Human beings evolved millions of years ago as the most highly adaptable species on Earth. We have learned to survive and thrive in a wide variety of food environments. But the modern world is especially challenging because food is available anytime and anywhere.
Researchers are just realizing the importance of living in a manner consistent with how we evolved. Sadly, there is a major mismatch between our evolutionary heritage and the alienated state of humans in the radically different modern world.
One key to health is to reduce this mismatch. For example, evolutionary eating means eating less cultivated grain (which has only existed for about 8,000 years). Likewise, we should avoid eating artificial, manufactured substances that have existed for only 40 years. The book Evolutionary Eating offers many other ways to eat consistent with how we evolved.
This evolutionary approach is about more than food. Movement, exercise and brain development can benefit from the evolutionary approach. For example, Frank Forencich teaches us that humans are “exuberant animals” meant to play and explore.