> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=0007B7DC-6738-1DC9-
AF71809EC588EEDF&pageNumber=1&catID=2
> A very good article on the evolution of humans and food.

A very good article indeed, although I think it goes astray at the end.  I
thought this excerpt spoke to the high-fat/low-fat paleo debate that pops up
here time and again:

"We are victims of our own evolutionary success, having developed a calorie-
packed diet while minimizing the amount of maintenance energy expended on
physical activity.

The magnitude of this imbalance becomes clear when we look at traditionally
living human populations. Studies of the Evenki reindeer herders that I have
conducted in collaboration with Michael Crawford of the University of Kansas
and Ludmila Osipova of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk indicate
that the Evenki derive almost half their daily calories from meat, more than
2.5 times the amount consumed by the average American. Yet when we compare
Evenki men with their U.S. peers, they are 20 percent leaner and have
cholesterol levels that are 30 percent lower.

These differences partly reflect the compositions of the diets. Although the
Evenki diet is high in meat, it is relatively low in fat (about 20 percent of
their dietary energy comes from fat, compared with 35 percent in the average
U.S. diet), because free-ranging animals such as reindeer have less body fat
than cattle and other feedlot animals do. The composition of the fat is also
different in free-ranging animals, tending to be lower in saturated fats and
higher in the polyunsaturated fatty acids that protect against heart disease.
More important, however, the Evenki way of life necessitates a much higher
level of energy expenditure."