Seriously, everyone points to our brains and thumbs as to why we’re the dominant species on the planet, but our ability to eat damn near everything is also a major factor. We can eat a wide range of plants and animals native to every region of every continent. Wolves/dogs are our closest competition there and they can only eat a fraction of what we can eat. This made us completely unlimited in where we could go and colonize way back in the stone age.
What I don’t get is how there seem to be only a few remaining food types that people of certain ethnicities can’t tolerate. Like, some people can’t tolerate cow milk, some can’t tolerate wheat, because they didn’t have those things thousands of years ago. But like, most of the planet didn’t have most of the types of food available now until relatively recently, so why don’t you hear of more people being allergic to tomatoes, potatoes, mustard, etc?
Best to remember that certain sensitivities, like lactose intolerance, are actually the rule rather than the exception. Lactose tolerance is only the majority in certain populations of European or Middle Eastern origin. A bunch of them are also mostly harmless and just cause indigestion rather than anything serious. I am lactose intolerant and eating cheese just means I’ll be gassy and spend more time on the toilet later, so long as I’m not eating to excess. Since they don’t actually kill you most of the time, they get selected out at a very slow rate.
Seriously, everyone points to our brains and thumbs as to why we’re the dominant species on the planet, but our ability to eat damn near everything is also a major factor. We can eat a wide range of plants and animals native to every region of every continent. Wolves/dogs are our closest competition there and they can only eat a fraction of what we can eat. This made us completely unlimited in where we could go and colonize way back in the stone age.
What I don’t get is how there seem to be only a few remaining food types that people of certain ethnicities can’t tolerate. Like, some people can’t tolerate cow milk, some can’t tolerate wheat, because they didn’t have those things thousands of years ago. But like, most of the planet didn’t have most of the types of food available now until relatively recently, so why don’t you hear of more people being allergic to tomatoes, potatoes, mustard, etc?
Best to remember that certain sensitivities, like lactose intolerance, are actually the rule rather than the exception. Lactose tolerance is only the majority in certain populations of European or Middle Eastern origin. A bunch of them are also mostly harmless and just cause indigestion rather than anything serious. I am lactose intolerant and eating cheese just means I’ll be gassy and spend more time on the toilet later, so long as I’m not eating to excess. Since they don’t actually kill you most of the time, they get selected out at a very slow rate.