One model for the evolution of alcohol consumption suggests that ethanol only entered the human diet after people began to store extra food, potentially after the advent of agriculture, and that humans subsequently developed ways to intentionally direct the fermentation of food about 9,000 years ago.
OTOH, I’ve watched videos of monkeys supposedly drunk on naturally fermented fruit from the first floor. It’s not the same level of alcohol or anywhere near as regular, but alcohol is a thing in nature.
I’m probably just being pedantic and you meant calorifically significantamounts of alcohol on a regular basis.
Yeah, exactly. From the article, it’s theorised that we got some tolerance early on, like ape ancestors, and then selected for higher tolerance along the way post agri. Interestingly, and somewhat intuitively, there are some papers examining the opposite now, that people in the last 200 years are evolving to lack the gene that allows us to processes acetaldehyde (drinking byproduct) specifically because too much drinking is harmful (and can harm reproduction).
Booze.
Origins of Human Alcohol Consumption Revealed
OTOH, I’ve watched videos of monkeys supposedly drunk on naturally fermented fruit from the first floor. It’s not the same level of alcohol or anywhere near as regular, but alcohol is a thing in nature.
I’m probably just being pedantic and you meant calorifically significantamounts of alcohol on a regular basis.
Yeah, exactly. From the article, it’s theorised that we got some tolerance early on, like ape ancestors, and then selected for higher tolerance along the way post agri. Interestingly, and somewhat intuitively, there are some papers examining the opposite now, that people in the last 200 years are evolving to lack the gene that allows us to processes acetaldehyde (drinking byproduct) specifically because too much drinking is harmful (and can harm reproduction).