Carb Cravings: An Ancient Tale

You might think our love for carbs like bread, pasta, and rice is a modern thing. But get this – humans may have been chowing down on starchy foods way longer than we thought. Scientists found a gene that helps us digest carbs more easily. And guess what? This gene seems to have duplicated itself a long time ago, maybe even before humans as we know them existed! Researchers looked at ancient human genomes and found that hunter-gatherers from 45,000 years ago had several copies of this gene, called AMY1. That means our ancestors were probably enjoying potatoes, tubers, and other starchy foods long before farming came around. They even found this gene in Neanderthals and Denisovans, which suggests it came from a common ancestor.So, why did this gene copy itself? It might be because it gave our ancestors a big advantage. As they moved to different environments, having a gene that helped digest starch would have been super helpful. Plus, as we shifted from hunting and gathering to farming, this gene really took off, showing up more and more in people's genomes. This study is a big deal because it could change what we think about human evolution. Maybe it wasn't just meat that helped our brains grow. Maybe carbs played a big role too!