Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century1,2

Abstract

There is growing awareness that the profound changes in the environment (eg, in diet and other lifestyle conditions) that began with the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry approximately 10000 y ago occurred too recently on an evolutionary time scale for the human genome to adjust. In conjunction with this discordance between our ancient, genetically determined biology and the nutritional, cultural, and activity patterns of contemporary Western populations, many of the so-called diseases of civilization have emerged. In particular, food staples and food-processing procedures introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial Periods have fundamentally altered 7 crucial nutritional characteristics of ancestral hominin diets: 1) glycemic load, 2) fatty acid composition, 3) macronutrient composition, 4) micronutrient density, 5) acid-base balance, 6) sodium-potassium ratio, and 7) fiber content. The evolutionary collision of our ancient genome with the nutritional qualities of recently introduced foods may underlie many of the chronic diseases of Western civilization.

Health Benefits of Nut Consumption

“…Like that of most vegetables, the sodium content of raw or roasted but otherwise unprocessed nuts is very low, ranging from undetectable in hazelnuts to 18 mg/100 g in peanuts (Table 2) [24]. A high intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium, together with a low sodium intake, is associated with protection against bone demineralization, arterial hypertension, insulin resistance, and overall cardiovascular risk [39]. Obviously, the advantage of the low sodium content of nuts is lost if they are consumed as a salted product.…”

“…First, the epidemiological studies that related the frequency of nut consumption with a reduction of incident CHD [1,39,40,41] or diabetes [46] showed a neutral or even inverse association between nut intake and BMI. Recent reports from two large prospective cohorts [131,132] and a cross-sectional study [133] support these findings.…”

Evolutionary biology of cancer

“…With the advent of the agricultural revolution, most humans underwent a radical shift in diet, from O3000 types of plants and fruit to w20 main types (mainly grains and sugars), and from lean game to domestic animal meat and dairy products [56,69]. With this dietary shift came increases in chronic diseases such as cancer, which appear less frequently in hunter-gatherer and many traditional societies [56,57,69].…”

“…With this dietary shift came increases in chronic diseases such as cancer, which appear less frequently in hunter-gatherer and many traditional societies [56,57,69]. High caloric intake itself also increases the risk of many cancers [58,70], and even moderate caloric restriction leads to striking reductions in cancer rates, as well as increasing lifespan independent of cancer risk [70,71].…”

The Metabolic Plant Feedback Hypothesis: How Plant Secondary Metabolites Nonspecifically Impact Human Health

“…Excluded from this are toxic plants, which have maybe only started to become used in the context of treating self-limited infectious diseases, or with the raise of herbal medicines. However, food staples and food-processing procedures introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial periods have fundamentally altered fundamental nutritional characteristics of ancestral hominin diets, including cooking food [140]. Never in the history of the human diet have we consumed more carbohydrates and less phytochemicals than today.…”