What Should We Eat? Evolution, Diet, and Health

What does evolutionary science tell us about what we should eat? In this episode, Harvard paleoanthropologist and author Daniel Lieberman joins us to discuss food, health, human evolution, and his new book, "Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well."

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing discoveries. Support our work and this show at leakeyfoundation.org/originstories

Book Giveaway

Enter your name by October 12 for a chance to win a copy of Fed Up! Winners will be drawn at random on October 13. No donation necessary to win!

Links to learn more

• Leakey Foundation events calendar
• "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" -Read the 1973 essay by geneticist and biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky. - full PDF
• US FDA FoodData Central – Look up official, comprehensive nutritional data and macronutrient breakdowns for thousands of foods.
• Lieberman et al, Comparing measured dietary variation within and between tropical hunter-gatherer groups to the Paleo Diet
• How the World Does Beans and Rice...in 16 Recipes, allrecipes.com
• 73 Best Rated Dishes with Peanuts, tasteatlas.com
• The PREDIMED Study (NEJM) – The landmark clinical trial from Spain proving that a Mediterranean diet rich in extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduces the risk of major cardiovascular events (like heart attacks and strokes) by roughly 30%. (Note: This is the updated, re-analyzed 2018 version that corrected a prior 2013 randomization issue).
• The PREDIMED-Plus Study (Official Site) – The newer, ongoing follow-up trial evaluating how combining a calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet with physical activity impacts long-term weight loss and type 2 diabetes prevention.