Home » In Review » Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution

Edited by Peter Ungar and Mark Teaford
Bergin & Garvey

Restricting the types of food you eat may not be the healthiest approach to controlling your diet, suggests a new book co-edited by associate professor of anthropology Peter Ungar. In fact, such a strategy may be dangerous for your overall health.

"Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution" combines the expertise of leading physicians, anthropologists, nutritionists and biologists to examine the topic from the eating habits of our earliest ancestors to the diet-related health problems that plague our world today.

Each chapter cites evidence from the latest research in those fields, and each contributes to the overall message: that humans evolved to eat the most varied diet of any species and that the limited nature of our modern diet can lead to chronic health risks.

Experts in the first half of the book assess the link between diet and health–showing how excessive consumption of saturated fats, simple sugars and sodium impacts the human body. Later chapters trace the trail of evidence back, hoping to illuminate the eating habits and health status of our human ancestors. The combination of these perspectives reveals a troubling discrepancy between our modern eating habits and the metabolic design of our bodies.