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Ability To Consume Alcohol May Have Shaped Human Evolution

Posted by samzenpus on from the have-a-drink-on-me dept.

sciencehabit writes Craving a stiff drink after the holiday weekend? Your desire to consume alcohol, as well as your body's ability to break down the ethanol that makes you tipsy, dates back about 10 million years, researchers have discovered. The new finding not only helps shed light on the behavior of our primate ancestors, but also might explain why alcoholism—or even the craving for a single drink—exists in the first place.

61 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Of course it did by GrumpySteen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone who has woken up next to someone they hooked up with while drunk can tell you that alcohol completely undermines selective breeding.

    1. Re:Of course it did by sgage · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You speak as though 'selective breeding' is some sort of conscious thing where you do the selecting. Evolution has its own ideas (metaphorically - I'm not getting all teleological on you). But seriously, selectively breeding for what? Things change, selective pressures change, what's adaptive in your eyes might not be in the long run. Keep throwing the dice! ;-)

    2. Re:Of course it did by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      I drink....

      ...therefore I am.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:Of course it did by sconeu · · Score: 2

      Thank you for posting that, Bruce. You don't mind if I call you Bruce to keep it simple, do you?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    4. Re:Of course it did by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      How I Met Your Mom

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Of course it did by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      Ahem.

    6. Re:Of course it did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      North American aborigines did not drink...til..those rotten Euros landed. THEN you see an inability to process ethanol that has, to this day, plagued the "Indians", who never evolved around alcohol.

      Some Aussie, with a bit of smack, should talk about their Aborigines and their experiences with battery acid...

    7. Re:Of course it did by flyneye · · Score: 1

      I've seen this phenomena in Texas. But noticeably Massachusetts is a FAIL even as likely as they consume twice the state of Texas.
      These questions should be probed in further depth, with random samplings in the thousands,aclohol and women, from both states, by a team, I would assemble.
      Their objectivity and focus would have to be completely on the job. With a grant or a kick start, the research could go on for years and provide valuable information, for anyone in the science community, who needed a drink or to get their pickle tickled.

                The political implications could be staggering as well. But my money is on Colorado and other marijuana states to attract a higher chickadeer population.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    8. Re:Of course it did by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Anyone who has woken up next to someone they hooked up with while drunk can tell you that alcohol completely undermines selective breeding.

      Funny -- TFA actually argues that "being a cheap date" was a disadvantage and selected against:

      "If you were the ancestor without this new mutation in ADH4 [to metabolize alcohol], the ethanol would quickly build up in your blood and you'd get inebriated much faster," Carrigan says. "You'd be a cheap date." This easy inebriation, he says, would have been a disadvantage to the monkeys without the mutation, making them more easily get sickâ"or drunkâ"off fruit, enough so that they couldn't defend their territory and seek out food. Primates with the new mutation could get more food, his group hypothesizes, and the gene was selected for in the human and chimpanzee lineage.

      But then the next paragraph makes a 180-degree turn and claims that alcoholism evolved to be associated with pleasure because, I guess, being drunk is fun (and, apparently, tasty). So, apparently "being a cheap date" is also something that is selected FOR in evolution, or alcoholism doesn't evolve, accroding to TFA:

      Carrigan says the discovery might explain why human brains evolved to link pleasure pathways with alcohol consumptionâ"ethanol was associated with a key food source. "It's not a whole lot different from the addictions some people have towards food," he explains. "At the right dose, when you didn't have alcohol and candy at every corner, it was hard to get too much of this sort of stuff, so when you found it, you wanted to be programmed to overconsume."

      Argh. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was complaining about evolutionary biologists making up random "just-so" stories that conveniently show how anything could evolve?

      In TFA, wanting to get drunk is bad for natural selection, until it's good for natural selection... in the freakin' next paragraph. Really, guys?

    9. Re:Of course it did by hawk · · Score: 2

      Not quite.

      If ethanol was lethal, it would be undesirable, and avoided. There would be an inclination away from the fermenting fruit on the ground.

      For those who could digest the food that is poisonous to their competitors, a desire for such things would lead to going to consume them more often.

      It's not the ones without,, but rather with the tolerance gene that would benefit from being drawn to the fermenting fruit.

      hawk

    10. Re:Of course it did by Borg+Bucolic · · Score: 1

      Some anti-drinking advocate said to me once, "You know... drinking is responsible for more deaths than ....." To which I replied, "It is also responsible for a great number of births."

    11. Re:Of course it did by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Nope.

      http://www.todayifoundout.com/...

    12. Re:Of course it did by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Your problem is you are missing the idea of balance.
      If you get drunk too quickly, then you are open up to predation, or allowing the sick and weak to mate with you, creating weak and sick offspring.
      However if you don't get enjoyment from the buzz, then you may starve due to not having a diverse food source.

      Now balance isn't ying and yang or positive vs negative.
      The function of benefit vs loss over consumption is not linear but much more complex.
      Let's say the benefit of a buzz grows linerally, while the disadvantage grows exponetionally. You will be receiving a net benefit until you reach eqalibram. As there are point in a lineral function early on the exceed an exponential function.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    13. Re:Of course it did by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      It's not the ones without,, but rather with the tolerance gene that would benefit from being drawn to the fermenting fruit.

      Uh, yeah. That's obvious. I wasn't at all disagreeing with that. What I'm pointing out is that TFA is talking about two separate evolutionary developments. On the one hand, evolution explains a gene that avoids constant drunkenness to process alcohol. On the other hand evolution explains the psychological tendency toward constant drunkenness in the form of alcoholism by connecting such a thing to a pleasure center. Obviously those who are able to process alcohol will get the biggest evolutionary advantage from eating food with it (as you say), but how does that lead to alcoholism unless you begin to select for people who can't control their alcohol intake and drink to excess (which is the opposite trend)?

    14. Re:Of course it did by quenda · · Score: 2

      THEN you see an inability to process ethanol that has,

      This is a bit of an urban legend. Plenty of populations have similarly reduced abilities to process alcohol, but not a big problem with alcoholism.
      A better explanation is that being invaded and outnumbered by a more sophisticated race that relegates your humiliated culture to the fringes would drive anyone to drink. I'm very nervous about SETI.

    15. Re: Of course it did by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

      I drink waaaaaay more, therefore I am, like, snifficly more volved than you amateurs. errrrrp. MORE BEER HERE!!

      --
      The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
    16. Re:Of course it did by mooingyak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Obviously those who are able to process alcohol will get the biggest evolutionary advantage from eating food with it (as you say), but how does that lead to alcoholism unless you begin to select for people who can't control their alcohol intake and drink to excess (which is the opposite trend)?

      Alcoholism isn't getting drunk easily, it's not being able to control your intake.

      The article argues that alcohol tolerance made more food sources available. If this food was scarce but beneficial, a genetic craving for it would provide an advantage. It only turns into alcoholism when the source is no longer scarce, which is a (evolutionarily speaking) recent thing.

      --
      William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    17. Re:Of course it did by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      Your problem is you are missing the idea of balance.

      I wasn't aware I had a "problem." I was in fact discussing those who "have a problem" with drinking -- and therefore are out of balance.

      I have no problem with the idea of "balance." The problem in this situation is that the researchers are talking about two different evolutionary adaptations, and they are claiming opposite factors are driving them, including ones that are out of balance.

      The function of benefit vs loss over consumption is not linear but much more complex.

      I absolutely agree this is possible. But the problem is that the authors of this study are not that nuanced in their explanation. They are not only claiming the origin for the desire to drink alcohol, but also the origin of drinking to EXCESS and alcoholism.

      But the mechanism they proposed for an adaptation to process alcohol in humans requires an explanation that would select against such drinking to excess (i.e., primates can't defend their territory because they'd be too drunk). Don't you see the contradiction here?

      On the one hand, we're "programmed to overconsume," but on the other hand, such overconsumption wouldn't allow us to evolve the study's special gene in the first place (according to the researchers' explanation).

      I'm not saying these two separate things couldn't have evolved in something like this way, but the authors' explanations depend on contrasting selection pressures. Perhaps one trait evolved under one circumstance in one environment, and conditions changed a few millennia later, leading to the other development. Or perhaps there's an even more complex explanation.

      The point is that TFA's description makes little sense as a SINGLE explanation for two different adaptations, despite the fact that TFA claims one thing if the first paragraph I quoted and then requires the opposite behavior in the next paragraph which begins "the [preceding] discovery might explain..."

      Let's say the benefit of a buzz grows linerally, while the disadvantage grows exponetionally. You will be receiving a net benefit until you reach eqalibram. As there are point in a lineral function early on the exceed an exponential function.

      I think you missed my whole point about "just-so" stories. I'm not saying what you're saying is false or that things couldn't have evolved that way. I'm saying that you made up a very nice story based on relatively little evidence -- just your speculation -- to explain a complex evolutionary phenomenon that could have all sorts of complex causes and explanations.

      That's exactly the sort of thing that should be criticized. Just because "Well, I can make up a possible story that could explain something" doesn't mean it happened that way. You need, well, perhaps a little more evidence, not just "Let's say that...."

    18. Re:Of course it did by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      A joke told in Finland is that they'd have no birthrate at all if it were not for alcohol.

  2. Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by Gim+Tom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I read the article and while interesting it doesn't fully explain a phenomenon I have observed first hand for many years. I have two wild cherry trees on my property and sometimes the cherries remain on the tree long enough to begin fermenting. When this happens every bird for miles fights over the boozy cherries! The squirrels also seem to prefer these somewhat fermented cherries. Humans may have evolved a better way to metabolize ethanol, but I don't think we were the first creatures to appreciate a wee dram every now and then.

    1. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      greaaat, furnishing alcohol to these critters? You realize you're potentially liable for damages incurred due to inebriated wildlife right? You should at least start carding them.

    2. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by kwiecmmm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Many animals have been known to get drunk. I once saw a nature special where a lot of African animals ate the fruit off a grove of trees and all got drunk. After this happened most of them passed out next to each other. So there was an awesome site of monkeys, zebras and lions all sleeping a few feet away from each other.

      I think what the article is pointing out is that our ability to process more alcohol allowed us to eat more fruit without getting drunk, which allowed us to be more mobile and defend territory better while not getting drunk. It also probably helped us defend ourselves better against predators, than those that were drunk.

    3. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by sribe · · Score: 1

      Also, certain apes, and elephants, IIRC...

    4. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by sgage · · Score: 2

      On the street where I grew up there was a big mulberry tree that put out huge amounts of fruit. Which inevitably dropped on the ground and fermented - just walking past it you could smell alcohol. The birds used to get snot-hanging drunk off of this stuff, especially the bluejays. You'd see them walking down the street because they just couldn't get it together enough to fly. Nothing new under the sun.

    5. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by Immerman · · Score: 1

      I knew a fellow who had a goose for a while that loved alcohol. Didn't care about water, coffee, soda, tea, etc - but anything alcoholic and he'd be hovering around trying to beg a sip or two - up to and past the point where he was falling over every few steps. So there's definitely a cross-species appeal.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    6. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by sgage · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, elephants are generally violent drunks - they get into the fermented stuff and go on drunken rampages through villages and such. I sure wouldn't want to deal with a drunken elephant...

    7. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you are lucky enough to catch it, this is common in Afrika. There you can see every imaginable animal getting wasted together, predators and pray alike. Nobody is eating anything but fermented berries. You see big cats, giraffes, gazelles, birds, monkeys, etc. all together as if they were best friends in a party.

      The next day you can see the same animals with hangovers everywhere. Each trying to handle a pounding head. Quite the sight.

      A quick search on "drunk animals in africa" gives you plenty of laughs.

    8. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      an associate of mine in Kenya lives near a herd of elephants, he often tells of problems they have keeping them away from the squash plantation - they'll only go for the very ripe pumpkins, and get extremely pissed on them.

      Apparently, the sight and sound of ninety tonnes of inebriated proboscidea is something to behold.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    9. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by Gim+Tom · · Score: 1

      There is a big mulberry tree in a park not far from me. I'll need to plan some trips next year to watch that show! Also the Bluejays tend to be the winners each year in my cherry trees.

    10. Re: Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure that there's anything with enough nervous system to host a proper brain that doesn't appreciate the virtues of anesthetising it from time to time. Awareness is tough work and consciousness even worse.

    11. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by flyneye · · Score: 2

      My dog got sloppy drunk, eating overripe mulberries off the ground. My wife pointed out he was staggering,aimlessly, falling, over and over. Then it hit me, I'd seen him eating some mulberries and put it together. He was a sorry dog the next day and hasn't eaten mulberries since. I notice that doesn't stop many people from repeatedly bashing their brains and organs with far too much alcohol. Hangover, vows of abstinence, shower, a short time cycle, tequila shooters or Long Island Iced Teas, silly behavior, sleep, rinse, repeat.
      Dogs should be studied far closer.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    12. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      https://www.google.co.nz/searc...

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    13. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by bored_engineer · · Score: 1

      Add moose to the list.

    14. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by TheLink · · Score: 1

      Yeah I think the article is overrated. Alcohol has been around for a long time, and so has the ability to process it AND its effects on brains.

      See this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03...

      --
    15. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by phorm · · Score: 1

      "monkeys, zebras and lions all sleeping a few feet away from each other"

      That doesn't really make much sense though. Lions are carnivores so wouldn't likely be eating the fruit. Maybe they got drunk from eating drunken monkeys?

    16. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by Turmio · · Score: 2

      Of course it's in the Internet! https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  3. So... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1

    I drink, therefore I am?

    1. Re:So... by sgage · · Score: 2

      I'm pink, therefore I'm spam.

  4. Yet this doesn't explain by Lucas123 · · Score: 1

    Why the Irish still can't cook to save their lives.

    1. Re:Yet this doesn't explain by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't need to cook when everything is pickled.

    2. Re:Yet this doesn't explain by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's just due to the dilemma set up in our brains every time we try to cook: Do we cook the potato, or turn it into vodka and drink it? Do I make this wheat into bread, or beer? Add this barley to soup, or make whiskey?

      --
      Not a sentence!
    3. Re:Yet this doesn't explain by hawk · · Score: 1

      or everyone . . .

      hawk

  5. Definition of human? by linear+a · · Score: 1

    Is getting wasted what sets humans apart from animals? What about party animals then?

    1. Re:Definition of human? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

      That's what killed the party reptiles.

  6. Consuming Alcohol May Have Shaped Evolution. by godel_56 · · Score: 1

    Beer Goggles?

  7. Re:meanwhile... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

    *consuming* alcohol simulates and increases human reproduction, and therefore, the evolution of humans continues.

    Hey!!

    Ugly chicks need loving too!!!

    ;)

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  8. I doubt it. by Immerman · · Score: 2

    Nonsense. I've known way too many animals, from way too many phylums, that will go to great lengths to get a good stiff drink (Or lick toads, etc.) to give any credence to the idea that the appeal of consuming mind-altering substances is tied to some human evolutionary shift.

    If anything an ability to efficiently metabolize alcohol efficiently drastically reduces the effects, probably indicating that at some point in the past overripe fruit became a large portion of our ancestors diet, and the ability to "hold our liquor" gave a survival advantage whenever predators discovered the drunken tribe. Or perhaps rather than overripe fruit it's indicative of the time period when our ancestors first began intentionally fermenting things on a regular basis.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    1. Re:I doubt it. by sgage · · Score: 1

      'If anything an ability to efficiently metabolize alcohol efficiently drastically reduces the effects, probably indicating that at some point in the past overripe fruit became a large portion of our ancestors diet, and the ability to "hold our liquor" gave a survival advantage whenever predators discovered the drunken tribe. '

      Dude, that was sort of the point of the article.

    2. Re:I doubt it. by Immerman · · Score: 1

      They clearly suggested that this ability may be responsible for the appeal of alcohol - and it's that claim that I refute. If that were the case then alcohol would almost certainly not appeal to carnivores, and I can assure you it does.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    3. Re:I doubt it. by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. I've known way too many animals, from way too many phylums, that will go to great lengths to get a good stiff drink (Or lick toads, etc.) to give any credence to the idea that the appeal of consuming mind-altering substances is tied to some human evolutionary shift.

      One thing I've discovered over the years is that any sentence that begins with "Man is the only animal who..." is probably incorrect.

      No matter HOW bizarre it is.

      Somewhere there's probably an animal species that files Income Taxes.

    4. Re:I doubt it. by savuporo · · Score: 1

      QED. Men are animals, women are not.

      --
      http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
  9. Re:meanwhile... by rudy_wayne · · Score: 1

    Well of course alcohol affected human evolution. Without it, cavemen wouldn't have fucked the ugly cavewomen.

  10. Seinfeld had this figured out by istartedi · · Score: 1

    Seinfeld had this figured out. Wow, was the laugh track always that obnoxious, or is it this just a problem with that video...

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  11. Berzerker? by mmell · · Score: 1

    (N/T)

  12. Re:Consuming Alcohol May Have Shaped Evolution. by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Maybe that's how humans evolved: Drunken apes selected the goofiest and silliest partners, eventually leading to humans. No true ape would tolerate Justin Beiber.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  13. Re:Genetic defect? by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

    I also have a very high alcohol tolerance and don't care much for the taste, so I never understood why drinking was attractive at all. (With the exception of drinks that actually do taste good, mostly paired with good foods; I do like a nice sangria with my roquefort cheese).

    I eventually discovered that I could get drunk if I combined hard liquor with caffeine. And I still didn't understand why that feeling would be appealing. Why would anyone enjoy having poor motor control and cloudy thinking?

    Now a drug that made you hyper-competent, that I could see the appeal of; and it would probably be the downfall of me, assuming side-effects and addiction are the price of that temporary boost.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  14. “You’d be a cheap date." by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    “You’d be a cheap date.”

    I understood it as a "cheap date for a predator", like a lion, a crocodile, or anything else ready to eat you

  15. Noah by SnEptUne · · Score: 1

    Of course it shaped human. If Noah wasn't drunk, he wouldn't get pissed off when his son saw him naked, and cursed Ham for all generations.

  16. Train carrying corn crashed by Dareth · · Score: 1

    A train carrying corn crashed and spilled it out on a very hot day. The authorities put out a warning to watch for inebriated bears!

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  17. They will... by Dareth · · Score: 1

    They will kill you, rape you, then eat you. If you are lucky in that order.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  18. Re:Genetic defect? by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

    The mold dies once it reaches my stomach anyway, and it's already there by the time the wine gets anywhere near it, so I don't know what you're talking about with "kill the fungus". But seriously, bread and water with a roquefort? That leaves a meal of the strongest savory-flavored food in the world, paired with no other flavors of note (depending on the bread you're thinking of). Gotta add some variety in there, and the sweet and sour notes of a rich fruity wine contrast the savory cheese beautifully.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."