Animals living alongside humans produce amylase, enzyme that breaks down starch

Post by dilap » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 11:21 PM UTC

spraak wrote: post #2

> This may suggest that our lineage has evolved specific adaptations to digest starch-rich foods, underlining the long and continuing importance of these staples in our diet This reminds me of the interest in keto dieting and the frustrating misunderstanding that carbs are the cause of excess weight, diabetes etc. If that were true, the whole world would be diabetic and obese, since everywhere has a staple carb. It's…

Post by rashkov » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 11:52 PM UTC

Noumenon72 wrote: post #19

gumby wrote: post #12

Although I follow a ketogenic diet and benefit from it I have laughed about the claims that it's somehow aligned with the needs of Paleolithic people. SO I really enjoyed this: "Unlike Neanderthals and Denisovans, who had only two diploid copies, we carry up to 20 copies of the AMY1 gene, which produces salivary amylase. "

Isn't that the opposite of what you believe? Paleolithic people were not genetically adapted to high-starch diets like we are. Ergo, a low-carb diet like keto was more natural for them.

Post by BurningFrog » Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 12:13 AM UTC

ves wrote: post #6

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few populations without (much) staple carbs, for example the Inuit and the Maasai. But I don't think many people solely blame carbs. It's processed carbs and sugar, hyper-palatable foods, lack of sleep, lack of sun exposure, microbiome damage from antibiotics, and a ton of other lifestyle factors. But once you're in a compromised state (autoimmune, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, etc.), the ketogenic diet…

Apparently Inuit people are actually fine on carbs because the meat they eat tends to retain its glycogen stores better because of the arctic conditions.

Post by twic » Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 12:34 AM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #26

spraak wrote: post #2

> This may suggest that our lineage has evolved specific adaptations to digest starch-rich foods, underlining the long and continuing importance of these staples in our diet This reminds me of the interest in keto dieting and the frustrating misunderstanding that carbs are the cause of excess weight, diabetes etc. If that were true, the whole world would be diabetic and obese, since everywhere has a staple carb. It's…

Until recently, everyone has lived near the border of starvation, and not had an opportunity to get obese. Since the agricultural revolution, carbs are what we have been able to mass produce, and therefore breed ourselves to greater numbers on. That it probably hasn't been the ideal diet for us is a distant secondary concern. Now that we're finally overproducing food, we actually are getting obese on the carb diet. C…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 12:45 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #24

codemac wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "we" in the sentence is homo sapiens. Neanderthals and Denisovans were not the same species as us. > "Unlike Neanderthals and Denisovans, who had only two diploid copies, [homo sapiens] carry up to 20 copies of the AMY1 gene, which produces salivary amylase. "

Doesn't that mean we've evolved to eat a lot of starch so the more natural thing for humans to eat is therefore starch, if you follow this line of reasoning? And therefore, we've "evolved beyond" the keto diet? FWIW, I do not think this is good reasoning.