Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Pretty much what you said is true. What I find interesting is the question of why humans evolved to be able to switch into ketosis, though. I think it's odd since plant matter would be more abundant even during the last Ice Age than say animal proteins would it not? And the fat content of insects I assume isn't very high comparably to other animals. So, why did we get it or rather what was the environmental factor that selected for it is what I'm asking (I guess).


  What I find interesting is the question of why humans
  evolved to be able to switch into ketosis, though
Well, organs and muscles have to run on something... most of them can run fine on ketone bodies, and it's more efficient to produce them from animal foods than to force gluconeogenesis on everything to run on glucose.


is ketosis something other apes dont perform? naturally i just assumed ketosis preceded humanity and was something we inherited.


I have no idea. It just seems odd to me that assuming a relatively low protein/fat intake is easily done then why have a metabolic pathway for it? My guess it's to work with fat stores over long periods of starvation (get fat in Spring/Summer/Autumn, 'starve' in winter).


(Other) Great Apes are primarily carnivores, with some being vegetarian.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: