as we have been discussing blood sugar and related topics, and I came
across the material below last night, I thought I would share it with
the list in case others found it of interest.

Regards,
Tom Billings
[log in to unmask]

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   Miller JC; Colagiuri S.
      The carnivore connection: dietary carbohydrate in the evolution of NIDDM.
    Diabetologia, 1994 Dec, 37(12):1280-6.
        (UI:  95203542)

Abstract: We postulate a critical role for the quantity and quality of dietary
    carbohydrate in the pathogenesis of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
    (NIDDM). Our primate ancestors ate a high-carbohydrate diet and the brain
    and reproductive tissues evolved a specific requirement for glucose as a
    source of fuel. But the Ice Ages which dominated the last two million years
    of human evolution brought a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. Certain
    metabolic adaptations were therefore necessary to accommodate the low
    glucose intake. Studies in both humans and experimental animals indicate
    that the adaptive (phenotypic) response to low-carbohydrate intake is
    insulin resistance. This provides the clue that insulin resistance is the
    mechanism for coping with a shortage of dietary glucose. We propose that the
    low-carbohydrate carnivorous diet would have disadvantaged reproduction in
    insulin-sensitive individuals and positively selected for individuals with
    insulin resistance. Natural selection would therefore result in a high
    proportion of people with genetically-determined insulin resistance. Other
    factors, such as geographic isolation, have contributed to further increases
    in the prevalence of the genotype in some population groups. Europeans may
    have a low incidence of diabetes because they were among the first to adopt
    agriculture and their diet has been high in carbohydrate for 10,000 years.
    The selection pressure for insulin resistance (i.e., a low-carbohydrate
    diet) was therefore relaxed much sooner in Caucasians than in other
    populations. Hence the prevalence of genes producing insulin resistance
    should be lower in the European population and any other group exposed to
    high-carbohydrate intake for a sufficiently long period of time.