Why Your Body Is Probably Getting More Food Than It Actually Needs
How our diet outpaced our evolution, and how we can close the gap.
Caught up in the brief slice of time we occupy, it’s easy to forget how much the world has changed, and that many of the things we now take for granted were by no means commonplace, even just a few years ago. Perhaps, never was this quite so evident as it is today. We live in what historians have come to call the digital revolution. And although arguably the most groundbreaking, it is but the latest in a long chain of revolutions that have shaped the world we live in — and, in turn, us. But to best understand humans today, one must go back. Way back.
By most estimates, modern humans have been around for about 300 thousand years. There is little discord in the scientific community that over that time period, humans went through changes, both cognitive and physical. The Homo sapiens who painted on the walls of the Chauvet Cave over 30 thousand years ago will have exhibited significant genetic variation from their ancestors who set out of Africa thousands of years before. How similar these cave dwellers were to us, however, is where opinions differ.
