Nine years ago I made one of the most consequential decisions of my life—I switched to the so-called Paleo Diet (“paleo” is a bit misleading, as I explain in the post). Had I not done so, I would certainly have contributed to the rising obesity statistics for the United States. Within

Levels of inequality have changed dramatically during the course of human evolution: from the social hierarchies of our great ape ancestors to egalitarian small-scale societies of hunter-gatherers, and then to large-scale hierarchical societies with great inequities in the distributio

I grew up in Russia and for the first 20 years of my life I never tasted a chili pepper. I still remember my first encounter with this potent condiment in a Thai restaurant after moving to the United States: biting into an innocuous looking bit, burning sensation followed by intense p

In a recent blog post P. D. Mangan discusses the implications of the metabolic theory of cancer and the ideas of Dr. Laurent Schwartz, French physician and oncologist, who has been using this theory to treat cancer patients. Whether this theory is correct, or not, time (and the scient

Diabetes expert warns paleo diet is dangerous and increases weight gain! proclaims the press release from University of Melbourne. It says: A new study has revealed following a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet for just eight weeks can lead to rapid weight gain and health complications.

One thing I love about Cultural Evolution is how it makes us look at ordinary things we do every day from a completely new angle. As an example, if you think about it, wearing pants, especially in warmer climates, is a very strange thing. It turns that there is a surprising explanatio

Amid all the confusing fluctuations in dietary fashion to which Americans have been exposed since the 1960s, one recommendation has remained unchallenged. Beginning in the 1960s and until 2015 the Americans have been getting consistent dietary advice: fat, especially saturated fat, is

Thanks Peter for bringing this issue to your blog readers. Here are a couple of important points which you and/or your readers should address when evaluating Richard Wrangham’s hypothesis that the control of fire and subsequent consumption of cooked tubers represented an evolutionary

A year ago I blogged about Richard Wrangham’s book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (it’s a great book, and I recommend it). My main interest in the post was, what were the implications for the diet of our ancestors? And what are they for those of us who follow the Paleo Diet

The food-intensive period of holidays is finally over, and most of us emerged from it carrying a few extra pounds. This is entirely natural, since evolution has enabled our bodies to store extra energy during the times of plenty, and then use it up during the times of dearth. What’s u