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Three Million Years Ago, Our Ancestors Were Vegetarian
  • Does the "us" in the graph imply that carnists lost a significant amt of brain size?

  • Three Million Years Ago, Our Ancestors Were Vegetarian
  • I see also you have cranked up a few side accounts to upvote yourself.

    lmao got me Mr. Soft Rock 🤡

    I will just leave this without further comment, people reading your "contributions" can make up their own mind as to your credibility and whether or not it is I who has the agenda.

    Edit: For people actually interested in the science, here's an interesting example of what opportunistic-carnivorous feeding would've looked like -- underscoring the absurdity of talking about meat-eating in terms of preference in an anthropological/survival context.

  • www.mdpi.com Molecular Mechanisms of Neuroprotection by Ketone Bodies and Ketogenic Diet in Cerebral Ischemia and Neurodegenerative Diseases

    Ketone bodies (KBs), such as acetoacetate and β-hydroxybutyrate, serve as crucial alternative energy sources during glucose deficiency. KBs, generated through ketogenesis in the liver, are metabolized into acetyl-CoA in extrahepatic tissues, entering the tricarboxylic acid cycle and electron transpo...

    Molecular Mechanisms of Neuroprotection by Ketone Bodies and Ketogenic Diet in Cerebral Ischemia and Neurodegenerative Diseases

    Reduced glucose metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction correlate with increased neuronal death and brain damage during cerebral ischemia and neurodegeneration. Ketone bodies (KBs), such as acetoacetate and β-hydroxybutyrate, serve as crucial alternative energy sources during glucose deficiency. Both KBs and the ketogenic diet (KD) demonstrate neuroprotective effects by orchestrating various cellular processes through metabolic and signaling functions.

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    www.southampton.ac.uk New evidence suggests megaflood refilled the Mediterranean Sea five million years ago

    New evidence suggests megaflood refilled the Mediterranean Sea five million years ago

    New evidence suggests megaflood refilled the Mediterranean Sea five million years ago

    The study suggests the Zanclean Megaflood ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis, which lasted between 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago.

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    Intermittent Fasting May Improve Memory, Executive Function, Early Trial Suggests

    cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/15336685

    > Intermittent calorie restriction improved executive function and memory measures in cognitively intact older adults, an exploratory pilot study suggested. > > The 8-week randomized clinical trial of 40 overweight, cognitively normal older adults with insulin resistance examined the effect of two interventions -- a 5:2 intermittent fasting plan versus a "healthy living" diet based on portion control and calorie reduction guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- on brain health. The 5:2 intermittent fasting group had 2 days of food intake of 480 calories/day (two meal replacement shakes), and 5 days of a healthy living diet. > > Both interventions improved executive function and memory, with intermittent fasting showing better results on certain cognitive measures, said Dimitrios Kapogiannis, MD, of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, in a poster presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.

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    Australopithecus at Sterkfontein did not consume substantial mammalian meat

    Diet has long been hypothesized as a driver of change among hominins, especially with regard to the increase in brain size. Dietary niches reconstructed based on these fossils showed that the Australopithecus individuals had diets very similar to both contemporaneous and modern herbivores but different from carnivores.

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    news.harvard.edu Study explains early humans ate starch — and why it matters

    Findings on Neanderthal oral microbiomes offer new clues on evolution, health.

    Study explains early humans ate starch — and why it matters

    A new study looking at the evolutionary history of the human oral microbiome shows that Neanderthals and ancient humans adapted to eating starch-rich foods as far back as 100,000 years ago, which is much earlier than previously thought.

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    Three Million Years Ago, Our Ancestors Were Vegetarian
  • Indeed. Mine include having a MSc. in Molecular Biology, yours, trolling on the internet

  • Three Million Years Ago, Our Ancestors Were Vegetarian
  • I just fail to see how eating meat is an inherent "preference" while eating plants is "opportunistic". Seems like a false dichotomy

  • SMART spherical tokamak produces its first plasma – Physics World
  • ITER, set to be the largest fusion reactor ever built, will be a tokamak.

  • Three Million Years Ago, Our Ancestors Were Vegetarian
  • Terribly reductive take. There's a myriad of different edible plant species, variably digestible and non-digestible for different species. This article outlines how the reconstructed mouth microbiom of human ancestors as far back as 100'000 years ago was already capable of breaking down starchy foods. With the advent of fire, those would've been cooked just like meats and would've facilitated a growth in brain all the same, while being more reliable a food source.

  • Where do you draw the line?
  • If you think supply chains all the way to the end (or, the beginning, rather), even vegan staples are not fully "vegan" (think small animals killed during harvest, directly or indirectly). Keeping this in mind, Veganism (like most things in life, really) is not about perfection, but rather trying to be the least imperfect, which obviously leaves some room for interpretation. As for the specific examples in the OP, only the 2nd one is even worth consideration (I personally do not problematize ordering vegan food at McD's). The other two are fully byproducts of living in a non-vegan world, and cannot be helped (directly).

  • Three Million Years Ago, Our Ancestors Were Vegetarian

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/24943429

    > Human ancestors like Australopithecus – which lived around 3.5 million years ago in southern Africa – ate very little to no meat, according to new research published in the scientific journal Science. This conclusion comes from an analysis of nitrogen isotope isotopes in the fossilized tooth enamel of seven Australopithecus individuals. The data revealed that these early hominins primarily relied on plant-based diets, with little to no evidence of meat consumption.

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