Re: Human Evolution and Obesity
Vincent Paquin (vpaquin@cam.org)
Thu, 19 Oct 1995 00:11:00 -0500
In article <45ddd1$avb@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, uropiate@aol.com (UrOpiate)
wrote:
> the problem with this line of inquiry is that it ignores that weight gain
> is directly associated with the amount and control of available
> resources...look at the !Kung in SAfrica....very little body fat...very
> little food available...
I think this statement is erroneous. The !Kung people do not live in an
environment which provides "very little food available", as you say. They
have plentiful and diversified amounts of plant foods, and supplement
their diet with some meat from hunting. The reason why the !Kung have
very little body fat is because they ingest minimal amounts of fat from
their diet.
> look at the US...lots of food..lots of fat people....
Again, you associate the occurence of obesity to the amount of food
available in the environment (or society, in your example). The biggest
clue would be the incredible amount of saturated fat present in almost all
north american foodstuff. It is virtually omnipresent.
> to say weight is genetically predisposed in our gentic line is
> highly abstract if not fruitless....weight and body fat are dependent. on
> many factors..one being that we have not be required to hang from trees
> for 5 million years...
--
Vincent Paquin, a.k.a. "The Vinman"
Anthropology student, Universite de Montreal, Canada
E-mail: vpaquin@cam.org GEnie: V.PAQUIN Fax: (514) 491-7133
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