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Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

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Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#151

Post by AYBABTME »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #69
AYBABTME wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I nearly poisoned myself making kombucha at home, despite careful sanitizing and careful monitoring of pH and temperature. As a result I'm really not fond of casual recommendations to brew kombucha. Seems easy to mess up.

Can you elaborate, what happened and how did you notice? I also do Kombucha weekly.

By poisoned I mean food poisoning. Not sure what happened in the batch I made but drinking the brew gave me cold sweats and fever for two days and I emptied my bowels multiple times. So I stopped there. I still love the flavor, and I love most fermented food.

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#152

Post by hhshhhhjjjd »

GuB-42 wrote: post #119
morgengold wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the big evolutionary advantage of humans is that they can thrive on a wide range different diets. Unlike other animals we can almost eat everything.

We are not the only omnivores, but I think it is an underappreciated trait of humans. I believe that a lot is written about what is a healthy diet, but in reality, as long as there is no obvious excess or deficiency, and you don't have a specific disease, then any diet can be healthy. Vegan, carnivore, paleo, keto, kosher, whatever... even junk food. The human digestive system is very good at working with anything yo…

"healthy" in that "you won't die" -- not necessarily "healthy" as in "ideal for maintaining peak health". That's probably a bad comparison... But I'm not sure that you can count out the importance of the intestinal microbiome. It's not just vitamins or metals--one can be deficient in beneficial bacteria as well. These bacteria are why we can "throw anything" at our intestines. That's true until the good bacteria have nothing left to sustain them and die off.

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#154

Post by ryzvonusef »

AYBABTME wrote: post #55
hetspookjee wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kombucha is another one.

I nearly poisoned myself making kombucha at home, despite careful sanitizing and careful monitoring of pH and temperature. As a result I'm really not fond of casual recommendations to brew kombucha. Seems easy to mess up.

America's Test Kitchen had a very recent video on Kombucha, and in one portion[1], after showing the viewers the recipe and tools they used, show us how they gave their colleagues the exact same setup but ended up with varied results.

If people whose day job IS testing food recipes, all end up with different results from the master recipe made by their colleague, then it indicates certain external factors need to be controlled to ensure consistency.

The factor they narrowed down to, was consistency of temperature, and the solution they offered was to suggest a temperature-controlled box to ensure best results.

[1]: https://youtu.be/_e9ejoiLNlo?t=558

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#155

Post by FrustratedMonky »

Pucilowski wrote: post #146
alentred wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what do you mean to say. This looks very transparent and consistent. A company that has clear values and transparently states them in its "About Us" page, explaining what they believe in and why they exist. What is to take with a grain of salt?

Disclosing your (potentially conflicting) interests does not automatically mean you've not been biased/incentivized to discover particular findings, pharmaceutical research is full of examples

Of course, but if you have a specific interest, and then a study comes out that backs it up, you can write about it and promote it, can't you? Show everyone, look at this, we liked this idea, and now this study gives it more backing.

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#156

Post by FrustratedMonky »

depressedpanda wrote: post #68
taejavu wrote: post #3

From the article: "Backing up this hypothesis is the fact that humans have relatively smaller large intestines than other primates. This indicates that our ancestors were eating food that was already partly broken down by fermentation." IIRC another interpretation of the smaller large intestine is that early humans were eating more bioavailable food (i.e. meat) than other primates, which doesn't need to be broken dow…

Yes, meat being the driver is the more common (and simpler) explanation for our smaller intestines and larger brains. I guess plantbasednews.org just accidentally left this alternative explanation out. That said, fermented foods could very well have played a part in it.

Yes. Could be both.

The problem is the simpler, 'meat' based answer, leads people to say "Brains grew big because eating meat, I think I'm going to pull up to the table and down a few pounds of ribs and wash it down with a nice brisket".

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#157

Post by multjoy »

Ensorceled wrote: post #136
taejavu wrote: post #3

From the article: "Backing up this hypothesis is the fact that humans have relatively smaller large intestines than other primates. This indicates that our ancestors were eating food that was already partly broken down by fermentation." IIRC another interpretation of the smaller large intestine is that early humans were eating more bioavailable food (i.e. meat) than other primates, which doesn't need to be broken dow…

> IIRC another interpretation of the smaller large intestine is that early humans were eating more bioavailable food (i.e. meat) than other primates, which doesn't need to be broken down as much as more fibrous material (seeds, leaves, stalks etc). Can someone more knowledgable than me confirm or deny? Yep, it's also why the Giant Panda needs to eat so much bamboo in a day, they also have a carnivore-like short gastr…

Why?

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#158

Post by FrustratedMonky »

HuwFulcher wrote: post #97
depressedpanda wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, meat being the driver is the more common (and simpler) explanation for our smaller intestines and larger brains. I guess plantbasednews.org just accidentally left this alternative explanation out. That said, fermented foods could very well have played a part in it.

Plant based "news" is a misnomer unfortunately. They operate as an activist org rather than news. Nothing necessarily wrong with that but they can conveniently leave out facts that don't align with a plant based philosophy.

Did they fund the study? It sounds like they were simply promoting, writing about it?

Here are authors, they don't seem affiliated with the OP's "Plant based news" article.

Can't really fault an organization from promoting a study that aligns with them.

Authors and Affiliations Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France

Katherine L. Bryant

Hungry Heart Farm and Dietary Consulting, Conley, GA, USA

Christi Hansen

Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Erin E. Hecht

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#159

Post by bongodongobob »

AYBABTME wrote: post #151
RamblingCTO wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate, what happened and how did you notice? I also do Kombucha weekly.

By poisoned I mean food poisoning. Not sure what happened in the batch I made but drinking the brew gave me cold sweats and fever for two days and I emptied my bowels multiple times. So I stopped there. I still love the flavor, and I love most fermented food.

I would bet money it was something else. Fermentation usually does a good job of keeping bad fungi out. If you were careful with sanitation, it was something else like bad leftovers or something. Also, food poisoning usually takes > 24-48 hours to kick in. So if you drank it and got sick that day, it was something you ate the day or two before.

Re: Study puts fermented foods, not fire, as pivotal moment in human brain growth

#160

Post by dog_boxer72 »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #155
Pucilowski wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosing your (potentially conflicting) interests does not automatically mean you've not been biased/incentivized to discover particular findings, pharmaceutical research is full of examples

Of course, but if you have a specific interest, and then a study comes out that backs it up, you can write about it and promote it, can't you? Show everyone, look at this, we liked this idea, and now this study gives it more backing.

If the study had said eating meat was essential for our pre-historic development they probably just wouldn’t publish it. Impartiality is hard.
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