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