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I don't know that the biological benefits of fasting are associated directly with cultural fasting patterns in our ancestry. I suspect they're more linked with

by rdmcfee 12y ago

I don't know that the biological benefits of fasting are associated directly with cultural fasting patterns in our ancestry. I suspect they're more linked with our ancestral hunter-gatherer traits. It seems logical that early humans would go periods of time without eating while hunting, then consume a large amount of protein and fat in a short period of time. Religious and cultural fasting, however, would likely have not occurred until the development of language which is estimated at 20k-50k years ago. That's not a particularly long time on an evolutionary scale.

Florin_Andrei 12y ago
I agree that we're probably adapted, in our biology, to re-occurring intervals of food scarcity. I would not be surprised at all if it turned out that our bodies actually function better on that sort of regime (eat at will for a while, then forego all caloric intake for a brief period). I wonder if this was noticed at the dawn of civilization, and then got codified into religion and so on.
- rdmcfee 12y ago
  Yeah it's interesting how ancient cultures seemed to have (by trial and error I suppose) incorporated specific behaviors into their culture which, in hindsight, solve a particular problem that can be scientifically identified. An example I love is the Canadian Inuit who traditionally ate no vegetables for 10+ months of the year without developing scurvy. The tradition of eating raw whale blubber and fish (including the broth) preserved the vitamin C and minerals from the mea, while eating cooked meat without broth drastically reduces mineral and vitamin intake.
tiglionabbit 12y ago
It doesn't need to be the tradition that shaped our biology. It could be our biology that shaped the tradition. Assuming we already have some benefit to fasting, a group who make a tradition of fasting are more likely to survive than a group who does not. Thus the fasting meme takes over as the people who believe in it take over.

by rdmcfee 12y ago

Florin_Andrei 12y ago

I agree that we're probably adapted, in our biology, to re-occurring intervals of food scarcity. I would not be surprised at all if it turned out that our bodies actually function better on that sort of regime (eat at will for a while, then forego all caloric intake for a brief period). I wonder if this was noticed at the dawn of civilization, and then got codified into religion and so on.

rdmcfee 12y ago
Yeah it's interesting how ancient cultures seemed to have (by trial and error I suppose) incorporated specific behaviors into their culture which, in hindsight, solve a particular problem that can be scientifically identified. An example I love is the Canadian Inuit who traditionally ate no vegetables for 10+ months of the year without developing scurvy. The tradition of eating raw whale blubber and fish (including the broth) preserved the vitamin C and minerals from the mea, while eating cooked meat without broth drastically reduces mineral and vitamin intake.

tiglionabbit 12y ago

It doesn't need to be the tradition that shaped our biology. It could be our biology that shaped the tradition. Assuming we already have some benefit to fasting, a group who make a tradition of fasting are more likely to survive than a group who does not. Thus the fasting meme takes over as the people who believe in it take over.