Customer Reviews

Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution

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If you are interested in paleoanthropology and in the hypothesis that "diseases of affluence" accompanied dietary change as humans evolved, you likely wished for a scholarly treatment of the subject. This is exactly the book you wished for, but there is a risk that you will get in over your head. This book will fill in a gap in your collection of paleoanthropology books and will fill a considerable gap in your knowledge of the dietary habits of our forbears, as well as closely-related genera, and modern hunter-gatherers.

The book is a collection of nine previously published research papers, edited by a professor of anthropology, Ungar, and a professor of biology and anatomy, Teaford. They are also joint authors of two of the papers. There are no fewer than 560 references to other books and articles, or 3.5 per page. The rigor of the contributing authors' scholarship is very high, and the vocabulary is not modified for general readership. This is not an entry level treatment of the subject of prehistoric hominid diet, nor of diseases of affluence, and if you do not feel prepared for a graduate level seminar, then you may be disappointed. The problem is that there is nothing written for the general reader on this topic (except for anecdotal treatments), so you may simply wish to endure diminished comprehension rather than pass over this excellent book.

The editors state two objectives. The first is to consider the significance to contemporary humans of the evolution in hominid dietary preferences. The second is to indicate the methodologies used to determine those preferences. The book is fairly successful in the first objective, and highly successful in the latter.

The working assumption, thoroughout the book, is that, physiologically, we are the end result of some two million years of evolution since the first of our Genus evolved, yet we consume a diet which is different in the extreme from that of our ancestors. This "discordance" disrupts the long-established and delicate equilibrium between our physiological needs and our dietary composition. As the theory goes, this suboptimal composition results in numerous "diseases of affluence."

Substantiating this theory, the editors' ultimate objective, requires an extensive exploration of early hominid diets, which comprises the bulk of the book (and is a wonderful read), followed by a demonstration of the ill effects of divergence from this diet. The paleontological evidence for early hominin diets is comprised of dentition architecture, mandibular biomechanics, rehydrated coprolites, as well as dental and ossius isotopic ratio analysis. This evidence is coroborated with comparisons to the diets of existing Pong, and Pan Genera, whose genomes are still rather close neighbors of ours. It is further cooborated with studies of existing Homo sapien hunter-gatherers. The conclusion of this considerable effort, spanning several chapters and years of painstaking fieldwork is that there is actually no such thing as a single "paleolithic diet." This conclusion is necessary because hominids were exceptionally omnivorous, their habitats were variable, and their use of tools increasingly overcame some physiological limitations to food exploitation. While this conclusion might have discouraged other editors, Ungar and Teaford forge ahead to the health consequences of our modern dietary choices.

I strongly recommend two chapters in particular, "Evolution, Diet, and Health," by Eaton, Eaton, and Cordain, and "Hunter-Gatherer Diets: Wild Foods Signal Relief from Diseases of Affluence," by Milton. Moreover, even the highly technical chapters finish with "Conclusions" sections, which are accessible to the general reader.

If you are experienced in the vocabulary of paleoanthropology, and still have unanswered questions about the diets of early hominids, you will find the answers here. You will also learn that, notwithstanding Homo sapiens' vaunted omnivorousness, and adaptability to every ecological niche, there are definite limits to what we can consume. Our species passed that limit some ten thousand years ago, and natural selection works far too slowly for us ever to adapt.

I read this book as a guide to discovering the perfect diet for me. I am not a scientist or an anthropologist. This book was packed with very useful information, but the results were inconclusive. Primitive humans ate more fiber than us, but their digestive tract was designed for fiber. Cultures that foraged had a higher quality of life and greater longevity than cultures that cultivated a staple grain (corn, wheat, etc) but of course the longevity portion does not apply to our modern societies. Crowded teeth? Your jaw and facial features evolved more rapidly than your teeth.

Interesting tidbits but inconclusive, since humans from various eras and various parts of the world ate differently, and still do today.