incredibly soothing to read things explained by knowledgeable people; I learned so much! I used an online tool to track my vitamins; and I was meeting or exceeding every one except D. Stuff like that really kept me going; and it was all because of the internet.

Err... no, you have far more African ancestors than you do European ones. No one is 100% Northern European. Homo Sapiens started in Africa 200,000 years ago and only 40,000 years ago got to Europe. Our genome isn't determined by those we can trace on Ancestory.com.

Before homo sapiens, we had a whole lot of primate ancestors too.

Hmm. I haven't studied anthropology in depth but I've been doing some looking around lately about early human ancestors in Britain and keep finding information that puts the date much earlier. This, for example.

I certainly don't want to argue against coconut, though.

Hmmm... considering the timeline I found Homo Sapiens were only found in Africa that long ago. Perhaps they're referencing a near cousin? Like homo erectus or neandertals? Those lines died out though.

I am out of my depth.

Neanderthals interbred with homo sapiens and are part of some of our ancestry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/s...eanderthal.html

Interesting, but they're not our ancestors unless they actually evolved into neanderthals, and its a currently debated issue. There were many human species that left africa much earlier than our ancestors and then continued evolving - some like neanderthals we eventually interbred with. Though humans of European descent have some neaderthal DNA, Africans don't. The amount of neanderthal DNA we have is tiny, we're much more a product of Africa, than of Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_antecessor


Lee

Neandertal DNA has been sequenced and, at most, humans have about 2-4% Neandertal DNA. Actually, it might be limited to Europeans.

Neandertals and humans share a common ancestor. Like fish and birds do --if you go back far enough.

No, Africans don't have neanderthal DNA.

And yes there's a 'trunk' of DNA running through all living things.


Lee

There are at least two important stories behind the history of the coconut. One is the story of the domestication of the coconut by humans, probably in the Pacific around Indonesia, spreading from there throughout the tropics and back to Africa. This occurred during the last several thousand years, not 40,000 years ago or before. This article contains the science, and an excellent graphic display at the end:

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22438.aspx

However, there was an earlier dispersal, prior to human activity, about which less appears known. It is quite possible that ancestral humans had access to the earlier coconut prior to the domestication event several thousand years ago:




http://phys.org/news105629196.html

What? You mean that we didn't just show up 6000 yrs ago?

just kidding

Better neanderthal/human explanation.


So, while there are other Homo lines, they're related by common ancestor, they're not directly descended from one another. A chart would show this much better, but I haven't found one.

What impressed me about coconut is that it is such a nutritious food. The oil does amazing healing things, including Alzheimer's.

http://alzheimersweekly.com/content...ementia-therapy

For me, it is the ONLY oil on earth which does not aggravate my face while moisturizing; I am trying an extensive trial to see if it continues to be good for my face. I also have a big spoonful for breakfast, and I have a few lovely recipes for coconut, and coconut flour, that I can enjoy without trouble, at least so far.

I remain pro-coconut until it indicates it is not my friend.

Of course you are right Nancy. Though one would add that "bushiness" is characteristic of hominid evolution and genetics generally. So while there are main lines of descent, there tend to be small contributions from other hominid types. It is not clear what the biological significance of this is. We do know the (currently) mysterious Denisovans also contributed genes that have been incorporated into our genome. Evidently, some 4 to 6 % of Melanesian DNA comes from that source.


As of a hundred thousand years ago, there were at least six extant hominid types walking the Earth: Erectus, Denisovans, Neanderthal, anatomically-modern humans, H. Floresiensis, and the north African finds that differ from us, ie the types found at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.

While I find this diversity fascinating -- especially in that it is not commonly known --you are quite right that our line and genome is relatively distinct, quite young, and that the contributions from other hominids since our origins ~200,000 years ago are modest at best.