PUFAs & brain size

Marc Verhaegen said:

SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST
The Key to Human Brain Evolution
Stephen C Cunnane
Research Center on Aging
Université de Sherbrooke
Canada
http://www.worldscibooks.com/lifesci/5769.html
How did humans evolve larger and more sophisticated brains?
In general, evolution depends on a special combination of circumstances:
part genetics, part time, and part environment. In the case of human brain
evolution, the main environmental influence was adaptation to a
'shore-based'
diet, which provided the world's richest source of nutrition, as well as a
sedentary lifestyle that promoted fat deposition. Such a diet included
shellfish, fish, marsh plants, frogs, bird's eggs, etc. Humans and, and more
importantly, hominid babies started to get fat, a crucial distinction that
led to the development of larger brains and to the evolution of modern
humans. A larger brain is expensive to maintain and this increasing demand
for energy results in, succinctly, survival of the fattest.

I don't know that I can buy this. In some environments--the jungle
comes to mind--being fat could be rather disadvantageous. When trying
to catch prey, or avoiding predators, a slender body is highly
advantageous. When you look at humans living in similar environments
today, you will note that as a general rule, these individuals are
thin, not fat.

Brain size, on the other hand, would have come as an advantageous trait
that allowed humans to adapt to a great variety of environments, in
many cases by intentional modification of those environments.

Finally, fat storage came as an adaptation to survive very harsh
environments, where seasonal availability of nutrients meant those able
to set fat aside for a dry day would increase the probability of their
survival. It is only when our brain activity allowed us to modify our
environment to the point where we could sustain a sedentary lifestyle
and have more reliable, sustainable food sources that we started piling
on the fat.

So I would arrive at quite the opposite conclusion: brain size/capacity
led to us being fat.

You can find plenty of such claims. They come and go, but there's not
enough of a scientific basis for them to regard them as anything more
than cute ideas. In an anthropology book I own, the point is made that
palm and coconut were likely staple foods in the diet of early humans,
and we all know that's it's easy to catch shellfish, as opposed to
fish, and shellfish is high in cholesterol but low in PUFAs. If they
would learn some biochemistry and biophysics, it would help - they
would at least realize how foolish they appear.

"montygram" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You can find plenty of such claims. They come and go, but there's not
enough of a scientific basis for them to regard them as anything more
than cute ideas. In an anthropology book I own, the point is made that
palm and coconut were likely staple foods in the diet of early humans,
and we all know that's it's easy to catch shellfish, as opposed to
fish, and shellfish is high in cholesterol but low in PUFAs. If they
would learn some biochemistry and biophysics, it would help - they
would at least realize how foolish they appear.

People who say something before informing a little bit are the foolish ones.
1) Why don't you read the book first?
2) Stephen Cunnane is a well-know biochemist (worked with, eg, David
Horrobin & Michael Crawford, wote a lot of papers on PUFAs & human
evolution).
3) PUFAs are abundant in the savanna IYO??
4) Coconuts are found in the savanna IYO rather that at the seaside??

BTW, I'm not saying I fully agree with Cunnane's view on brain evolution,
I'm only informing about the appearancer of a possibly interesting book on
brain evolution.
This is my view on human evolution (if you believe you have 1 serious
argument against it, I'd like to hear):
IMO some time after the [censored]-Pan split 7-4 Ma, [censored] populations had become
seaside omnivores (collected fruits, coconuts, bird eggs, turtles, shell-,
crayfish, algae...). This would explain a lot of typically [censored] traits (not
in apes & australopiths) better than savanna scenarios do: brain size,
diving skills, breathing control, vocality, small mouth & chewing muscles,
descended tongue bone, projecting nose, longer airway, reduced sense of
smell, handiness, tool use, late puberty, long legs, body alignment, reduced
climbing, fatness, fur loss, high needs of water, sodium, iodine & PUFAs.
This likely happened when Plio-Pleistocene [censored] spread along the Indian
Ocean & African coasts. 1.8-Ma [censored] remains come from Algeria, Iran, Kenya,
Georgia, Java... always near lakes or seas, (R.Dennell 2003 JHE 45:421): in
spite of sea level changes (Ice Ages), [censored] much more than australopith
remains have been found amid shells, corals & barnacles, from 1.8 to 0.1 Ma,
ie, throughout the Pleistocene, in coasts all over the Old World (Mojokerto,
Terra Amata, Table Bay, Eritrea...), even on islands that could only be
reached by sea (Flores 0.8 Ma
http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/outthere.htm ).

If you forgot, this was my original past:

SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST
The Key to Human Brain Evolution
Stephen C Cunnane
Research Center on Aging
Université de Sherbrooke
Canada
http://www.worldscibooks.com/lifesci/5769.html
How did humans evolve larger and more sophisticated brains?
In general, evolution depends on a special combination of circumstances:
part genetics, part time, and part environment. In the case of human brain
evolution, the main environmental influence was adaptation to a
'shore-based'
diet, which provided the world's richest source of nutrition, as well as a
sedentary lifestyle that promoted fat deposition. Such a diet included
shellfish, fish, marsh plants, frogs, bird's eggs, etc. Humans and, and more
importantly, hominid babies started to get fat, a crucial distinction that
led to the development of larger brains and to the evolution of modern
humans. A larger brain is expensive to maintain and this increasing demand
for energy results in, succinctly, survival of the fattest.
Contents:
The Human Brain: Unique Yet Vulnerable:
Human Evolution: A Brief Overview
The Human Brain: Evolution of Larger Size and Plasticity
Defining Characteristics: Vulnerability and High Energy Requirement
Fatness in Human Babies: Insurance for the Developing Brain
Nutrition: The Key to Normal Human Brain Development
Iodine: The Primary Brain Selective Nutrient
Iron, Copper, Zinc and Selenium: The Other Brain Selective Minerals
Docosahexaenoic Acid: The Brain Selective Fatty Acid
The Shore-Based Scenario:
Genes, Brain Function and Human Brain Evolution
Bringing the Environment and Diet into Play
The Shore-Based Scenario: Why Survival Misses the Point
Earlier Versions
The Evidence
How Would It Work?
Survival of the Fattest

Readership:
General, and those with an interest in origins of humans, especially human
intelligence.

368pp
Pub.date: May 2005
ISBN 981-256-191-9
US$68 / £41
ISBN 981-256-318-0 pbk
US$32 / £20

Marc Verhaegen
http://www.onelist.com/community/AAT
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT1