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Humans possess surprising nutritional intelligence:
The international study, led by the University of Bristol (UK), set out to re-examine and test the widely-held view that humans evolved to favour energy dense foods and our diets are balanced simply by eating a variety of different foods. Contrary to this belief, its findings revealed people seem to have "nutritional wisdom," whereby foods are selected in part to meet our need for vitamins and minerals and avoid nutritional deficiencies.
Lead author Jeff Brunstrom, Professor of Experimental Psychology, said: "The results of our studies are hugely significant and rather surprising. For the first time in almost a century, we've shown humans are more sophisticated in their food choices, and appear to select based on specific micronutrients rather than simply eating everything and getting what they need by default."
The paper, published in the journal Appetite, gives renewed weight to bold research carried out in the 1930s by an American paediatrician, Dr Clara Davis, who put a group of 15 babies on a diet which allowed them to "self-select", in other words eat whatever they wanted, from 33 different food items. While no child ate the same combination of foods, they all achieved and maintained a good state of health, which was taken as evidence of "nutritional wisdom."
The study is also notable as it features an unusual collaboration. Professor Brunstrom's co-author is Mark Schatzker, a journalist and author, who is also the writer-in-residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, affiliated with Yale University. [...]
Professor Brunstrom explained: "I watched Mark give a fascinating talk which challenged the received view among behavioural nutrition scientists that humans only really seek calories in food. He pointed out, for example, that fine wine, rare spices, and wild mushrooms are highly sought after but are a poor source of calories.
[...] Mark Schatzker added: "The research throws up important questions, especially in the modern food environment. For example, does our cultural fixation with fad diets, which limit or forbid consumption of certain types of foods, disrupt or disturb this dietary "intelligence" in ways we do not understand?"
[...] "Studies have shown animals use flavour as a guide to the vitamins and minerals they require. If flavour serves a similar role for humans, then we may be imbuing junk foods such as potato chips and fizzy drinks with a false 'sheen' of nutrition by adding flavourings to them. In other words, the food industry may be turning our nutritional wisdom against us, making us eat food we would normally avoid and thus contributing to the obesity epidemic."
Journal Reference:
Jeffrey M. Brunstrom and Mark Schatzker, Micronutrients and food choice: A case of 'nutritional wisdom' in humans?, Appetite, 174, 2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106055
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @11:59AM (23 children)
What makes the choice intelligent when ordering a deep fried Mars bar and 2L Diet Coke?
What Happy Meal choices led the human by flavor looking for macro nutrients?
Maybe it is high time we hold junk food companies likes MacDonalds and Coke/Pepsi accountable for their misleading body tricking chemicals all to rob humans of their nutrients to enrich the rich?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @12:27PM (1 child)
Just pop a multivitamin, it will be ok.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @12:39PM
did you forget the <sarcasm> tag?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 30 2022, @01:06PM (18 children)
There is a presumption that healthy foods are available. If the only foods that Mom and Dad make available to kids are unhealthy, kids won't choose healthy foods.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @01:17PM (4 children)
Yep, that's more or less the problem. So much of what is being marketed deliberately abuses that to get people to eat more low quality food. Traditionally those tastes could be counted on, to some extent, to figure out what to eat, but now it's likely exactly wrong.
This is one of the dangers with genetic engineering where you look at a food and it may not longer have the nutritional value that the body expects.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @05:42AM (3 children)
[Citation needed]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @07:46AM (1 child)
it think if someone purposefully phrases a sentence to include "may" then you can go look for citations where the sun may not shine.
adding "may" is like putting up a big neon sign, even bright and *blinking*, with arrow that screams "hypothesis".
requiring citation for a " may" sentence is like flaunting your "think police" armband and warning not to think about stuff like that.
you now may go away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @12:16PM
Perhaps for the uneducated. In this case it's because not all genetic engineering affects nutrition. Making a redder tomato has minimal impact on nutrition and making one that stays riper longer or requires less water may have no impact at all.
The point is that when you start messing with the genetics of food it will negatively impact our ability to trust it body to know what to eat, it's just that not all genetic engineering changes the nutritional content of the food.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @12:12PM
There's no citation needed unless you're a moron. Changing the nutritional content in food will screw this up. Only an idiot would think otherwise. It's the same issue as with highly processed foods, the nutritional content doesn't match the taste.
Literally, the only reason for the qualifier is that some genetic engineering doesn't target nutritional content.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday April 30 2022, @01:19PM (12 children)
Also relevant here: If there's no way for mom & dad to get healthy foods, then the only foods the kids will have will be unhealthy. The phenomenon of food deserts [usda.gov] where your choices of getting food are McD's, BK, Taco Bell, and a convenience store are very real.
I'm not sure why this research is surprising though: If pre-industrial humans couldn't figure out how to get the right sort of nutrition for themselves, they'd get sick and die. Natural selection and all that.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 30 2022, @01:39PM (7 children)
I've watched a few videos over the past couple years. Those 'food deserts' are entirely artificial, in that, grocery chains actually shut stores down, creating said deserts. Many of the deserts were properly served in recent years, others in less recent years. But, due to crime etc, stores were shut down, thereby creating the desert.
Dollar General, however, seems to be making an effort to identify such deserts, and locating their stores in them.
Which, is a little weird to me, because the local DGs around here do not carry fresh produce. The nearest thing to fresh produce is in the frozen foods section, where you can sometimes find packets of frozen vegetables. No fresh lettuce, celery, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.
I can't find that video now, but this article seems to support the idea - https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/business/dollar-general-family-dollar-fresh-food/index.html [cnn.com]
And, of course, I can't say whether it's more bullshit and hype, or maybe DG actually is addressing the issue.
We can most certainly condemn the major food chains for creating the deserts: Kroger, A&P, Piggly Wiggly, and all the rest. And, most definitely WalMart. As near as I can tell, WalMart never builds in the poor sections of any town, they much prefer shopping centers out near the city limits, sometimes outside city limits.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday April 30 2022, @02:03PM (2 children)
An additional factor, at least some places, is zoning regulations. Small operations can't get started.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 30 2022, @02:37PM (1 child)
That poses an interesting question. Supposing I lived in one of those food deserts, and I wanted to invest in a grocery store, specifically addressing the status of 'food desert'. The zoning laws, as written, don't allow for a grocery store. How hard would it be to get an exception? I can imagine that in one town or city, the city council would readily agree to an exception it I just present my case to them. In another city, you might have to enlist the aid of a high profile lawyer. While, in yet another city, you will flatly be told "NO!" and no amount of lawyering will gain anything.
Then, there is another barrier to entry. The major food distributors create barriers to creating accounts, and they may just refuse to serve Joe Schmuck's Local Grocery for one reason or another. Maybe the drivers don't want to go into a high crime area, for instance. Or, you can't meet a minimum account level. Or, you can't put $xx,xxx up for deposit. And, you, Joe Schmuck, can't create an entire food supply chain on your own, with only a million or two dollars at your disposal!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @03:11PM
There's no corruption quite like local corruption.
(Score: 5, Informative) by pTamok on Saturday April 30 2022, @03:31PM (1 child)
Fresh food logistics is a whole different ball game, so I can understand why they might not carry fresh produce if they are extremely cost conscious. On the other hand, under certain circumstances, some frozen vegetables actually have more vitamins than 'fresh' - frozen peas, for example, are way better than 'fresh' unshelled peas that have been in transit and storage for a week.
BBC Future: Frozen, fresh or canned food: What’s more nutritious? [bbc.com]
Food Chemistry, May 1998: A comparison of the vitamin C content of fresh and frozen vegetables [sciencedirect.com]
The hard thing is getting a decent range of frozen vegetables available.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @08:47PM
I generally prefer frozen over fresh for most vegetables. I eat far more of them when I don't have to worry about eating then in the next few days. Same for no sugar added canned fruits and vegetables. They're often in better condition than the fresh stuff, just slightly less healthy.
I can just buy a fair amount and eat whenever I want to.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday April 30 2022, @04:04PM (1 child)
Walmart's major targets are rural areas where there is no other big box store around. That way, they don't really have to compete all that heavily on either price or quality, because nobody wants to travel an hour just to get groceries.
So far, the best response I've seen to this problem is a push for community gardening, where locals turn any space they can into productive agricultural land that gives them just a bit of fresh food. In the kind of places you'd never expect to see it, among the kinds of people you might not expect to be farming, you'll find guys taking up a shovel and getting plants in the ground to feed their families. However, some places where I've seen that, the response from the city government is "Wait, we could buildings there. Get out of there, stupid gardeners!"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @07:00PM
The trouble with community gardens is the junkies that shit and piss and scatter junkie drug litter all over. The nearby garden to us has been overrun to point it is no longer safe.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @03:03PM (3 children)
>> The phenomenon of food deserts [usda.gov] where your choices of getting food are McD's, BK, Taco Bell, and a convenience store are very real.
Then the solution is simple: move out of the ghetto. Your food choices will improve and you're less likely to be bitten by a rat.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday April 30 2022, @04:29PM (2 children)
So your answer is "Don't be poor."
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2022, @07:18PM
Yes, that's the solution to the world's povery problem.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday May 02 2022, @12:00PM
Also, "don't be the sort of person real estate agents and rental companies won't even show places to in 'nice' neighborhoods".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @04:03PM
The whole thing is a racket. The junk food companies make money from selling junk food. When you then get sick the pharmaceutical companies and medical system makes money from fixing what's wrong with you.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday May 01 2022, @07:29PM
It's not intelligence any more than eating because you're hungry is intelligent, and I seriously doubt we are the sole organism for which this is true. You know that feeling when you're standing at the refrigerator, hungry, but nothing sounds good? It means the nutrition your body needs isn't in the fridge.
Not what I would call "intelligence". It's simple instinct that takes no thought whatever.
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