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Why aren't we evolved to eat grass? (literature.cafe)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Karl@literature.cafe to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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It's everywhere. Why not just eat it instead of searching for veggies and meat which are more difficult to have?

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[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There's a reason grass is so common - it's because it's a wildly effective life strategy. Grass is actually quite hard to eat - there's basically no nutrition in the leaves themselves, and grass evolved to incorporate silica "needles" in its leaves, so that it wears down your teeth when you try to eat it anyways.

Not to say that it's impossible to eat grass, but you need to undergo a ton of highly specialized adaptations to make it possible. For most animals (including humans), it's just not worth the effort

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago

Ruminants that eat it have like several stomachs, they regurgitate the food they eat to re-eat it, and they require specialized gut bacteria to digest it. They have to spend like all of their time eating.

[–] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd like a source on the silica needles?

[–] Cyteseer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Basically all grasses contain silica phytoliths but they likely don't significantly contribute to teeth wear. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440306001245

[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Interesting, thanks for sharing that. I wasn't aware that there has been newer research countering the tooth wear model

[–] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Thank you very much Sis! ✨