Customer Reviews

Nutrition and Evolution: Food in Evolution and the Future

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As I began to read, I had a sense of deja vu - and no wonder, it was published in the UK as The Driving Force in 1989. I lent my copy to some miserable bastard who never returned it and it's now out of print, so I'm delighted to have re-acquired it, albeit inadvertantly; I recommend it highly. Don't be put off by any philosphical excess here, theories of our origin don't matter nearly as much as the biochemistry set out in this book which can literally restore your health if you have a Western degenerative disease. Crawford and Marsh elucidate an emerging paradigm.

I know quite a bit about nutrition and the problem with our modern diet, so I was mostly interested in their theories on how nutrition has shaped evolution.

The authors present some truly astounding theories on the evolution of humankind, and argue their case well. The book is a bit slow in the beginning, but once they start talking about the evolution of life from the algae onward, hand on to your hats!

This book was co-authored by David Marsh.Please ring 0044 171 460 2027 for details of other publications by D.Marsh. As co-author I wish to point out that the heterodox content of our major thesis as set out in this book has lead to severe academic ostracization of Michael Crawfurd in the intellectually impoverished and narrow milieu of biochemical nutritionists. Assuming that you, the potential reader, are not constrained by narrow academic rivalries may I invite you to enlarge your conception of the processes that have shaped our development and that of all the species with which we share this planet.

This wonderful book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in evolution or high level nutrition. You will soon see clearly that evolution is not fully understood. The case is made that evolution is constrained by nutritional requirements as much as a car is by the highway (my analogy not theirs). The myth of the boundless potential of evolution is destroyed forever, and sobering limits are imposed.

Don't blame Darwin- they make it clear that he saw the "highway as well as the car", but we have deified his theory and overlooked the limitations that he actually wrote about. One feels somewhat chastened after 30 years or so of blind worship to find that evolution is not the magic amulet taught in school, but merely a powerful tool with quite mundane limitations. These limitations must be understood if one wishes to have any scientific credibility. Sadly only a minority of scientists understand these limitations, and this little book makes the opinions of many seem peurile.

The philosophical and thought provoking discussion is most stimulating- the many interesting facts and anecdotes making it most most worthwhile reading. Like a kitten, my eyes have been opened. Thank you Crawford and Marsh

While Crawford and March do a good job of presenting documented information, the data appears to confirm creation rather than evolution. Certainly nutrition can affect the size of man's brain, body and mental capacity. But had anthropologists written this book they would have falsely concluded that modern man is a different species. Mankind can progress or regress depending upon nutritional factors. Mankind appears to be in regression at the present time. Population expansion may force famines and disease, lest we forget the earth's human population has gone from 1.5 to 6.0 billion in just a couple of centuries. Good reading for the serious reader.