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Diet a factor in evolution

Recently, German researchers fed lab mice separate "human" and "chimp" diets, and within just two weeks, were able to notice distinct psychological and genetic differences in the rodents.

There were three different diets: a raw food-only diet; meals from the researchers' local cafeteria; and a pure fast-food diet. The researchers found a huge difference in the livers of the mice with a chimp diet versus those with a human diet (I'm scared to hear about the difference in their hearts and arteries!) They found thousands of differences in the genes expressed in the mouse livers, which they think may be caused by our differences in diets.

...You got all that? Okay. The scientists also found that said genes seemed to evolve faster than other genes.

So, basically, our ancestors' adoption of meat and cooked foods may have shaped us into the carnivorous, brownie-eating, beer-guzzling beings we are today.

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Filed Under: Science, On the Blogs, Health & Medical
Tags: chimps, diets, evolution, experiment, fast food, FastFood, Germany, liver, research, scientists

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

anno nymous

2-05-2008 @10:36AM anno nymous said... So basically you presume that "meat eating and cooking foods created the human intelligence"? Great point, really. This is worse than kindergarten humor.

You could conclude as well that "we develop cancer, because we get so furious about those health food fanatics, trying to stop us eating junk, so we create so much stress in our bodies, which leads to the instant growth of the cells etc.".

Please alert us when those mice start walking upright and talking and all. This must happen someday soon!
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1 Comments / 1 Pages

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