[TomMckenny]

I'm going to guess that human tolerance of alcohol has some evolutionary advantage. In addition to being a social lubricant, which seems to be critical to the species, I can imagine it's previous value was that it let us eat not-so-fresh fruit that the other beasties couldn't.

[LatteLazy]

I thought it was because beer was generally sterile but water (in any permanent human settlement) rapidly became infected with all sorts of deadly diseases? So if you drank (admittedly weaker, 1-2%) beer all the time you had a much better chance of surviving because you wouldn't die of disease. China and East Asia missed this since they got into (boiled) tea instead.

[spats1990]

Aboriginal Australians did fine despite not really having it, for ~40,000 years or more.

[C1sc0cat]

If stalling at the late stone age level and then being basically obliterated by colonisation is doing fine.

Not quite sure I buy that

[spats1990]

Parent comment was about biology and evolution, not... whatever it is that this reply is about.

[jazzyjackson]

Are we more tolerant of alcohol than other animals? It is a poison to us after all. There's lots of funny stories of birds eating fermented berries and acting tipsy.

[TomMckenny]

What I'm wondering is whether our attitude toward alcohol poisoning is like that toward "hot" peppers and herbs. I understand that those last two repel broad groups of animals. So perhaps being tipsy is something other animals despise while we tolerate and even welcome it.

_if_ that is the case then it opens up carbohydrates to us that other animals pass up. Maybe it's even testable in a lab.

[sethammons]

Eating firmented foods or near rotten fruit is definitely an evolutionary advantage. I have some birds that get apparently drunk off my end of season berries in my garden

[C1sc0cat]

And also helped reduce contamination in water which allows for larger communities to form