Most animals have a fairly simple diet, carnivores eat only meat their whole life, cows eat exclusively grass etc. So why are human bodies so picky and need a balance of protein, fat, carbs etc from different sources to perform well?
In: Biology
One type of genetic anomaly that aided our ancestors’ survival and led to us evolving to *Homo sapiens sapiens* was the elimination of most vitamin manufacturing in our cells. We only need small amounts of these nutrients, and our precursor ancestors made them. As our food sources and diets diversified and we developed better digestive systems, it was advantageous to shift the body’s resources from making vitamins to other processes. By essentially moving vitamin production “off-site” to “external suppliers” (food animals & plants), our internal manufacturing process got leaner and our ancestors’ bodies were able to pursue innovations that increased the odds of survival past reproduction.
We still make our own vitamin D, but we get all of our other required vitamins from the foods we eat. Different species of plants and animals make all the different vitamins we need. The downside to this “lean manufacturing” is that we cannot compensate if essential nutrients are not available. Widespread disease caused terrible suffering until researchers (like Dr. Casimir Funk) proved that vitamin deficiencies were to blame. We’ve all heard of anemia (B12) & scurvy (C *arrrgh!*), but beriberi (B1), pellagra (B3), rickets (D), and many other ailments are caused by a lack of vitamins and affect people worldwide. WHO estimates 250,000-500,000 children go blind every year due to vitamin A deficiency, and sadly half of them die within a year of going blind. In modern food processing, synthetic vitamins are added to many foods (esp those that fill supermarkets in richer nations) due to public health initiatives in the early 20th century.
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