The scientific explanation: why do we like carbohydrates?

Pasta, Potatoes and hot croissants are recognized as the great enemies of diets that make it difficult for most of us to achieve the dream figure.If this topic sounds familiar to you, you will surely be happy to take solace in the fact that you have a scientific reason for being drawn to them: new research reveals the explanation for our need for carbohydrates. Archaeological findings prove that humans have developed an addiction to carbohydrates since the time of the ancient man, who used to eat tubers rich in starches.

 

The study, published in the journal science, Provides hereditary evidence for early human nutrition aboutHigh in carbohydrates, and fruityc the theory thatAccording to which the prehistoric people ate exclusively mammoth meat.

 

Scientists have traced the evolutionary development of the gene that allows humans to digest starch more easily by breaking it down into simple sugars that our bodies can use for energy. These genes have been duplicated hundreds of thousands of years Before the agriculture industry.

It’s in our gardens

Researchers at the Jackson Laboratory in Farmington, Connecticut, and the University at Buffalo, New York, analyzed the genomes of 68 ancient humans. The research team focused on the gene called AMY1, which allows humans to recognize and begin breaking down starch from complex carbohydrates while still in the oral cavity by producing the enzyme amylase. Thanks to this enzyme, humans are able to digest potatoes, bread rice and more. currently Humans have multiple copies of this gene and the number varies from person to person. Geneticists have had difficulty pinpointing how and when the number of these genes expanded, but the theory is that the expansion of genes occurred when eating starch apparently became an advantage to human health.

 

 

Genome analysis showed that copy no AMY1 has grown steeply in the last 4000 years, most likely as a result of natural selection being thatHumans have adapted to a diet rich in starch, as a result of the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and grains.

The study provided evidence of how the molecular machinery for converting starches into simple sugars evolved in humans. moreover, he strengthened the theory thataccording to which carbohydrates, and not proteins, are those whoProvide the energy needed to grow the human brain over time.

The researchers point out the challenge in understanding the way in which Individual genes change over time bbattle of different populationsand this only reinforces the need for further studies of the genome of our ancestors. The genomic investigationyou Reveals the explanation for the long-standing love of humans for carbohydrates.

Inbal Markowitz Weiman Clinical Dietitian Assuta Medical Centers