Re: skinny runners and fatness again

Pauline M Ross wrote:
>
> On Wed, 3 Aug 2005 11:45:32 -0400, "firstjois" <firstjois@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> >Well, rather than just quoting some odds and ends from GOK only knows
> >where, you should check out Jim Moore's site where he does quote CP and
> >said that the location of fat in humans in comparable to fat in monkeys
> >(when they have a chance to get fat IIRC) so is older than the LCA of
> >chimps and humans.
>
> Of course it's located in the same areas, the significant fact is that
> the fat depots in humans are typically much larger than in other
> mammals.
>
> I'm not quite sure why Jim Moore's quotes meet with your approval,
> whereas mine, from the same sources, apparently don't.
>
> >Obesity in human beings may be on the rise and it may
> >be recent
>
> At least as old as the Venus figurines, so not that recent.

The figure can well represent a pregnant woman. Considerable
weight gain there. Of interest would be cave drawings - if fat
people were the norm, we'd see lots of fat figures. We've all
probably looked at a zillion of them, but I don't recall seeing
any depictions of fat humans.

Humans can pig out, you know. Lifestyle. Consider

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/07/04/fat.soldiers.ap/

WATERTOWN, Wisconsin (AP) -- With America at war and in need of a few good
men, Jon Schoenherr expected a warm reception when he walked into an Army
recruiting office in this Midwestern farm community, intending to enlist.

But a sergeant gave the 17-year-old some surprising news.

"He told me I'd have to lose a little bit of weight," said Schoenherr,
who dropped 50 pounds to qualify.

Besides terrorists, germ warfare and nuclear weapons, military officials
increasingly worry about a different kind of threat -- troops too fat to
fight.
...
Today's soldiers are supersized, averaging 37 pounds heavier than their Civil
War counterparts. Military officials say that's not all bad, because most of
it is muscle, not fat, and the result of better nutrition.
...

37 pounds. And one other poster posted about in WWI how some British
recruits were not taken because they were underweight and malnourished.

Don't make the mistake of assuming what we can see today was the norm
thousands and thousands ( if not hundreds of thousands or even millions) of
years ago.

> >but she discusses several animals that she studies and identifies
> >them as obese so obesity in animals (even Mammals) or having lots of fat -
> >is nothing new.
>
> No one has suggested that fatness or obesity are uniquely human
> characteristics. But adult human fat is unusual in a terrestrial
> species without severe winter food shortages, and infant fat at birth
> is out on its own. That requires a convincing explanation, and I
> haven't seen one yet.

This has been gone over here. The mother not being able to lactate
immediately, for example.

> >Look her up, she's kind of interesting. And you might even
> >find a few "why" answers.
>
> Thanks for the advice. I've read some of her work, and I respect her
> opinions, but I don't take them (or anyone else's opinions, for that
> matter) as gospel.
>
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bo Graslund "Early humans & their world" Routledge
    ... >> FYI this is one of my texts on fat: Humans lack the short reflective fur ... > Since early Homo is clearly a savanna mammal, ... just the opposite of the water resistant design of Homo. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Ape theories & Aquaticism
    ... > the need for buoyancy is greatest. ... the ones with least fat. ... > Well as humans have a very large brain too, which is even more costly, ... species N has a very unusual feature ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Anti-AAT arguments
    ... anti-AATers say that since all these features are ... seen in humans today, ... large brain & iodine needs who run after kudus, ... SC fat: Africans have only about half the fat of Asiatic ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Savanna nonsense
    ... Is it a caloric deficit or a deficit of particular ... suspect it's largely a post-agricultural phenomenon in humans. ... >Putting on fat as a caloric cache is a relatively widespread phenomenon ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Savanna nonsense
    ... Is it a caloric deficit or a deficit of particular ... > suspect it's largely a post-agricultural phenomenon in humans. ... >>Putting on fat as a caloric cache is a relatively widespread phenomenon ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)