Quote:
Originally Posted by Athena  Lotus, by 'ideal', I mean all of those things. By evolution, and by what is optimal for us now. |
I want to untangle that, because "evolved" doesn't always mean "ideal."
Sucks, doesn't it?
Evolution selects for
reproductive fitness. Period. It doesn't directly select for longevity or necessarily long-term good health or old age, although these things might come about if they increased the reproductive fitness of subsequent generations (and there is some speculation that this is how menopause developed: mothers and grandmothers help the next generations to raise the children without worrying about supporting children of their own; topic is mired in controversy).
You can actually have a somewhat cruddy diet and make it to reproductive age, spawn some carpet-maggots, raise them to reproductive age, and die... and your genotype and phenotype survive to replicate. The diet that evolves in conjunction with this scenerio doesn't have to be "ideal". It just needs to get you to an age where you can raise a child to reproductive age.
BUT, if you ate a different diet (perhaps a vegan diet? perhaps a fruitarian diet? perhaps a donut diet?) you
personally would have a longer or better life, even though it's not the "naturally evolved" diet. So which diet is "ideal"?
Now, before everybody jumps on me, I'd like to brandish a minor in Anthropology (focus on biological/physical -- basically bones, genetics, and monkeys).