The Evolution of our Diets

I've been reading a great book titled The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products that are Fattening the Human Race by Barry Popkin. Popkin is a Professor of Global Nutrition at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and the director of the UNC Interdisciplinary Obesity Center. The World is Fat is a very informative book that I have found very useful while trying to understand the implications that surround the world's obesity problems. Popkin gives a brief background explanation about how our diets have evolved, starting thousands of years ago, and I think he brings up many interesting points. 

People have been tracing the patterns in the human diet back thousands of years to the Upper Paleolithic period (which began about forty thousand years ago) when stone tools were made and used. Paleolithic humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, and the average diet consisted of seeds, nuts, roots, fish, and aquatic mammals. With a diet that relies heavily on seeds, nuts, and roots, the body ends up getting large amounts of fiber to aid in digestion. The food available back then depended entirely on the seasons, so the Paleolithic humans ended up with a varied diet. Among the people who lived long enough to grow old, chronic diseases (such as diabetes, obesity, were not a known or relevant problem. 

The agricultural developments and advancements that took place around 10,000 to 11,000 BC changed people's eating habits drastically. People were able to base their diets around a few specific crops, sometimes fewer, and farming created the ability to have a surplus of foods. Barley, wheat, corn, rice and millet became the chief crops throughout the world. 

I think the development of farming is an event that needs to be examined from many aspects when studying world hunger and obesity. From one aspect, I think our newer farming techniques could be somewhat responsible for our world food problems for a couple different reasons. Firstly, the methods of farming we use now make us very disconnected from our food. For the most part, no one really knows what goes on to get their food to the store so they can purchase it. Secondly, we farm on such a large scale that machinery has taken over manual labor. If we all had to do our own farming, I'd imagine that we would all be getting a lot more physical exercise on a daily basis! And thirdly, enough food is produced to feed the entire world, yet a good portion of the world's population goes unfed.

All of these aspects and problems surrounding the evolution of the human diet are important to consider when thinking about the world's malnourished and obese population. I think Popkin brings up a lot of other interesting things as well, so if you'd like to read more I highly recommend the book, or you can check out his website: www.theworldisfat.com