Beyond Paleo: A Culinary History of Humanity ~ Daniel Lieberman

“What do you think of the paleo diet?”

To my surprise, this has become the most common question I get after telling people that I cover human evolution. I’ve long struggled to answer.

Yes, the idea makes a lot of sense: humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, so our bodies should do well when we eat like hunter-gatherers.

But what exactly do hunter-gatherers eat?

Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman wanted to find out. After reviewing the evidence we have on the diets of hunter-gatherers, he came to a surprising conclusion.

“Not a single one of them eats the paleo diet”, he says.

Some hunter-gatherers eat more meat than the paleo diet prescribes; most eat much less. Plenty of them eat legumes and cereals, both of which are banned by paleo cookbooks.

“There is no one paleo diet,” Lieberman concludes. “The unique thing about humans is that we evolved to eat almost everything.”

Instead of fixating on a single “true” diet, Lieberman’s new book, Fed Up, offers a tour of the dietary history of humanity, discussing what lessons we can learn along the way.

In this episode, we cover the sweeping story of food and cooking, from the first chefs who processed food with stone tools to the explosion of ultra-processed foods during Lieberman’s own lifetime. Along the way, Lieberman offers insightful comparisons between humans and chimpanzees and discusses the many ways in which farming has — and has not — affected the human condition. He also explains why humans have always been “a very fat ape”, and what his experience of racing against horses tells us about the quirks of human evolution.

Towards the end of the episode, we also evaluate the pros and the cons of the modern food system. We finish with Lieberman’s deeply compassionate advice to all who would like to find a healthier lifestyle amidst the many challenges of industrial modernity.

Enjoy!

FACT-CHECKING

No factual errors have been detected yet. If you find a factual error, please leave a comment in the extended show notes (link below)

LINKS

Full show notes with references: https://OnHumans.Substack.com/p/Beyond-Paleo-a-Culinary-History-of

Support: Patreon.com/OnHumans

KEYWORDS

Ethnic groups & technical terms

The Hadza | Inuit | Agta | Homo erectus | Australopithecines | Lucy | Olduvai Hominid OH 8 | Oldowan stone tools | the Nandi Hills

Topics covered

Human evolution | evolutionary anthropology | human origins | big history | palaeoanthropology | paleo diet | hunter-gatherer studies | meat eating | persistence hunting | endurance running | sweating | human body fat | origins of cooking | origins of food processing | agriculture | neolithic revolution | peasant diets | famines | infectious disease | Mediterranean diet | ultra-processed foods | fibre | saturated and unsaturated fats | obesity | insulin resistance | type 2 diabetes | GLUT4 transporters | exercise | weight maintenance |

Music credit: Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay.