Chimps Drinking a Lager a Day in Ripe Fruit, Study Finds (bbc.com)
- Reference: 0179329262
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/17/1948210/chimps-drinking-a-lager-a-day-in-ripe-fruit-study-finds
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgq4710vendo
> They say this is evidence humans may have got our taste for alcohol from common primate ancestors who relied on fermented fruit -- a source of sugar and alcohol -- for food. "Human attraction to alcohol probably arose from this dietary heritage of our common ancestor with chimpanzees," said study researcher Aleksey Maro of the University of California, Berkeley.
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> Chimps, like many other animals, have been spotted feeding on ripe fruit lying on the forest floor, but this is the first study to make clear how much alcohol they might be consuming. The research team measured the amount of ethanol, or pure alcohol, in fruits such as figs and plums eaten in large quantities by wild chimps in Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda. Based on the amount of fruit they normally eat, the chimps were ingesting around 14 grams of ethanol -- equivalent to nearly two UK units, or roughly one 330ml bottle of lager. The fruits most commonly eaten were those highest in alcohol content.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgq4710vendo
Hey, times are hard for chimps. (Score:2)
They've got global warming, COVID, Trump, and all sorts of things to be terrified about besides the usual predation, poachers, and leopards.
Maybe leave them the fuck alone on this one.
Dumb correlation (Score:3)
> ... like many other animals ...
Fruit has been around for millions of years, "other animals" have been around for millions of years: Therefore, getting drunk has been around for millions of years. It is ridiculous to link our drug-use to a recent ancestor (via a genetic cousin). Getting drunk is not a apes-only activity. I've smelt rotting/alcoholic fruit and seen a flock of drunk parrots. (Also, human-made sugar-water ferments, causing drunk horses.)
Maybe, this is what scientists mean when they say we evolved to consume mind-altering drugs: Most cultures have them.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just alcohol. Long ago, my family's house had a Brazilian pepper tree in the landscaping. When the berries got ripe, birds would arrive, eat the berries, then stumble and flap around on the ground and make strange noises for a while before sobering up enough to fly.
health (Score:2)
I'd like to know if chimps suffer from similar health issues as humans... Do they get diabetes from the high sugar consumption? Do they get hardening of arteries and liver failure from alcohol consumption?
Re: (Score:3)
The diet of orangutans is 65% fruit ( [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ), so if eating fruit easily gave diabetes, diabetes in orangoutans (and other primates) would be commonplace and it does not seem to be. A survey of captive orangutans finds that 25% are obese and 2% have diabetes. [2]https://nagonline.net/wp-conte... [nagonline.net] , while an estimate 14% in adult humans currently live with diabetes (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes )
As high-fiber diets are important for diabetes management ( [3]h [plos.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frugivore#Mammals
[2] https://nagonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Orangutan-Nutrition.pdf
[3] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003053
Re: (Score:2)
While some fruit (bananas in particular) are bad for diabetics, a lot are good for us - including apricots, raspberries, etc.
The main cause of diabetes is not fruit. Almost every meal in the entire world includes large portions of:
Wheat (including bread, muffins, pancakes, pasta, etc.)
Rice
Potatoes
Corn
Even knowing about diabetes, it can be hard to find a restaurant that does not include one of these in every single meal they serve. Yeah, whole grain versions are better - as in 10%. That's not enough.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're (simply) correct, then lots of Mediterranean cultures ought to have just-TONS of diabetics. But ... that is not so. You are missing some "hidden" variable that "directs" sugar, carbs and alcohol into their disproportionate USA role.
Re: (Score:1)
Not at all. No lifestyle diseases or metabolic syndromes for wild animals living in the jungle.
Getting killed or eaten by other animals has a sort of protective effect
More evidence (Score:2)
Society as we know it could not have developed without alcohol.
Folly of controlled substances (Re:More evidence) (Score:1)
> Society as we know it could not have developed without alcohol.
I agree.
I'd add tobacco/nicotine, coffee/tea/caffeine, and opium/laudanum/etc. to that. Nicotine and caffeine were vital stimulants to get people going in the morning, then opiates and alcohol to calm down and relieve some of the pain of the day before going to sleep.
Marijuana likely plays an important role in the development of human civilization, I'm merely not as aware of the role it played. Then consider so many other substances that had some kind of religious or societal role to play. We've removed
Re: (Score:1)
It's settled. I am voting for you :)
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, alcohol both the cause of and solution to all life's problems
Speaking as a primate myself (Score:2)
Eating fruit is a lousy way to get my alcohol. I much prefer a crisp German lager.
Not everyone likes alchohol (Score:2)
To me it's really awful and ruins any drink. My bodies natural reaction is to spit it out. Perhaps my ancestors were choosier about their fruit.
That's right (Score:4, Funny)
Nobody should be eating fruit. It has sugar.
We should all be on the Lion Diet of all raw beef, butter and eggs, just like a lion eats. Joe Rogan told me so.
Re: (Score:2)
> We should all be on the Lion Diet of all raw beef, butter and eggs, just like a lion eats. Joe Rogan told me so.
I don't know how seriously I should take this but I'll comment regardless.
As far as I know most any adult mammal loses their taste for any kind of milk or dairy upon becoming an adult. It's an anomaly among European humans to tolerate lactose into adulthood, an artifact of living in a cold European climate where long winters left adults without a source of vital vitamin D but the milk extracted from cattle. Those that had the gene for lactose tolerance as an adult tended to survive the winter to produce c
Re: (Score:2)
You're wrong about potatoes. They *are* high in starch, but they aren't "nearly all" starch, like corn or wheat.
Re: (Score:1)
> You're wrong about potatoes. They *are* high in starch, but they aren't "nearly all" starch, like corn or wheat.
I did put in "maybe" to cover my bases on potatoes.
The nutritional value of the common potato was a plot point in The Martian where Andy Weir did a lot of research into his story to make it believable and relatable. A diet of only potatoes would not be great but it should sustain a person for a long while.
I could go into Christian tradition of eating bread, wine, and fish but that might trigger some people. I'll merely suggest that is a sustainable diet so long as there's some olive oil, dates, and a few