Wheat is Murder

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cable

Actually, our hands are adapted to catch prey... by making tools.

If you carry this argument far enough, you will say that we are adapted to drink Coca-Cola and eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Because we had brains designed to:

think,
read,
write,
evolve as a society,
transmit information,
use tools,
build factories,
run farms,
raise chickens;
industrialise;
mass-market,
refine sugar;
invent kitchen
equipment;
advertise;
use money;
invent refrigerators;
manufacture tin cans;
create MNCs; and
open fast food restaurants

and that is the story of how we are evolutionarily designed to

drink Coca-Cola

and

eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[RomanHD]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

If you carry this argument far enough, you will say that we are adapted to drink Coca-Cola and eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Haha, I love this! I always say to people that by this same logic, EVERYTHING in the world is natural, since the materials had to come from nature. And the processing is also natural, since the factory was built using materials from nature, and it uses chemical processes which are again natural.

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

There is also the question of the marginal utility of pursuing an ever more and more "optimal" diet.

Yes, and in my world, the cost and complexity of the meal factors in as well. If the chicken could be replaced by rice and beans for 10% the cost and deliver 95% of the nutrition, that would be a good argument for switching.

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

If you carry this argument far enough, you will say that we are adapted to drink Coca-Cola and eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Not really, because we haven't been doing these things for very long. A species adapts to a food source through consuming that food over a long period of time and the members most suited to that food source thrive and produce more offspring while there is attrition among the members less suited. If humans continue to drink Coca-Cola and eat KFC for the next 10,000 years, I would expect to see people better adapted to those foods.

[Lifeisamazing]

Originally Posted by RomanHD

Haha, I love this! I always say to people that by this same logic, EVERYTHING in the world is natural, since the materials had to come from nature. And the processing is also natural, since the factory was built using materials from nature, and it uses chemical processes which are again natural.

Yeah, I've thought about it the same way

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

If humans continue to drink Coca-Cola and eat KFC for the next 10,000 years, I would expect to see people better adapted to those foods.

They've been eating fried chicken for quite some time, but just not so often!

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

They've been eating fried chicken for quite some time, but just not so often!

About 1000 years perhaps, but fried in animal fat, not vegetable oil, which has only been around for about 100 years. Vegetable oil is much less stable at high temperatures and likely to form trans-fats, which all evidence suggests is very bad for most humans.

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

About 1000 years perhaps, but fried in animal fat, not vegetable oil, which has only been around for about 100 years. Vegetable oil is much less stable at high temperatures and likely to form trans-fats, which all evidence suggests is very bad for most humans.

I cannot tell you how much it bums me out that vegetable oil is turning out to be not such a great thing.

[Cable]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

I cannot tell you how much it bums me out that vegetable oil is turning out to be not such a great thing.

Why? Real fats are tasty!

[Cable]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

If you carry this argument far enough, you will say that we are adapted to drink Coca-Cola and eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The point was that a lack of sharp claws and teeth doesn't imply we aren't adapted for hunting; I agree, however, that the design of our hands, by itself, isn't specifically indicative of past hunting behavior. FWIW, though, our shoulder joints seem to have undergone a fair amount of adaptation to enable throwing.

Wait a minute, wasn't this a thread about wheat?

[liamona]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

I cannot tell you how much it bums me out that vegetable oil is turning out to be not such a great thing.

It bums me out that it's recommended as healthy!

[liamona]

[QUOTE=Cable;728124]The point was that a lack of sharp claws and teeth doesn't imply we aren't adapted for hunting; I agree, however, that the design of our hands, by itself, isn't specifically indicative of past hunting behavior. FWIW, though, our shoulder joints seem to have undergone a fair amount of adaptation to enable throwing.

Yeah that. I just pointed out in another thread how you don't need sharp claws nor sharp teeth in order to eat the organs or suck the marrow from animals.

[metamorph]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

If humans continue to drink Coca-Cola and eat KFC for the next 10,000 years, I would expect to see people better adapted to those foods.

Absolutely! (Only the toughest survive (those that do not suffocate on a chicken wing

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Cable

Why? Real fats are tasty!

It makes it difficult for people who don't like cooking/baking with lard because they don't want to kill animals for food. I liked it when the food manufacturers went with vegetable oil as it eliminated lard from the process. Now it turns out vegetable oil is a problem.

For myself, I guess I am probably going to limit myself to cooking/baking with butter and olive oil, although I haven't tried coconut oil yet and that sounds like a promising option.