Review of the new book The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease by Daniel Lieberman:
Essentially, Lieberman's message is that modern life has created mismatches between our abilities and adaptations and the stresses we place on the body by often living thousands of miles from our family's origins, sitting down all day long rather than actively gaining a livelihood by physical work, and snatching at quick, high-energy foods.
The evolutionary approach produces some counterintuitive surprises. Fresh fruit juices are as much junk food as a cola drink – they produce a sugar rush, so it's better to eat fresh fruit with its additional fibre; chewing gum as a child is a healthy pastime, if the gum is sugar-free (teeth and jaws need the exercise that modern diets fail to provide). Without going the whole Paleo wild boar, Lieberman suggests we can learn something from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. He is a celebrated advocate of barefoot running, for example.
Essentially, Lieberman's message is that modern life has created mismatches between our abilities and adaptations and the stresses we place on the body by often living thousands of miles from our family's origins, sitting down all day long rather than actively gaining a livelihood by physical work, and snatching at quick, high-energy foods.
The evolutionary approach produces some counterintuitive surprises. Fresh fruit juices are as much junk food as a cola drink – they produce a sugar rush, so it's better to eat fresh fruit with its additional fibre; chewing gum as a child is a healthy pastime, if the gum is sugar-free (teeth and jaws need the exercise that modern diets fail to provide). Without going the whole Paleo wild boar, Lieberman suggests we can learn something from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. He is a celebrated advocate of barefoot running, for example.
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