This lecture explores how the mismatch between evolution and the current food environment has changed people's relationship to food. Ancient societies had a vastly different food environment compared to modern day societies, which was characterized by unpredictable food supply, the threat of starvation, and a high priority to bank energy. The human brain evolved for this ancient food environment, which creates challenges in the modern food environment where people have unfettered access to the high sugar, high fat, high variety foods that they are programmed to find appealing.

Reading assignment:

Brownell, Kelly D. and Katherine B. Horgen. Food Fight, chapter 1 (pp. 3-19)

Eaton, Boyd S. "The Ancestral Diet: What Was It and Should It Be a Paradigm for Contemporary Nutrition?" Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 65 (2006), pp. 1-6