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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHi I was reading an article about how much larger the human pancrease is compared to that of other herbivores. The hypothesis is that it grew due to eating so much cooked food, so our bodies had to rely on our pancrease to create extra enzymes. My question is does the human pancrease gow when we eat more food or have humans been eating cooked food for such a long time that our pancrease has actually somewhat evolvded to eat cooked food?
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Good question! I'm inclined to believe #2 would be more supported scientifically. I'm not sure if it's related to cooked food or rather the introduction of more meat into the human diet. Secretions from the pancreas neutralize the acidity of meat. Over generations and generations, our pancreases may have grown in size.
Recently I read that from an evolutionary perspective, dietary adaptations happen quite rapidly in humans. For example, most people cannot digest cow dairy well. But in the British Isles and other parts of Europe, where people lived with cows for thousands of years, they evolved to become more lactose-tolerant. And these kinds of physiological changes take place much much faster than one would expect.
wow, you know, I thought before that the pancreas became larger when a person ate cooked food, and then smaller when switching back to raw food (not an evolutionary thing). But your finding seems quite right. I read in some raw magazine that the pancreas was 3x as large when cooked food is eaten. the problem with this is it's like a hypertrophy, whether an evolutionary change or a short term change. besides just the actual enlargement of the pancreas, i think eating cooked food taxes thepancreas and body of enzymes because of the food's lack of enzymes. that's what causes aging from what I have gathered. it would be interesting to find out if the pancreas would decrease in size on a mostly raw diet.
suasoria: I too read about that! I actually read in a Scientific American article that the Scandinavians could digest cow dairy for that reason. pretty interesting.