Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains

Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by samstave on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:14PM (#19600872)

I thought this was known.

When my first born was a toddler, she would go into the fridge and eat butter.

I expressed concern to my grandmother, a life long nurse who was born in 1920 said to me; “the brain knows that it needs fats to grow, just let her eat butter. It is what her body is saying she needs”

She is super smart and it wasnt an issue otherwise.

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by EnderViaAnsible on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:40PM (#19600996)

The translation of deficiencies into food cravings has always fascinated me. People with pica, for example, often compulsively eat non-foods that are in fact related to a deficiency they have. Anemics sometimes crave dirt (which does contain iron).

But how does it "know"?

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by wccrawford on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:32AM (#19603869)

I don't think your body "knows". I think your mind is very, very good at pattern recognition. It knows that when certain signals exist, a certain condition exists, and when certain foods are eaten, those signals are lessened. It doesn't know what foods will do what until after you've eaten them, possibly multiple times.

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by s_y_n_t_a_x on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:55PM (#19601062)

Probably a memory of the taste and the vitamins that follow it.

My wife craves mints when she's low on iron.

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by samstave on Monday April 08, 2019 @12:37AM (#19602145)

But do mints provide any iron?

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by bjoli on Monday April 08, 2019 @03:02AM (#19602810)

If they are fortified they do, or better up if they are some kind of mint-flavoured supplements.

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by s_y_n_t_a_x on Monday April 08, 2019 @05:42PM (#19609332)

Depends on which kinds. Spearmint can contain up to 15% of your DV of iron.

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by croon on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:20AM (#19604121)

While I'm inclined to agree in this case, the body is fairly easy to re(mis)calibrate [1].

It's very easy to start craving candy bars/cake/ice cream/etc. It's tougher to find a valid rationale for that craving.

[1] For example: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.201400...

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by Merad on Monday April 08, 2019 @01:11AM (#19602318)

I would tend to attribute this to the fact that butter is delicious before I'd say it was an instinctual craving for fats.

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Re:Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains by Moru on Monday April 08, 2019 @03:03AM (#19602817)

And it's delicious to us because we need it. What comes first?

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