Re: Interesting info on gut-brain connection in evolutionary theory

[Guest guest]

I always pictured it as more of a leaky gut issue. Once the gut is healed, substances which were leaking through the gut and wreaking havoc with behavior will no longer be getting through. Elaine Gottschall seemed to think that many kids with ASD/PDD have leaky guts. I'll post a reference regarding leaky gut below (even though it has nothing to do with E.G.): http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/gut.htm .anacat_11 <anacat_11@...> wrote: For those into

evolutionary theory: I've been re-reading Wrangham's book on evolution and human violence and I picked up something I missed the first few times I read it (it's that good). One primary theory about how the human brain became larger since we first walked out of the rainforest on two legs is that we adapted to eat foods which are more easily digestible. Meat eating is another part of this theory, but the "freeing up of metabolic energy" was important, apparently, because primate metabolism could only sustain a brain of increasing size if another organ system was "compromised", in terms of the enormous amount of energy an enlarged (and smarter) brain consumed to operate. The organ which was compromised for the sake of brain development in humans was seemingly the gut. Our guts are much smaller than that of our ape ancestor, the chimpanzee. Chimps eat massive amounts of foods which, to humans, would be

metabolically of poor quality (though probably healthier than a Big Mac), very difficult or even impossible for us to digest. We've lost the ability to utilize these foods.It made me wonder if one small reason why many of us see our children improve when their guts heal is that the injured gut was using massive amounts of metabolic energy which was being robbed from the brain. Once healed, the brain can reinherit that energy. Obviously the whole cascade of damage and the existance of neurotoxicity is way more complex than this, but I found it very interesting. One of the "pieces of the puzzle" (anyone else getting SICK of that phrase?) which organizations like AS never seem to look into or entertain, so we all end theorizing ourselves-- for better or worse.