Tell me, how much do you know about Africa. Let's start with Africa, about seven million years ago, because that's where human life began. The climate, the creation of our ancestors, our beloved kin of bacteria, fungi and plants, eased from wet to dry.
Cradled in the grasses were large herbivores. Approximately 25 milllion years ago, in the exuberance of evolution, a few plants tried growing their bases instead of their tips. Grazing would not kill the plants, quite the opposite actually. It would encourage them by stimulating root growth. All plants want nitrogen and predigested nutrients, and ruminants could provide those to the grasses as they grazed. This is why, unlike other plants, grasses contain no toxins or chemical repellents, no mechanical deterrents like thorns or spines to discourage animals. Grasses want to be grazed. Bear in mind, it was grass that created cows, human so called 'domestication' was, in comparison, just the tiniest tug on the bovine genome, and cows tugged back with the lactose tolerance gene.
Our direct line lived in trees, until the trees began to disappear. We had two evolutionary edges to see us through, our disposable thumbs and our omnivorous digestion. We had the capacity to manipulate tools and we had bodies equipped with both the instincts and the digestion to handle a range of foods. Well, some animals are monofeeders. You must be thinking, what does that mean? Example, koalas eat only eucalyptus and fig wasps dine only figs. Monofeeding is a gamble, if your food source fails, you go down with it. But a brain, which is a huge energy sink, can be small for a monofeeder, which spares energy for every other function.
Human are not monofeeders. Back before we were human, when we were tree dwellers, we ate mainly fruit, leaves and insects. But from the moment we stood upright, we've been eating large ruminants. Four million years ago, Australopithecines, our species' forerunners, ate meat. Anyone studied human Anthropology or evolution before? You would have heard of it, and might be familiar with this species.
Cradled in the grasses were large herbivores. Approximately 25 milllion years ago, in the exuberance of evolution, a few plants tried growing their bases instead of their tips. Grazing would not kill the plants, quite the opposite actually. It would encourage them by stimulating root growth. All plants want nitrogen and predigested nutrients, and ruminants could provide those to the grasses as they grazed. This is why, unlike other plants, grasses contain no toxins or chemical repellents, no mechanical deterrents like thorns or spines to discourage animals. Grasses want to be grazed. Bear in mind, it was grass that created cows, human so called 'domestication' was, in comparison, just the tiniest tug on the bovine genome, and cows tugged back with the lactose tolerance gene.
Our direct line lived in trees, until the trees began to disappear. We had two evolutionary edges to see us through, our disposable thumbs and our omnivorous digestion. We had the capacity to manipulate tools and we had bodies equipped with both the instincts and the digestion to handle a range of foods. Well, some animals are monofeeders. You must be thinking, what does that mean? Example, koalas eat only eucalyptus and fig wasps dine only figs. Monofeeding is a gamble, if your food source fails, you go down with it. But a brain, which is a huge energy sink, can be small for a monofeeder, which spares energy for every other function.
Human are not monofeeders. Back before we were human, when we were tree dwellers, we ate mainly fruit, leaves and insects. But from the moment we stood upright, we've been eating large ruminants. Four million years ago, Australopithecines, our species' forerunners, ate meat. Anyone studied human Anthropology or evolution before? You would have heard of it, and might be familiar with this species.
I would try not to discuss too much about human evolution and anthropology, but anyone who is interested to read about this species, go ahead and enjoy it. This species, primarily based in Africa, was eating grass-feeding animals, the large ruminants swaddled in savanna.
We come from a long line of hunters, we are hunter gatherers. This is what we learned, and in the learning, we became human. We made tools to take what the grasses offered, large animals laden with nutrients, more nutrients that we could ever hope to find in fruit and leaves. Our brains are twice as large as they should be for a primate our size. Meanwhile, our digestive tract are 60 percent smaller. Our bodies were built by nutrient dense foods.
Now, let's compare humans to gorilla. Gorillas are vegetarians and they have both the smallest brains and the largest digestive tracts of any primate. We are the opposite. And our brains, the true legacy of our ancestors, need to be fed.
Well, what can I say, the vegetarians have their own story, a very different one than the one told in the bones and tools, teeth and skulls. If we really look at gorillas, what we find are animals that contain the fermentative bacteria necessary to digest cellulose. We humans contain no such thing.
For most of us, the bodies beneath our skin, inside our ribs, are unknown territory. But if we lay aside the story we long for, and listen to our bodies, our biology will not lie. Now, check this out. There are two small differences between humans and dogs. One is that our canine teeth are shorter, and the second, our intestines are longer. We are omnivore, we are built to eat meat, for the protein and fat it provides. There is absolutely no debate about it, and the vegetarians can argue all day long but the fact is, we were hunters, our meat eating heritage, is an inescapable fact.
Life, is only possible through death. Everything is dependant on killing, whether directly or indirectly. You are either doing it, or waiting for someone else to do it for you. Our ancestors knew how to use their tools. Dangerous animals such as rhinoceros, wild horses, mammoths and cave bears, were large and strong and without defenses, our primal ancestors would have been snapped into two by the jaw strength of a cave bear.
Agriculture, comes with 'diseases of civilization'. Understand that no one speaks of diseases of hunter gatherers. It is because they are largely disease free. Look around us, do you notice more and more people are suffering from chronic diseases and health illnesses? List of the diseases includes arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, cancer and lots more. A whole host of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. These diseases are ubiquitous amongst the civilized and are absolute rarities for hunter gatherers.
Do bear in mind, cereal grains which you eat every morning for months and years, are a relatively recent addition to the human diet and represent a dramatic departure from those foods to which we are genetically adapted. We are eating foods that didn't exist until few thousands years ago, domesticated annuals, especially grains, and even more their industrial endpoint of refined flours, sugars and oils, particularly cooking oils.
Do remember, our teeth are made to eat meats, not cellulose. Our stomachs are singular and not multiple, and our stomachs secrete acid, butchering tools are found besides butchered bones, and to state the obvious, we are contemporary hunter gatherers.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment