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Excellent comment. I agree with pretty much everything and wasn't trying to say grains lowered life expectancy, rather just fighting against the notion that lif
by jere 13y ago
Excellent comment. I agree with pretty much everything and wasn't trying to say grains lowered life expectancy, rather just fighting against the notion that life expectancy has constantly increased since we were hunter gatherers.
Again, I wasn't trying to argue for this, but I wouldn't discount diet as a factor completely. I've heard it suggested that some of the first agricultural societies were extremely malnourished because they depended too heavily on grains. Obviously, they didn't have fortified foods or supermarkets like we do today. I don't see why an extreme malnutrition (in vitamins/minerals, not calories) couldn't be a factor.
- bane 13y agoI agree with malnutrition. In fact, many modern societies are malnourished due to lack of vitamins/minerals in the local staple. It's one of the reasons flour and cereals are usually "fortified". And in Asia, significant R&D efforts are not unusual to get rice to be more nutritious based on deficiencies in the local population. [1] The problem I have is that grains are pointed to be alternative diet folks as some kind great evil by itself based on dubious claims around unsubstantiated reasoning. Like I said, some external factor is more likely the issue. http://www.grandchallenges.org/ImproveNutrition/Challenges/NutrientRichPlants/Pages/Rice.aspx http://www.grandchallenges.org/ImproveNutrition/Challenges/N...