ANTHROP 2AN3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Sweet Potato, Lactase, Cassava
19 Feb 2020
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Chapter 12: bread and beer: the early use of cereals in the human diet. (katz and voigt, There are thousands of plants that humans could consume. These staple crops include grasses such as wheat, rice, corn, millet, and sorghum and root crops such as yams, manioc, taro, potato, and sweet potato. The plants we now eat connect us in some remarkable ways with our past. Most of the plants we prepare as foods today are domesticated varieties of the wild plants that our ancestors consumed thousands of years ago. Depending on the importance of a specific food within the diet, different human populations vary in their ability to consume it without harm. For example, one well-known adaptation that is at least partially genetically controlled involves the ability of adults to digest fresh milk. Nearly all newborn mammals have an enzyme (lactase) in their small intestine that breaks down and permits the absorption of the sugar in milk (lactose).
