Sidenote, if that's what zombies eat then maybe we can just keep giving them lard to snack on

You could just literally eat brain, some cultures absolutely still do that....

It's not just random fat, though. IIRC, things like EPA acids and DHA acids found in fish oil supplements are high-quantity in the brain.

Though, I'm sure we've all met lard-heads in life...

thought it'd just be other brains, but I over think things which means mine would not be good eating. it would be very chewy.

but hey its full of weed. so 50/50 depending on your mood.

In this essay, I wi-

Prions

not the best fat health wise but great for long term shelflife.

Your brain runs mostly on glucose, not fat. It's made of a lot of certain fats, but does not run on them.

EG: Your car does not run on metal.

Brains as food is the closest equivalent to brain food.

Maybe your car doesn't \m/

It actually can run mostly on fat, it's just that most people are eating massive constant streams of glucose all the time

At birth, and during breastfeeding, human brains are running on fat

Fun fact. I had to take a neuroanatomy course where we dissected real human brains.

A human brain smells very very similar to raw chicken fat.

Like. I couldn't eat chicken for months after taking that class and a few classmates told me it also turned them off chicken.

Also they are bigger than I thought and weigh quite a bit.

I don't like body horror though so generally my curiosity was satiated within 15 min and I remained grossed out the rest of the semester.

I think I actually became increasingly repelled by the brains. They smelled worse over time we kept them in some preservation fluid. The more we cut them up the more mushy they got.

Also. Holding a brain upside down ,..
Yeah so because it's symmetrical and all the little extra bits are symmetrical, it can cause pareidolia. It looks like , idk. Things start to look weird. Really weird.

Circle of willis on their own look like a little alien creature on your brain base. It's weird and creepy.

Other structures make it look like weird faces or something.

I didn't like the class much.

No it cannot run on fat.

Fat can be broken down into glucose, though. It still takes a conversion or several to get to glucose from fat.

No it cannot run on fat.

Strong statement. The brain can run on ketones just fine, it's constantly titrating energy consumption from different sources. You might say the brain uses glucose first as a priority, but that is also true for alcohol.

Fat can be broken down into glucose, though

Not really a complete statement, gluconeogenesis requires more inputs then just fat, so of the glucose produced only 15% of the energy is coming from fat.

There is a 1972 paper that demonstrates normal functioning after prolonged fat adaptation, it's a great read, but this specifically speaks to brain glucose utilization - https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI107095

It's a pretty good fat health wise, lamb brains have been a very popular weaning food. I remember eating brain as a small child

No one said it was a good idea, just that it could be done.

Is that like "Everyone mushroom is edible at least once?"

More like "If you want tacos de sesos that badly, you better trust the rancher."

That sounds equally awful and fascinating! I've helped out in radiology (Healthcare IT) a lot over the years and the physiology is endlessly fascinating - until it makes me nauseous...

water.

Your brain is not a car.

you don't need to eat brains to get lard like the OP stated. Im not even sure if would be the best source. Im not sure I would want to eat brains given prions.

Note how I said it can be converted to glucose. Note how all you did was describe how it can be converted to glucose. Nowhere did I say that process took nothing. Nowhere did I say it needs only glucose.

Just like your car doesn't only need gas to function, and can technically 'run' on other things like pure alcohol.

It's called an analogy.

Circle of willis

French still eat sheep brain. Almost pure cholesterol.

I thought my curiosity would win out over the disgust. But it did not.

Lard is rendered pig fat. It would be strange if that cake and pastry ingredient was what brains are made of.

Brains are an excellent emergency baby food, they're good food regardless with plenty of high energy fat and loads of nutrients

Brains run on ketones when ketones are present even when glucose is also present. Brains run on ethanol in preference to glucose.

People find their brains work better on ketogenic diets

Sheep prion disease doesn't affect humans

Beef prion disease came from feeding beef beef waste including beef brain. It isn't much of a risk

Human prion disease happens in populations where people eat people's brains

I really don't know but again given prions I would not feed it to a baby. I mean if I was in the wild and took down game for some reason I would also not touch the brain. I only mention lard because it was the OP and what my first commnet was refering to.

Prions very rarely affect other species, vCJD was unusual in that it was a cow cannibalism illness (mad cow disease) that also caused fatal mental illnesses in humans.

Sheep prions mess up sheep but not us, you're incredibly unlikely to get a prion disease from a random wild animal, and you're very safe if you only take healthy animals

The only populations that still live off the land that suffer prion disease are those that practice cannibalism. All of them eat brains. Humans probably evolved taking brains from lion kills; bashing the skulls open with rocks the same way chimps bash open nuts

Sounds like fun to me, but I'm weird 🤷

Nowhere did I say it needs only glucose.

No it cannot run on fat.

can technically ‘run’ on other things

There is a 1972 paper that demonstrates normal functioning after prolonged fat adaptation, it’s a great read, but this specifically speaks to brain glucose utilization - https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI107095

It cannot run directly on fat. FFS, even you described how fat has to be changed first...

Genuinely, your pedantry is pathetic.

All of your statements have implied everything has to become glucose to be used by the brain and that's not true.