The drunken monkey hypothesis: the study of fruit-eating animals could lead to an evolutionary understanding of human alcohol abuse | Natural History | Find Articles at BNET

What can a tipsy howler monkey tell science about humanity's fondness for--and problems with--alcohol? Possibly quite a lot. And that would be a good thing, considering how widespread our problems with alcohol are. In the United States alone, 14 million people are alcoholics, and several millions more are at risk. Although patterns vary from culture to culture, alcoholism is common across the globe, particularly among indigenous groups undergoing modernization, and it comes with tragic consequences: Even in the United States, abuse of alcohol is the third leading cause of preventable death.

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via findarticles.com

Carbohydrates, often in the form of fruit, were at least 50% of the Paleolithic diet. Our ancestors sought out the ripest fruit with the highest calories. Scientists hypothesize that primates were selected for the ability to detect ethanol as a signal of ripeness and thus evolution has taught us to seek out alcohol. Interesting article!