Evolution of Human Nutrition: African Fruits and Vegetables

[Anopsology]

If 99 percent of our evolutionary history happened in Africa....

would it make the most sense that the best fruits, herbs and vegetables

for humans are the ones that grow in Africa?

[Acme]

If 99 percent of our evolutionary history happened in Africa....

would it make the most sense that the best fruits, herbs and vegetables

for humans are the ones that grow in Africa?

No; it wouldn't make sense. 'Best' being an ill-defined and arbitrary term is enough reason to forego exploring the idea in any depth. (Not that such considerations are an impediment to those determined to beat dead horses. )

[Ten oz]

If 99 percent of our evolutionary history happened in Africa....

would it make the most sense that the best fruits, herbs and vegetables

for humans are the ones that grow in Africa?

The nutrition our bodies get from fruits, herbs, and vegetables: fiber, vitamins, sugar, etc are not isolated to Africa. They are in abundance around the globe which is why mammals thrive all around the globe and humans were able to migrate.

[Anopsology]

No; it wouldn't make sense. 'Best' being an ill-defined and arbitrary term is enough reason to forego exploring the idea in any depth. (Not that such considerations are an impediment to those determined to beat dead horses. )

I heard that brah.

 

Obviously Humans can "survive" any where in the world.. I'm talking the fruits and vegetables are bodies are truly adapted to. The ones we must have been eating for millions of years in Africa.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Anopsology

[Acme]

I heard that brah.

Heard it, but didn't listen.

 

Obviously Humans can "survive" any where in the world.. I'm talking the fruits and vegetables are bodies are truly adapted to. The ones we must have been eating for millions of years in Africa.

Again, 'truly' is to words what jello is to a nail. The best you can hope for is to specifically name your fruits and vegetables, give scientific analyses of their contents and then do the same for the rest of the world and then scientifically compare the two groups effects on humans of all types and throughout millions of years. Even then, -if you could have done that- you would just find your nail in the wall and a puddle of goo below it on the floor.

[Endy0816]

It'd be a subset of everything available in Africa at that time that was the easiest to forage for.

 

Probably nothing you are going to find in a supermarket, at least not in their original form. Some species of plants have also gone extinct as well.

 

Tubers would be your best bet, some fruits maybe. Hard to know for sure what has been subject to artificial selection and what wasn't at this point.

[Anopsology]

Let me pose the question better because I now see how poorly written it is

 

 

Are we more adapted to African fruits and plants? We spent a long part of our history evolving and, eating plants and fruits on the continent of Africa.. Could it be that our bodies obtain nutrients and digest the plants and fruits of Africa better? There are all these various African fruits and greens we don't eat because we dont have access! I mean our closest relatives the chimps and bonobos eat figs and nuts and various African vegetation in the form of leaves, nuts,berries, etc...

 

Would we as humans be better suited to eating these foods? Or maybe the foods of the African Savannah? We then moved out Africa and starting eating diets of the local foods that were available to us in various places? Did we start finding better foods and more nutritious foods all over the world and that's why we now incorporate them into our diets? I know we can survive anywhere obviously as we have been doing it since we left Africa....but are we still more adapted to these African foods? Or is it the all about being able to obtain nutrients from any plants and fruits regardless of where they are from? I could be eating blueberries and wild dandelions right now in North America, or I could be eating an African wild Fruit with African greens...Or since white people are European is it that they would be more adapted to eaten European vegetation? Or once again does it not matter....

 

Is it all the same as long as we digest and obtain nutrients regardless of where they come from.?

Edited August 4, 2014 by Anopsology

[CaptainPanic]

I think the gut bacteria change as a result of your diet? So, if you would have taken some ancient ancestor, and pulled him out of Africa and put him in - let's say - South America, his digestive system might have protested to the change (just like a Western system might protest if it switches to (for example) an Asian diet suddenly, with much less dairy products, and different carbs, for weeks on end).

But since the move went slow enough, and we can eventually adapt, even within the lifetime of a single person, I think that there is no genetic preference for any fruits/veggies from Africa.

 

This is a little speculation on my side, since I am no expert in this field. It just seems to make sense to me.

[chadn737]

The beauty of having evolved to be an omnivore is that we evolved to eat a wide variety of things, not something specific. Thats why there is no "best".

[John Cuthber]

Plenty of people, particularly in NW Europe drink milk.

That's an adaptation that we picked up since our ancestors left Africa.

It's bizarre to think we have not made other adaptations in that time.

[chadn737]

Lactose tolerance is a fairly easy trait to identify since it is a single gene trait. Other adaptations are likely multigenic and more subtle.

[John Cuthber]

Lactose tolerance is a fairly easy trait to identify since it is a single gene trait. Other adaptations are likely multigenic and more subtle.

Indeed, and many of have that rather crass adaptation. I suspect that there are lots of subtle ones that mean that our "optimum" diet (whatever that might mean) is different from what it was 100,000 or 1,000,000 years ago.

There's also the fact that we simply don't do the same thing as we did back then (unless I'm gravely mistaken, and our distant ancestors also drove cars to their offices so they could sit at a desk all day.)

[Anopsology]

I guess my though process i that since we spent so much time evolving and adapting to Africa that the fruits and vegetables from there are what our bodies truly need. If we get that same nutrients from fruits and plants all over the world then this serves no purpose? Thats basically what im asking. Are African fruits and plants better for us or is meaningless and we get the same nutrients from everything around the world.

[hypervalent_iodine]

I think the latter part of your last statement is pretty much correct. One example I can think of is dietary sources of vitamin C. I could get all the vit. C I need by just eating something like a Kakadu plum, which is native to the northern and western parts of Australia. Moving to Asia, I no longer have Kakadu plums, but I can get vitamin C from other fruits, like kiwi fruit.

[chadn737]

I guess my though process i that since we spent so much time evolving and adapting to Africa that the fruits and vegetables from there are what our bodies truly need. If we get that same nutrients from fruits and plants all over the world then this serves no purpose? Thats basically what im asking. Are African fruits and plants better for us or is meaningless and we get the same nutrients from everything around the world.

 

Its meaningless. For one, Africa is not homogenous. It has lots of varied environments with differing types of food. Secondly, man has evolved to be a generalist and omnivore.

[Anthony Morris]

Plenty of people, particularly in NW Europe drink milk.

That's an adaptation that we picked up since our ancestors left Africa.

It's bizarre to think we have not made other adaptations in that time.

But would a European pine away in ill health if he did not get milk in his diet? The OP (unless I'm mistaken) was asking if we would be better off eating foods from Africa. To which the answer is "probably not" as long as we get the nutrients we need. Milk provides many but nothing that we can't get elsewhere. Same with the African fruits, nuts, roots, leaves and meats.