Why you should eat like a wild gorilla
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Why you should eat like a wild gorilla
Hi, Interesting article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tana-amen ... 67253.html Jon
Well, yes, it's an interesting bit of fiction, but . . . While the overall concept of that article sounds legitimate at first glance, it overlooks two glaring facts — our digestive system is vastly different from the digestive system of a gorilla, and gorillas actually eat a high fat diet in the wild.
Like herbivores, gorillas have bigger and more complex digestive systems so that they can ferment fiber and cellulose in order to produce vital short-chain fatty acids. IOW, even though gorillas eat a lot of carbs (from plant matter), those carbohydrates are fermented in their gut by bacteria to produce essential fatty acids that our digestive systems are not capable of extracting from such foods. And that's the gorilla's secret formula — a high-fat diet that's possible because of their very specialized guts.
If you feed gorillas a diet with a high fruit content, though, instead of their normal diet of shoots and leaves, they’ll get the same blood sugar problems we get and they can even develop diabetes. Well doh! No big surprise there.
So the main context of that article strikes me as pretty much of a "Doh!" discovery. Why on earth would so called "zoo nutritionists", or "ration wranglers", or whatever they prefer to call themselves, be feeding gorillas in zoos a non-native diet in the first place? Are they nuts? Why not feed them what they eat in the wild? Why should anyone be surprised when any species fails to thrive when fed a diet that has no resemblance to their native diet?
Gorilla's certainly can't thrive on a human diet, and since humans don't have the digestive system of a gorilla, we're not likely to be able to thrive on a gorilla's diet, either.
Tex
Like herbivores, gorillas have bigger and more complex digestive systems so that they can ferment fiber and cellulose in order to produce vital short-chain fatty acids. IOW, even though gorillas eat a lot of carbs (from plant matter), those carbohydrates are fermented in their gut by bacteria to produce essential fatty acids that our digestive systems are not capable of extracting from such foods. And that's the gorilla's secret formula — a high-fat diet that's possible because of their very specialized guts.
If you feed gorillas a diet with a high fruit content, though, instead of their normal diet of shoots and leaves, they’ll get the same blood sugar problems we get and they can even develop diabetes. Well doh! No big surprise there.
So the main context of that article strikes me as pretty much of a "Doh!" discovery. Why on earth would so called "zoo nutritionists", or "ration wranglers", or whatever they prefer to call themselves, be feeding gorillas in zoos a non-native diet in the first place? Are they nuts? Why not feed them what they eat in the wild? Why should anyone be surprised when any species fails to thrive when fed a diet that has no resemblance to their native diet?
Gorilla's certainly can't thrive on a human diet, and since humans don't have the digestive system of a gorilla, we're not likely to be able to thrive on a gorilla's diet, either.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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I am reading Michael Pollan's newest book "Cooked" where he talks about how cooking renders foods more digestible by breaking down the components thereby allowing humans to extract more energy from foods with less effort, resulting in smaller jaws and smaller digestive tracts. He particularly mentions how cooking breaks down cellulose in plants to make them more digestible, something that the members of this forum who can eat well cooked vegetables but can not eat raw vegetables know very well.
Jean
Jean
Yep, I'm with Pollan on that issue. Cooking was one of the best inventions that humans ever developed. 
Tex
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Hi, They took the gorilla out of the wild and tried to feed it a human diet and it got the same diseases. When the pilgrims came to America they changed the diet of the Native Americans and they got the same diseases. When humans ate a Paleo diet did they have the same diseases as we have today? History shows that when the population grew, meat became scare and they had to look for other sources of food. Grains were introduced. They were cheap and you did not have to hunt. Today, since we feed the live stocks alot of grains and economists state that raising livestock is not cheap and is taking valuable grains from feeding the masses. There may be a time in the future when livestock production may be reduced to allow the grains to used more efficiently. An interesting study shows that cultures where the wealthy has the resources to purchase meat proteins are healthier then the rest of the population. Jon
Jean, I ordered Pollan's book from the library. You have the best ideas for books to read! Really enjoyed "epidemic of Absence", another of your suggestions. Do you have any others to recommend?
The other Jean
The other Jean
"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not." Mark Twain