Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes

by Nathan H. Lents

However, among the poor, especially in developing countries, a varied diet is not always an option. There are billions of humans who subsist on extremely simple diets consisting of just a few staples, and those staples often do not provide enough of some of the essential amino acids, especially lysine. In some remote Chinese villages, the poorest of the poor will live on nothing but rice and the occasional scrap of meat, egg, or bean curd. In the poorest parts of Africa, the most destitute subsist on diets composed almost entirely of wheat products, and even those become scarce during famines. Unsurprisingly, given examples like these, protein deficiency is the single most life-threatening dietary problem in the developing world. This problem stems directly from our species’ inability to make certain amino acids.