Hello Amadeus!

A English scientist by the name of Crawford has written a book on how diet
may have shaped evolution.
I met him when he came to speak locally.

He has compared brain size relative to overall body size and the presence of
certain fatty acids (derived from omega-3).
He found humans and squirrels to have the highest. This is not to suggest we
should eat squirrel brains! Squirrels are very resourceful and intelligent
compared to their brain size. Has anyone seen the video shows of how they
find their way through mazes and obstacles to get to a bird feeder?
Squirrels obviously synthesize their DHA from nuts.


Human breast milk also has that fatty acid, but cow milk is deficient.

Dr. Crawford advocates use of fish for omega-3; I feel this is partly
because he is also affiliated with world fishery organizations. I asked him
about flax seed and he said it was ok. I personally think it is very risky
to eat fish, especially nowadays.
There is a variety of plankton that has the DHA (that is where the fish get
theirs).

There are a small fraction of population (no numbers available) whose bodies
cannot synthesize DHA from Omega-3 EFA.

Mahesh [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Amadeus Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, September 24, 1998 11:58 AM
Subject: [P-F] w-3 fats, vitamin b1 and big brains


>We got to the w-3 fats and b1 discussion through the theory that
>some certain fatty-acids were necessary to *build up* our brain,
>which is considerable bigger than chimp's.
>
>The purslane discussion has shown (as my result) that eating brains
>is not required to build up a brain, may it be 1 or 3 pounds of fat.
>(Thanks for the purslane photo btw! I'm sorry I think I don't have it in my
>garden :-( )
>
>Moreover the build-up time for the brain is in early childhood and if
>the fatty-acids that make up big part of the brain don't get used up
>only the supply in early childhood should be of importance.
>I too had problems to imagine a 1 year old eating lots of Zebra-Brain.
>
>As a control we could check how much of th
>ese fatty-acids you mentioned
>are in the mother's milk. This is the paleolithic supply of nutrition
>in early childhood.
>
>To the probably increased B1-needs of a bigger brain:
>
>On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 07:37:17 -0400, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>>On Wed, 23 Sep 1998, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
>>> Annother interesting point to brain developement and
>>> nutrition is the vitamin-B1 issue.
>>> All nervous cells *only* work with a constant b1 supply.
>>> A 3-times bigger brain has a 3 times bigger b1-need, isn't it?
>>
>>In absolute terms, how much is needed?  We already established
>>that the B1 requirement should be less when less carbs are eaten,
>>since B1 is necessary for carb metabolism.
>Well how much is actually needed? For example my diet program claims
>1.1 mg per day for adults.
>
>Eating more fats instead of carbs may be one way to ensure a better
>
>supply of b1 for essential brain functions,
>maybe even at a lower supply than , let say 1.1mg.
>
>Most of these requirement counts are gained by testing
>how low a supply can be hold, before signs of the deficiency arise,
>and then adding a little security margin.
>
>But I think B1 is nothing to play around with.
>It has the lowest duration in the body (the lowest reserves) of all
>Vitamins.
>
>I have read that rats, if given a higher b1-supply as normal, are
>"able to perform intellectual high performances".
>
>IMO that shows that a supply above the minimum-rda's may not be faulty.
>At least, the big brain size of humans is one of the strongest,
>most important developenents and keypoint of human evolution.
>
>Still that points me towards a strong role that nuts and seeds played
>in human evolution. Maybe even to neolithic revolution.
>One of the strongest points of the grains is the very good b-vi
>tamin
>content, and therefore good supply for the farmers.
>Thanks god there are sunflowers.
>
>regards
>
>Amadeus
>