|
Location: UK
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,558
|
|
Originally Posted by
Gnasher
The point I was trying to make is that it is unnatural for any mammal, us, a canid, a herbivore, to drink the milk of another species.
I'm not sure 'unatural' is the right term here. If early humans hadn't domesticated other species, then changes to physiology, to adapt to their changing environment wouldn't have occurred. Drinking milk, and adapting the digestion to cope with it, is just part of the evolutionary process.
Originally Posted by
jess
You talk about us being a smidge on the evolutionary scale, that may be so, but again, mutations happen with a generation. I feel just because we have been around a mere 200,000 years doesn't mean we should look back so far to eat like that. We are where we are, I for one am not going to live in the past.
Absolutely! The adaptation to milk .... lactase persistence, which allows us to digest milk into adulthood, is the product on one single gene muation and is said to have first occurred in the European population that first domesticated cattle, less than 10k years ago. It facilitated the post glacial spread of humans through Europe, just the same as other mutations, like fair skin and blue eyes did.
Veering of topic (again) I am interested in research that supports certain breeds doing better on certain foods. For example northern breeds raised on raw meats, and collies and JR's being fed more carbs and less meat. It seems to make sense, and certainly my JR is calmer on less meat and higher % carbs. This won't fit into the 'wolf' theory in the slightest, however it does once again bring up the fact of mutations occuring within a generation, and how many generations have there been since 18,000 (domestication of the dog).
Oh yes.... a very interesting topic. I've heard too many times, and experienced it in my own dogs, for it to be coincidence IMO.... that some dogs, if fed a diet too low in carbohydrate, loose condition, particularly in coat.
Since domestication, dogs have diverged into distinct types in widespread locations, with obviously, very varied diets. If they had the genetic capacity to cope with their diet they thrived and those that didn't simply didn't survive to pass on their genes.
It is said that breeds such as the early collies were fed almost exclusively on oats, as meat was such a valued commodity.