Why do certain foods (i.e. wheat and rice) dominate our carbohydrate intake?
Upvote:1
You might want to read Chapter 8: Apples or Indians in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel.
That chapter essentially claims that those staple crops provide relatively high nutrition relative to their ease of cultivation, rate of growth, resources required, and yield. All of which equate to cheap and plentiful.
Things like how tolerant the crop is of climate and soil quality affect how easily you can grow it, if at all, as you migrate and things like how easy the seeds are to handle also affect how easy it is to cultivate. It's difficult collect and handle seeds if they are dust-like and spread by the wind.
There are more nutritious crops but they are more difficult to grow and/or produce less yield. If I remember right the book does comparisons of yield versus nutritional value and the most common crops had the highest overall score.
More post
- 📝 What were the dimensions of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem?
- 📝 What ancient Roman(s) wished houses were made of transparent walls?
- 📝 Did British measures cause starvation in Norway during WWI?
- 📝 Was the strait of Malacca a potential "chokepoint" during the age of discovery?
- 📝 Inflation rates in Spain and Portugal during the 16th century
- 📝 in what form did William the Conqueror write the date of his own coronation?
- 📝 Are there historic references to sorcerers and their scrolls?
- 📝 What was going to be Hitler's next plan after taking Russia?
- 📝 How did the Germans get housing again after WWII?
- 📝 Did the Germans invent "Unexpected Pot-Shots"?
- 📝 When and how did classical mythology subjects start to appear in art in medieval/Renaissance Europe?
- 📝 Why was Adolphus Dolo nicknamed "Gen. Peanut Butter"?
- 📝 Why was the spread of Christianity scattered compared to other major religions?
- 📝 What happened to US's Lend-Lease machinery given to the Soviet Union?
- 📝 When did blade fuller appear?
- 📝 How was King Henry VIII able to get syphilis?
- 📝 Was it possible to criticize the government without repercussions at the time when the 1st amendment was adopted in the US?
- 📝 What was the official language used across European monarchies in the XII century?
- 📝 How much time would it take to mobilize an army during WW2?
- 📝 Was knowledge derived from the scientific method required to build commercial steam engines?
- 📝 Were children often renamed in late Saxon England?
- 📝 Was the 1959 Tibetan Uprising really an uprising?
- 📝 Who was head of Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1907-1908?
- 📝 Why did Robert E. Lee stop offensive maneuvers?
- 📝 What is the relationship between land claims and ranks of nobility?
- 📝 What was the first recorded instance of sex or violence being inappropriate for children to see?
- 📝 Did Nazi leaders consider continuing guerrilla warfare after the collapse of Germany?
- 📝 Did Hannibal start the Second Punic War prematurely?
- 📝 Purple in Roman History
- 📝 What was American anti-tank doctrine during WWII on paper, and how did it differ from in practice?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why do certain foods (i.e. wheat and rice) dominate our carbohydrate intake?
- 📝 Why have wheat and rice been consumed in different forms?
- 📝 Why China was able to unify and not Europe?
- 📝 Why were old fortifications shaped like stars and not like circles?
- 📝 Why does the United States keep using "old" date representations and imperial system, while being in the minority?
- 📝 Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
- 📝 Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?
- 📝 Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
- 📝 Why didn't France and the UK invade Germany in September 1939?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 Why are the German and French languages so different?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Why did LBJ, a staunch segregationist, champion and sign the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?
- 📝 Why didn't the US and USSR jam each other's early-warning radar?
- 📝 Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?
- 📝 If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
- 📝 Why is AD in Latin and BC is in English?
- 📝 Why did Greeks and Romans dilute their wine?
- 📝 Why did Europeans (and not people in other regions) dominate oceans?
- 📝 Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
- 📝 When and why did having long hair become associated with women, and short hair with men?
- 📝 Why did Bayer lose aspirin and heroin trademarks under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 When and why did garum disappear?
- 📝 Why did only the English adopt, evolve and use the longbow en masse in war?
- 📝 When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- 📝 Why weren't pickled fruits and vegetables part of (European) rations during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 Why didn't Japanese infantrymen and samurai use shields?
- 📝 Why did Italy abandon its alliance with Germany in WW1 and join the Allied side?
- 📝 Why were British ships not of the same quality as French and Spanish ships until the latter part of the 18th century?