I wanted to follow up ont the last post about lighter skin. The Paleo Diet newsletter had information on this topic as well. Apparently, lighter skin evolved due to two factors: less sunlight and the consumption of whole wheat. The consumption of whole wheat caused additional problem with the Vitamin D metabolism. You can see this by noting that depigmentation is not strictly related to latitude. The newsletter concludes that:
"Thus, the extreme dermal depigmentation and high prevalence of the lactase enzyme in Northern Europeans were caused by the same negative selective pressure: high consumption of WGA containing whole wheat."
I wanted to follow up ont the last post about lighter skin. The Paleo Diet newsletter had information on this topic as well. Apparently, lighter skin evolved due to two factors: less sunlight and the consumption of whole wheat. The consumption of whole wheat caused additional problem with the Vitamin D metabolism. You can see this by noting that depigmentation is not strictly related to latitude. The newsletter concludes that:
"Thus, the extreme dermal depigmentation and high prevalence of the lactase enzyme in Northern Europeans were caused by the same negative selective pressure: high consumption of WGA containing whole wheat."