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The average American consumes 484 drinks per year, and a hypothesis suggests that our primate ancestors' preference for alcohol may explain why we crave it. A study observed a monkey eating alcohol-rich fruits and found that primates have a gene that helps metabolize ethanol. This ability to consume alcohol may have shaped primate evolution. However, while genetics may play a role, individuals still have a choice in their behavior, and being predisposed to alcoholism does not excuse continued alcohol abuse. Bartender, I need a beer. I've got way too much blood in my alcohol system. People love drinking. People need alcohol to party. People need alcohol to produce. People need alcohol to get to sleep. According to the Laker Laboratory, Americans' average alcohol consumption amounts to 484 drinks per year, 9.5 drinks per week, and 1.35 drinks per day. So, where are people craving for alcohol? Have you heard of Stumpley's Drunken Monkey Hypothesis? A professor of biology at the University of California, Berkeley, proposed a hypothesis that more than patterns of alcohol consumption and abuse, have biological biases that can be traced to our fruit-eating primate ancestors. It might explain why alcoholism or even the craving for single drink exists in the first place. In his study, which is conducted in 2004, he described that, they observed a tipsy-holler monkey. The monkey is feasting on the bright orange fruits of palm trees in the tropical forests of Panama's Barrow, Colorado Island, climbing onto the branches of a neighboring tree to reach the untouched clusters. The forager first lifts the fruit, then frantically begins to eat it, sometimes dropping partly-eaten fruits onto the forest floor, risking a 30-foot fall and serious injury from the enormous spines of the palm tree. The monkey seems as fearless as a drunken teenager. As fruit ripens, more alcohol is created by the yeast. When a fruit starts to seriously rot, it can contain up to 8% ethanol, though most ripe fruit contains less than 1%. Fruit in tropical jungles might be difficult to locate. However, the scent of the alcohol that was contained in the fruits could have helped the primates look for their next meal. It was also helpful to the plants, because the primates helped to disperse the seeds in the fruit. Another fact about primate evolutionary history of alcohol is that primates have ADH4 in their body, just like humans do. It could help us to metabolize ethanol. A study conducted by two biologists, Matthew Kerrigan and Stephen Vanner, showed that the most ancient forms of ADH4 found in primates as far back as 50 million years ago only broke down small amounts of ethanol very slowly. But about 10 million years ago, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas, involved a version of the protein that was 40 times more efficient at ethanol metabolism. Kerrigan says, if you were the ancestor without this new mutation in ADH4, the ethanol would quickly build up in your blood, and you would get inebriated much faster. In conclusion, ability to consume alcohol may have actually shaped primate evolution. After introducing all the facts and history, people may argue that if those theories and studies are correct, and humans are predisposed to alcoholism, does it mean that alcoholics are not responsible for their situation? Individuals are influenced by many different factors, and they have a choice as to how these factors are going to play out in their life. So yes, the person may be alcoholic partly because his or her primate ancestors were skilled at finding fruit. But this doesn't excuse them from continuing with the behavior.
