Today alcohol is consumed for fun, but to our ancestors, it was a matter of health and survival.
The history that led humans on the path to consuming alcohol is a rather fascinating one. Researchers have found that a genetic mutation arose about 10 million years ago which enhanced the ability of human ancestors to break down alcohol in the body.
The time was convenient because it’s approximately the same time that human ancestors moved down from the trees to domesticate the ground and become land-dwelling creatures. It is suggested that this ability to breakdown alcohol was actually an advantage for those early human ancestors because this allowed them to eat rotten and fermented fruit that was now more readily possible to find in areas around trees. Not that rotten fruit was necessarily preferred, but it turned out to be a nutritious supplement to fresh foods and an alternative to starving.
This video by TestTube Plus follows the evolutionary path that has made alcohol consumption possible for us as humans. They also touch on some of the rather surprising health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption — pretty amazing but only in moderation! Excessive drinking is extremely harmful to the body, so please take note that the health benefits described here are only related to alcohol consumption in moderation. The CDC defines moderate drinking as 1 – 2 glasses in a single day, and not every day!
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