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Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Marlene Zuk (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 256 ratings
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“With…evidence from recent genetic and anthropological research, [Zuk] offers a dose of paleoreality.” —Erin Wayman, Science News


We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football—or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our hunter-gatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived—and why we should emulate them—are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence.


Armed with a razor-sharp wit and brilliant, eye-opening research, Zuk takes us to the cutting edge of biology to show that evolution can work much faster than was previously realized, meaning that we are not biologically the same as our caveman ancestors. Contrary to what the glossy magazines would have us believe, we do not enjoy potato chips because they crunch just like the insects our forebears snacked on. And women don’t go into shoe-shopping frenzies because their prehistoric foremothers gathered resources for their clans. As Zuk compellingly argues, such beliefs incorrectly assume that we’re stuck—finished evolving—and have been for tens of thousands of years. She draws on fascinating evidence that examines everything from adults’ ability to drink milk to the texture of our ear wax to show that we’ve actually never stopped evolving. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were “meant to” fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs.


From debunking the caveman diet to unraveling gender stereotypes, Zuk delivers an engrossing analysis of widespread paleofantasies and the scientific evidence that undermines them, all the while broadening our understanding of our origins and what they can really tell us about our present and our future.

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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0393347920
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    March 18, 2013
  5. Language
    English
  6. File size
    1567 KB
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Working from the assumption that human physiology has remained virtually unchanged since our hunting and gathering days more than 10,000 years ago, advocates of the currently popular Paleolithic, or caveman, diet eschew dairy, grains, and other products of modern agriculture. Some Paleo buffs go even further, promoting barefoot running and sleeping with our infants, arguing that modern living has wreaked havoc on our collective health. For University of California biology professor Zuk, such notions are Paleofantasies, a misinformed nostalgia for a mythical era when humans supposedly lived in perfect harmony with nature. In this illuminating overview of state-of-the art evolutionary science, the author debunks this utopian ideal and demonstrates that not only have humans continued to evolve since our foraging days, but some of those adaptations have been remarkably swift. Zuk draws on emerging evidence from gene mapping and studies on lactose digestion proving that today’s humans are definitely different from our caveman ancestors. While Zuk doesn’t disagree that a couch-potato lifestyle is detrimental, she offers a reassuring message that humankind is still tweaking its genome. --Carl Hays

Review

"Nothing beats good hard data to debunk myths, and Zuk offers plenty."
― Kirkus Reviews

"In her witty and well-researched prose, Zuk debunks these pseudoscience-based conceptions and proves that humanity did not have “a time” like the kind depicted by these fantasies; evolution has always been and will continue to be a key player in our species’ future."
― Liz Belliovskaya, Brain World Magazine

"In thoroughly engaging and witty prose, Zuk (Sex on Six Legs), a biologist from the University of Minnesota, dismantles the pseudoscience behind nostalgic yearnings for our caveman days."
― Publishers Weekly

"Like the best science writers, [Zuk] finds a broader context for everyday experience and makes difficult concepts easier to understand."
― Margaret Quamme, Columbia Dispatch

"In this illuminating overview of state-of-the art evolutionary science, [Zuk] debunks this utopian ideal and demonstrates that not only have humans continued to evolve since our foraging days, but some of those adaptations have been remarkably swift."
― Carl Hays, Booklist

"Ms. Zuk’s nutritionally rich scientific fodder will certainly bring intellectual benefits far greater than those provided by the pseudoscientific confections with which we are so often tempted."
― Cordelia Fine, Wall Street Journal

"Paleofantasy is not another self-help book offering answers on how to eat, exercise, or love better in our evolving world. Instead, Zuk emphasizes that we can approach these aspects of our lives differently based on our genetic makeup."
― Catherine Woods, Science Magazine

"We tend to idealize our ancestors, as if they had the perfect life and perfect diet. In highly readable style, Marlene Zuk downplays our paleo-heritage. Not only did we change culturally, we are also genetically a different animal."
― Frans de Waal, author of The Bonobo and the Atheist

"With its healthy analysis of lifestyles and changing, evolving habits, Paleofantasy is a top recommendation not just for science holdings, but collections strong in culinary history and evolution."
― Midwest Book Review

"Zuk ably presents a skeptical and light-hearted view of a long list of palaeofantasies and supposed solutions."
― John Hawks, Nature

"Zuk doesn’t deny that an understanding of evolution can provide important insights into human behavior and health. But as this informative book demonstrates, the work of using evolutionary logic to explain human traits is more like multi-variable calculus than simple arithmetic."
― The Daily Beast

"Paleofantasy is a fascinating and accessible read that I had trouble putting down."
― Stratton Magazine

"Marlene Zuk’s quest to understand prehistory is an elegant guide for the perplexed. Paleofantasy cuts through a confusing tangle of facts and claims to give us a trustworthy road map to the glorious problems of who we are and where we come from."
― Richard Wrangham, author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007Q6XM1A
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (March 18, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 18, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1567 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 256 ratings

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M. Zuk

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
256 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and informative, with well-researched scientific content. They appreciate the clear writing style and sense of humor that dispels myths and silly ideas. The book provides useful information about nutrition and diet crazes, providing a realistic perspective on them.

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ReadabilityScientific contentWriting qualityHumorNutrition
33 customers mention "Readability"30 positive3 negative

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They find the topic interesting and the humor lighthearted. The book is described as a good educational read with compelling content.

"I feel compelled to write a review because this book is an interesting, fun popular science exploration of recent human evolution, and is NOT..." Read more

"...a lot of research presented in a condensed but very readable format, enjoyable with a gentle sense of humor, and presenting a balanced view of the..." Read more

"...For the science of the book, I give it 5 stars. I was thoroughly entertained and learned a lot. THE PALEO DIET:..." Read more

"...Bottom line this is an enjoyable, well written review on how evolutionary biology does not the popular assumptions that the paleo diet and lifestyle..." Read more

33 customers mention "Scientific content"30 positive3 negative

Customers find the book's scientific content interesting and exciting. They find it informative and easy to read, with illustrative case studies. The book explores human evolution from past to present and debunks myths about it. It has a good evidence base for its conclusions and is fun to read.

"...review because this book is an interesting, fun popular science exploration of recent human evolution, and is NOT deserving of the three-star..." Read more

"...format, enjoyable with a gentle sense of humor, and presenting a balanced view of the evidence...." Read more

"This is a well written book, suitable for the non-scientist in many ways...." Read more

"...Zuk's central argument throughout the book is that evolution is a continuous process that didn't stop for humans in the paleolithic and that..." Read more

19 customers mention "Writing quality"19 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written and readable. They appreciate the author's clear explanations and references. The book provides an easy-to-understand analysis of evolution.

"...As a professor, she writes carefully, avoiding making beginner mistakes such as interchanging correlation and causality or the trap of mistaking..." Read more

"...: a lot of research presented in a condensed but very readable format, enjoyable with a gentle sense of humor, and presenting a balanced..." Read more

"This is a well written book, suitable for the non-scientist in many ways...." Read more

"...Bottom line this is an enjoyable, well written review on how evolutionary biology does not the popular assumptions that the paleo diet and lifestyle..." Read more

8 customers mention "Humor"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous and engaging. They say it dispels myths and silliness with solid science and light sarcasm. However, some readers feel the concept is bad and the book is informal, focused more on material discussed on blogs.

"...- breezy, accessible, funny (sometimes corny), and full of illustrative case studies...." Read more

"...in a condensed but very readable format, enjoyable with a gentle sense of humor, and presenting a balanced view of the evidence...." Read more

"...I enjoyed the solid science and the light sarcasm." Read more

"I read the book on the plane and really enjoyed it. Relatively informal, focused more on material discussed on blogs and the popular press, it..." Read more

8 customers mention "Nutrition"8 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's nutrition advice. They find it refreshing for those who love food and take being healthy seriously. The book provides details on paleo diets, exercise routines, barefoot walking, and real foods. Readers appreciate the author's critical look at the evidence and how the body responds to eating certain foods.

"...This is the part of book that shines and while there might not be that much new for the folks that read a half dozen paleontology journals a month,..." Read more

"...but "is this food nutritious and does my body respond well to eating it?"..." Read more

"...Once again, the bottom line is - eat whole, fresh, real foods, and in as wide a variety as you can manage. Exercise daily...." Read more

"...food fantasies that promote to limit our diet, this book is refreshing to all who love food and take being healthy seriously...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, easy read on evolution & humans. Crappy reviews from disgruntled "paleo lifestyle" adherents?
    Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I feel compelled to write a review because this book is an interesting, fun popular science exploration of recent human evolution, and is NOT deserving of the three-star aggregate review shown above. That sort of aggregate would typically be reserved for books with the sort of editorial issues that render a book unreadable. The sort of vitriol spewed in the many one-star reviews is often awarded to books with overt racism or other or blatantly offensive themes. Instead, the author dared to to use a common term in it's proper scientific context, a term many of these one-star reviewers apparently believe they, and they alone, have ownership of. This review will therefore cover first the book itself, and then, if you are interested, a little "review of reviews".

    Zuk's writing style is similar to that of Mary Roach (another author known for bringing science to the public) - breezy, accessible, funny (sometimes corny), and full of illustrative case studies. The difference is that Zuk is a scientist herself, and so she is able to use examples from her own work and feels comfortable challenging other scientists head-on, which is kind of fun. As a professor, she writes carefully, avoiding making beginner mistakes such as interchanging correlation and causality or the trap of mistaking evolution for progress. She does sometimes reference common misconceptions about evolution as portrayed in mainstream media, but usually that's just a quick jumping off point for in-depth explorations of why the speed of evolution varies, or what exactly genetics can't tell us about evolution. It was a fun book, and I learned some new stuff.

    Now, as to the early reviews...

    Based on the low reviews, I expected a lot of deliberate baiting of the "paleo community" in this book, but that wasn't what I found. I therefore have to assume that several of the one-star reviewers just didn't read the book ("Paleo is changing lives!!!"), while others were disappointed that it wasn't written for, or at least at, them. The problem is, paleo, paleolithic, and other variants are recognized scientific terms, not the exclusive property of adherents to the "lifestyle". Zuk does focus on mainstream media perceptions of the "paleofantasy" and the work of other scientists rather than engaging directly with strict paleo adherents. I judge that to be appropriate, as engaging with adherents of a small fringe movement could deligitimize the scientific core of the book. It would also miss the wider audience for whom that those derided Glamour and New York Times articles are written.

    The book may not change the minds of any paleo die-hards, but it could save the rest of us large amounts of money and time in our misguided attempt to get healthier by living like our ancestors. Meanwhile, Zuk's recommendation to get off the couch is free.
    161 people found this helpful
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  • Peter B
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great Review of Evolutionary Biology with One Not-So-Minor Problem...
    Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Writing a review of this book almost requires writing three separate reviews.

    The bulk of the book is a research wrap-up of various evolutionary biology and paleontology topics, such as the development of lactose tolerance. This is the part of book that shines and while there might not be that much new for the folks that read a half dozen paleontology journals a month, most laypeople interested in these topics should really enjoy this part of the book. Personally I found the author's writing style in these parts of the book to be similar to Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (an excellent book by Richard Sapolsky, an author I highly recommend): a lot of research presented in a condensed but very readable format, enjoyable with a gentle sense of humor, and presenting a balanced view of the evidence. I'll leave it up to others to quibble with the specific science, but for this portion alone I would recommend the book.

    The author supplements the above discussion by giving her personal opinions on the above topics. Here I am somewhat less enthusiastic but I would still give the author the thumbs up in general. Her message here seems to be to "slow your roll" when it comes to interpreting paleontological evidence, and most of her takedowns of certain myths and poor reasoning are in my opinion appropriate (who actually holds these opinions is another matter). The paleo community at large is a pretty vast, heterogenous place so depending on where you look these fallacies will show up more or less often. The most common one I see is the notion that we have a solid understanding of how Paleolithic man lived; it would be nice if cavemen had left us their FitDay journals but we are more often stuck with a few piles of bones and rat middens. You also can find plenty of bad logic out there, such as the reasoning that because people got shorter and sicker after agriculture that grain consumption was necessarily the culprit (I would agree with that in part although I find the disease theory stronger, either way this is a classic correlation versus causation problem not really an issue with paleo reasoning per se). Some of her conclusions I did find to be a bit of a stretch, for example that lactose tolerance developed in a portion of humanity somehow makes concerns about milk consumption complete nonsense. While it weakens it a bit by showing that humans can and are evolving to adapt to a post-agricultural diet, the fact that most people do not demonstrate lactose persistence as well as concerns with proteins and hormones in milk make that argument sound rather overdone. And while I think I get her point, I don't really agree that the Paleolithic period is not a better reference than earlier eras.

    Then... there is the rest of the book. These are the portions of the book that are causing most of the paleo folks to lose their minds. For some reason, the author deemed it necessary to spend time selectively quoting online forums and then follows that up with an almost willful misinterpretation of a lot of writing by thought leaders in the paleo community (her comments on Mark Sisson and chronic cardio are probably the worst but there are plenty of stinkers here). I found it all very strange. It was like her editor thought her first draft wasn't controversial enough so they hired some intern to spend an afternoon trolling paleo websites to find ridiculous quotes for her book and then insert the word paleofantasy every couple of pages. Even that word sounds out of place when compared to the rest of the book, where you almost might mistake her for someone attending the Ancestral Health Symposium - heck at times she basically advocates a cautious paleo reasoning. She also gets her information about the paleo community from some pretty unorthodox sources: her first quotes are from Glamour magazine and the New York Times, apparently bastions of paleo thought I was not aware of. While if you look hard enough you are going to find some of the nonsense she is railing against, like a lot of people have said the more serious discussions going on are addressing the concerns she has and have been doing so for years. It's all very frustrating and doesn't even make sense as a marketing ploy. I don't know how many times I read "I was going to read this book but then I read the reviews..." in the last couple of days. I have to think that the I-hate-the-paleo-diet-so-much-I-am-going-to-read-a-300-plus-page-book-that-rips-on-it market is pretty niche, maybe I'm wrong.

    Anyway if you can hold your nose through the more noxious parts of the book (which are fortunately relatively brief) I would still recommend the book. No one is taking away your grass-fed beef jerky. You won't have to cancel your WOD or uninstall f.lux from your computer. If the unfortunate parts of the book piss you off enough that you don't want to give the author your money, that's fine too. Either way I wouldn't waste your time being mad about it, I don't think that's what Grok what do.
    95 people found this helpful
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  • Penny L. Bloodhart
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Reasonable
    Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This is a well written book, suitable for the non-scientist in many ways. If people are looking for justification of their own ideas about life style and diet, they probably won't find it here. The author quotes numerous scientific studies regarding the lives of primates and our own early relatives which suggest that they lived in a variety of environments and probably in many different styles. It is clear that we do not have enough information about the diet and sexual habits of our remote ancestors to give any assurances that modern humans can profit from adapting a "paleo" lifestyle by eating plenty of meat, no grains and going barefoot (among other things.) The author does stress that we suffer today from our own physical inactivity. However, there is really no substantial evidence that eating grain and other more "modern' foods is condemning us to disease. The exception, of course, is that segment of the population with allergies and other physical indications. Many diseases have been with us for millions of years, and many of the "modern" diseases are infectious types which depend upon a large close population and proximity to animals.

    What evolution really tells us about Sex, Diet, etc. is...uh, things change and are changing. Keep an open mind and try to separate the (if I may use an agricultural saying) "the wheat from the chaff."
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Joanne
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
    Reviewed in Canada on June 1, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Well researched presentation of this topic with great insight into who we are and why.
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  • Hector
    5.0 out of 5 stars Essentiel
    Reviewed in France on August 10, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Cet ouvrage est une critique des pseudo-scientifiques et autres écolos du dimanche qui tentent de nous faire croire que nous nous porterons bien mieux si nous adoptons les us de nos ancêtres des cavernes. Notamment en question de diète. Seulement nous n'avons pas changé depuis que nos comportements et nos régimes alimentaires, nos gènes ont évolué avec nous et ne s’accommodent pas d'un retour en arrière.
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  • Paul
    5.0 out of 5 stars Informative
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Good and informative. As other reviewers have noted there is a certain amount of criticism of various paleo blog entries, but I didn't find this excessive. It is well argued, evidence based and well referenced.
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  • Thomas Fontanari
    5.0 out of 5 stars Naturwissenschaft nimmt sich Paleo vor
    Reviewed in Germany on October 1, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Ein gutes, unterhaltsam geschriebenes und wichtiges Buch. Eine renommierte Wissenschafterin nimmt sich die dank des Internets hoffähig gewordene Halbbildung vor und zerpflückt diese. Stichworte: Paleo-Diät und Crossfit. Wichtigster Gedanke ist, dass Evolution rascher und zufälliger stattfindet, als sich das der Laie vorstellt. Die Idee, dass wir physisch in Sachen Ernährung und Training die selben Bedürfnisse wie ein Jäger&Sammler vor zehntausenden Jahren haben, lässt sich nach Lektüre dieses Buchs nicht aufrechterhalten. Auch in Nebenaspekten wie z. B. Laktoseunverträglichkeit oder kulturell unterschiedlicher Umgang mit Kleinkindern bietet es viele Aha-Momente. Wissenschaftlich solide, aber populärwissenschaftlich und in gut verständlichem Englisch geschrieben.
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  • Peter Grogono
    5.0 out of 5 stars Debunks myths about evolution
    Reviewed in Canada on August 23, 2016
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    Excellent! Read it and pass on what you learn to your paleo-dieting friends.
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