Why Geese Don't Get Obese (And We Do): How Evolution's Strategies for Survival Affect Our Everyday Lives [Hardcover]

Eric P. Widmaier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

Imagine being able to consume 250,000 calories (50 Christmas dinners) daily without gaining weight! If we had the metabolism of a shrew we could, and we would have to. In this text the author offers a physiologist's view of the features and abilities humans and other creatures have evolved to meet the seemingly impossible challenges of survival.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up-Discusses the mechanisms humans and other creatures have evolved to gauge their need for food; gather water and oxygen; circulate blood; regulate body temperature; respond to stressful situations; and maintain other survival needs. By Eric P. Widmaier.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Library Journal

This well-written, easy-to-read book discusses reasons for some aspects of human and animal physiology. Recent books on Darwinian medicine such as R.M. Neese and G.C. Williams's Why We Get Sick (Times Bks., 1994) and Margi Profet's Pregnancy Sickness (Addison-Wesley, 1997) deal with evolutionary reasons for disease and sickness. This book complements them by examining the evolution of normal human and animal physiology, why we work the way we do, and a few conditions where adaptations from our ancestors are not so useful in modern life, for example, diabetes, stress, and the obesity mentioned in the title. What really makes this book stand out are the lucid explanations of how scientific method?observation, hypothesis, research, and testing?is used to learn about human and animal physiology. For public and academic libraries.?Margaret Henderson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Libs., NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company; 1 edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716731479
• ISBN-13: 978-0716731474
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,461,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Applications of Physiology Made Fun!, May 22, 2006

By 

Crazy Kid "BFlats" (East Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Geese Don't Get Obese (And We Do): How Evolution's Strategies for Survival Affect Our Everyday Lives (Paperback)

This book uses many interesting examples to illustrate its main points. Widmaier explains the basics of physiology in a practical context so that it is fairly easy to understand. This is one of the better non-fiction reads you will find, as it truly is interesting. I feel that this is a great tool for any biology student or anyone who is just curious about the way things work in an animal's body.
While explaining how things work in the human body and how they could be better, plentiful examples are provided to both amuse and teach the reader. The book addresses everything from how we become obese to the relative rates of metabolism in different species to the circulatory system and stress induced hormones. Widmaier even provides notes to elaborate on things he addresses in his book and provided some bibliographical information on important scientists and their contributions to physiology without making me fall asleep or daydream, which is no small feat.
After reading this book I can appreciate the work of physiologists, especially after reading the epilogue. I also learned many facts about the animal kingdom that would really make me seem smart in school and help clarify different concepts. From this book I learned that small animals such as shrews need to eat more than their body weight everyday because they have such a high metabolism, and that our ancestors developed a defense mechanism against starvation so that when they ate less their metabolism slowed, meaning that dieting can cause us to loose weight more slowly. I also read that fish cough to remove the gung that collects in their gills as it flows through the gills to provide them with oxygen. This book also showed that humans have far inferior senses that many animals because of our forebrain which is currently only found in humans and gives us the smarts to evade predators and get food among other things.
Overall, this book is perfect for someone who is looking for an interesting and intellectual read. Having some kind of background in biology is helpful when reading this book but it is readable by anyone from a middle school student upwards.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very good, December 1, 2006

By 

David Blanton (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why Geese Don't Get Obese (And We Do): How Evolution's Strategies for Survival Affect Our Everyday Lives (Paperback)

This freshly written book about comparative physiology is at its best when describing how some of the basic mechanisms of life - such as circulation, homeostasis and metabolism - work, in distinctly lay terms. Much of it will be familiar territory for anyone who took serious interest in their college biology and chemistry classes, but the organization is fine. Another bright point about "Why Geese" is the clarity and good humor it brings to the subject of evolution. For once, being a packrat served me in some small way: I bought and read about half of this enjoyable book when it came out, then for some reason put it away for five years before finishing it in the last several days.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars insightful and witty, November 26, 1999

By 

Des VanRavenstein (Vallejo, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Geese Don't Get Obese (And We Do): How Evolution's Strategies for Survival Affect Our Everyday Lives (Paperback)

A refreshingly insightful and humorous work. One of the cleverest books I've read in years. Mr. Widmaier answers questions I've wondered about in a superlatively witty way that even the layperson can understand.