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> but intuition would suggest that it's actually quite healthy to eat the same animals that humans have been chomping on since the dawn of time When life expec
by littlestymaar 3y ago
> but intuition would suggest that it's actually quite healthy to eat the same animals that humans have been chomping on since the dawn of time
When life expectancy is no more than 40, you don't care about getting cancer at 60. When it's 80+, that's more of a problem. Moreover in traditional societies people have grown-up children long before they get cancer in average, so there's very little selective pressure on that front.
- slily 3y agoI don't know how these myths keep getting regurgitated to this day, but plenty of people lived to old age back when life expectancy was low due to high infant mortality. People in blue zones also ate meat regularly despite some claims to the contrary.
- pazimzadeh 3y agoregularly ≠ often
- NackerHughes 3y agoAverage life expectancy was around 40 only because many died in infancy, which is itself unrelated to red meat consumption. If you lived past that stage, the average life expectancy was more around 70, the origin of the phrase ‘threescore years and ten’.
- littlestymaar 3y agoIt's more complicated than this, longevity (which is the concept you're looking for) was indeed higher than 40 years, but at the same time mortality all along life was still much higher than today and most people died before old age (men more so than women though). But that's why I added the second sentence: from an evolutionary perspective it actually doesn't matter if you die from cancer at 60 when you're close to being great-grand father, you've done your job of reproducing and raising your kids well enough and as such it's a good time to go. People often don't get this, but from a biological perspective death is not actually a bad thing, the only thing that matters is that you leave descendants bearing your genes behind you.