№. 1 Introduction to this book
.2 Introduction to Today
.3 Indians who use milk powder as pigment.
Different races have different reactions to the same food.
Lactose is decomposed into glucose and galactose by lactase before it can be absorbed by human body. If a person's body lacks lactase, the ingested lactose will accumulate in the intestine, on the one hand, it will absorb water and cause osmotic diarrhea, on the other hand, it will produce gas bacteria and cause abdominal distension.
.4 Hunters, herders and lactose intolerance
Hunters have no stable food source, and the food supply changes with the seasons, so the living environment is relatively bad. Lactose intolerance is actually a regulatory mechanism in hunting civilization, which can make babies wean earlier. Weaning can free the mother from childbirth as soon as possible, participate in hunting activities, and restore fertility faster (because breastfeeding will inhibit fertility).
In herdsmen's families, there are generally enough fresh milk products to maintain the growth needs of babies. Tolerance to lactose enables them to absorb more nutrients from easily available fresh milk.
.5 the culprit of destroying Indians-alcohol and sugar
№.6 Genetic susceptibility of alcohol
Alcohol and high-calorie junk food have a far greater negative impact on Indians than other Americans. This situation, which is more susceptible to diseases caused by some external substances, is called "genetic susceptibility" in medicine.
At present, it is known that the individual's response to alcohol is related to eight genes in the human body, which will affect the activities of ethanol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, enzymes used to oxidize alcohol in the liver. People with high enzyme activity in the body oxidize alcohol faster and have higher tolerance to alcohol; People with low enzyme activity are more likely to get drunk.
People with high alcohol dehydrogenase activity in the body often belong to the earliest race engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and are also the race suffering from dysentery in history. One of the main vectors of dysentery transmission is the unclean water source polluted by human and animal feces. Genomics puts forward the hypothesis that people engaged in agricultural production may drink fermented drinks instead of unclean water in order to avoid dysentery. Drinking these fermented drinks containing ethanol requires high activity of alcohol dehydrogenase.
Until 400 years ago, Indian ancestors were still looking for food. The lifestyle of this nomadic people hunting in the desert is very different from that of agricultural society and animal husbandry. They don't have so many opportunities to face water polluted by livestock manure, so there is no need to produce fermented drinks. So wine, like fresh milk, is still a drink that is difficult to be accepted by their bodies. This is determined by the evolutionary history of the nation.
.7 National Traditional Food and Health
Each of us is branded with the food memories of our ancestors.
Why are many people prone to some nutritional diseases after leaving their native land and giving up their traditional diet? Because the connection between the body and food is cut off.
Why "healthy food" in supermarkets and "healthy recipes" by health experts are not suitable for everyone. Our physical and psychological dependence on traditional food is not accidental, but the genetic code left by the long family and national history.
.8 Summary today
Day? 2? Is ancient food useful to modern people?
9 Introduction to Today
№. 10 Can you find health by pursuing "ancestral diet"?
All magic diets have a common problem-trying to erase the objective differences between people.
11Visit Java cookbooks
Most advocates of "ancestral diet" oversimplify these genetic differences.
12 Javanese have not formed a unified eating habit at all?
The separation of geographical barriers makes people living in different areas face completely different food sources. After living on these islands for a period of time, outsiders will be reshaped by various special food, environment and disease pressures during evolution. This is the power of natural selection.
The proportion of nutrients such as fat, protein, carbohydrate and cellulose ingested by human ancestors may not be consistent at all. In other words, there was and will never be the so-called best recipe for all mankind.
№. 13 Even if 99.9% of the gene sequences are the same, we are completely different people.
Most popular science books will tell us directly that 99.9% of the sequences in the human genome are exactly the same in all populations. But it's not that simple. 99.9% identity means that 1 out of every 1000 nucleotides in our DNA is different. The problem is that there are more than 3 billion nucleotides in the human genome, which means that 3 million nucleotides are different between different individuals. The change of 1 nucleotide may change the expression of gene and affect the function of protein or enzyme. In this case, do you still think the difference of 0. 1% is a trivial matter? How can we have a healthy diet suitable for everyone?
№. 14 The chemicals in food promote the development of human diversity.
What is a secondary compound? In fact, food not only provides consumers with protein, fat and carbohydrates, but also contains powerful chemicals, which botanists call secondary compounds. Secondary compounds are usually unique to a species. When humans eat plants, secondary compounds will also have special effects on the human body, such as poisoning, aphrodisiac or pregnancy-helping. There is also the most relevant influence discussed in this book-triggering genetic mutations.
The scientific research results in recent ten years have proved that chemicals in food are the main driving forces that affect gene expression, gene mutation and natural selection, and even promote the development of human diversity to a great extent. Different doses of the same secondary compound will have different effects on human body. For example, Chenopodium ambrosioides, a common flavoring agent in Latin America, can relieve flatulence by increasing the dose, but once pregnant women eat too much by mistake, it may lead to miscarriage.
№. 15 Summary today
Day? 3? Allergy and Mediterranean diet
№. 16 Guide for Today
№. 17 Broad beans and malaria
The occurrence of local diseases is an adaptive behavior of genes to special environment and food. Because these young people suffering from "Baghdad fever" have also gained stronger anti-malaria ability.
№. 18 gene and malaria immunity
Some people will lack an enzyme due to genetic variation, and the lack of this enzyme will make them allergic to some foods and drugs. But it is precisely because of the decrease of this enzyme activity that they gain immunity or resistance to malaria.
At the genetic level, our adaptation to a drug is ultimately manifested as an enzyme defect.
№. 19 G6PD defect
Sickle cell anemia is a "red cell defect" (G6PD) disease, which may be an evolutionary adaptation when people face the threat of malaria for a long time. At least in the past 5000 years, infectious diseases such as malaria have become an important natural selection pressure and have had an impact on our evolutionary process.
G6PD deficiency itself will not cause any serious consequences, but if patients with G6PD deficiency eat broad beans or take antimalarial drugs, it may lead to fatal results.
№.20 Traditional Mediterranean Diet
At present, the traditional Mediterranean diet is widely used all over the world as a healthy diet to prevent heart disease. According to the survey, the death rate of coronary artery disease of Crete Mountain residents is lower than that of any other region in the world, 40 times lower than that of the United States, although their total fat intake is three times that of Americans.
They began to explore the special use of olive oil: 1. Crete people eat more fat every day than Americans, but 78% of them are monounsaturated fatty acids from olives or olive oil. 2. Crete people inherited their ancestors' eating habits to a great extent.
№.2 1 Is the traditional Mediterranean diet a universally applicable healthy diet?
There are great differences in the absorption and metabolism of lipids among different populations. Because of the habit of eating a lot of olive oil for thousands of years, Crete people have adapted at the genetic level. If you are not from Crete, you can still spit olive oil, but you may not be able to absorb nutrients from it like them.
Genetic factors are not the only reason Crete people like olive oil. The eating habits of Crete people are also influenced by Greek religious fasting customs and local wild green plants. The influence of diet on health in Crete is deeply rooted in the land, genetic background and cultural habits, and we can't expect to replicate this benefit elsewhere.
№.22 Summary today
Day? 4? Can I eat spicy food?
№.23 Introduction today
The relationship between №.24 being "destroyed" by pepper
Our taste preference depends on the wonderful chemical reactions produced by the interrelationships among genes, places of residence, cultures and personal experiences.
The distribution density of fungiform papillae (including taste buds) on the tongue of "super taster" and "slow taster" is very different, and the two genetic alleles located on chromosome 5 and chromosome 7 are also different.
Why are peppers so spicy?
"Directional deterrence": Because mammals can't help peppers reproduce, peppers show their weapons to mammals to prevent them from getting too close. Birds, reptiles or amphibians do not react strongly to capsaicin, and only mammals are naturally afraid of capsaicin.
Some biologists believe that there is an undeniable health factor behind human consumption of pepper, that is, pepper can kill parasites and microorganisms in meat, reduce toxicity, and have an antibiotic-like effect, which can prevent food from spoilage.
Further research found that this antibiotic-like effect is not unique to pepper, and many spices used for cooking meat also have similar functions. Bacteria in food are not sitting still. Bacteria have developed the ability to resist traditional spices, or new varieties of bacteria have emerged. People are committed to finding new spices to resist bacteria. From this perspective, the traditional recipes in a certain area are actually a history of co-evolution and the struggle against infectious gastrointestinal diseases.
The influence of coumarin on Navajo people
Coumarin has a special effect on Navajo people, because Navajo people are one of the ethnic minorities known to carry two special albumin alleles, which can induce the body to have an acute reaction to coumarin.
.27 means of gene therapy and nutrition intervention
Scientists have found that one in ten men with acute heart failure and one in twelve women with acute heart failure are caused by homocysteine levels in the blood. There is a special gene that affects the level of homocysteine in blood, and this gene plays a key role in folic acid metabolism. As long as the intake of folic acid is increased, the incidence of thrombosis and acute heart failure in this population can be reduced. Moreover, more folic acid intake by pregnant women can also reduce the probability of fetal congenital neural tube defects. In the treatment of homocysteine, we do not need to rely on expensive gene therapy, but can skillfully use the interaction between genes and nutrients to solve this problem.
№.28 Summary today
Day? 5? The role of traditional food
№.29 Introduction today
Why does diabetes become a health killer for Indians?
.31Traditional food protects Indians from diabetes.
After Seri people eat traditional food, the blood sugar level is synchronized with the insulin release level, and there will be no adverse reactions to the human body. Jenny calls these traditional desert foods "slow-release foods"
№.32 Why are Europeans not prone to diabetes?
The incidence of diabetes will increase in the following four environments:
When a race begins to enter the farming civilization and start to eat crops, a large number of wild plants they once ate will disappear from their recipes. As a result, many compounds that used to protect them no longer work.
With the development of artificial breeding technology, the beneficial substances contained in traditional food are gradually eliminated.
/kloc-after the industrial revolution broke out in the 0/7th century, refined food replaced grains, which doubled people's blood sugar level and insulin sensitivity.
Fast food and sedentary lifestyle make modern people's health worse than ever.
33 defects in gene therapy
№.34 Traditional food saves Hawaii's health crisis.
Eric and his companions set up Ka'ala farm to bring water back to the farmland, which made the local crops glow with new vitality, including the inheritance of "taro" planting technology.
For local people, the restoration of taro field not only restores the historical inheritance with ancestors, but also restores the ecological environment of traditional wetlands, so that the number of endangered birds that have been living in taro field can be restored, which is conducive to the survival of local wildlife. Moreover, just like the traditional food in the deserts of Australia and the United States, eating taro can also keep people's blood lipid and blood sugar levels relatively stable.
For the recovery of taro field, there are three benefits for Hawaiians:
(1) Restoration and the Historical Inheritance of Ancestors.
(2) Restoring the wetland ecological environment is beneficial to the survival of wild animals.
(3) Eating taro is beneficial to the stability of blood sugar and blood lipid.
№.35 Summary today
The food that your ancestors soaked for a long time may be the most beneficial to you.