Urban humans can't digest plant cellulose

Kk, found an old tab that might amuse. Had to share before I lose it.

"Urban humans have lost much of their ability to digest plants
Rural populations still have lots of the gut bacteria that break down cellulose."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/human-gut-bacteria-that-can-digest-plant-matter-probably-came-from-cows/

Interesting....  Curious as well that they mused about cellulose-degraders in humans originating in domesticated livestock.  Although non-urban agricultural living would have been increasingly wide-spread since ~ 10,000 years ago, hunting/gathering is older and continues to this day, so would have been interesting to compare those two lifestyles for gut bacteria.  Additionally, it would be interesting to compare those who have fairly steady intakes of fungi....'shrooms and other products...to see if they enrich for the chitin-digesting bacteria.  Chitin is a major component of fungal (and insect) cell walls just as cellulose is the major constituent of plant cell walls.  Can't recall just now, but I think I posted here some years back on a study comparing British east Indian diet/health/microbiome with those in rural India and finding similar differences, although I can't recall if cellulose digestion was considered.  What *was* considered was the difference between the intake of highly sanitized plant material vs. that just harvested and less washed (i.e., more soil-dwelling microbes present in rural samples).

It would not surprise me in the least if this is true.

The fast food drive-thrus are full at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Kids feed themselves microwave chicken nuggets and french fries.

grocery stores stock lots of vegetable for older folks who know better.