1940 FoodScienceBody
1940 FoodScienceBody
1940 FoodScienceBody
Dr. Crittenden’s research interests include the evolution of the human diet,
the evolution of childhood, and the origins of the division of labor between
the sexes. She applies the principles of evolutionary theory to the study
of human behavior and cultural diversity. Dr. Crittenden’s work crosses
several disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, ecology, nutrition,
and human biology.
ii Biography
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography�������������������������������������������������������� i
Disclaimer����������������������������������������������������������������������vii
Scope����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
LECTURE GUIDES
Lecture 1
Paleo Diets and the Ancestral Appetite�������������������������� 3
Lecture 2
Our Hunter-Gatherer Past�������������������������������������������� 13
Lecture 3
Stones, Bones, and Teeth�������������������������������������������� 23
Lecture 4
Did Eating Meat Make Us Human?������������������������������ 33
Lecture 5
Insects: The Other White Meat������������������������������������� 42
Lecture 6
Was the Stone Age Menu Mostly Vegetarian?������������� 52
Lecture 7
Cooking and the Control of Fire����������������������������������� 62
Lecture 8
The Neolithic Revolution����������������������������������������������� 71
Lecture 9
The Changing Disease-Scape�������������������������������������� 81
Lecture 10
How Foods Spread around the World�������������������������� 90
Lecture 11
The History of the Spice Trade������������������������������������� 99
Lecture 12
How Sugar and Salt Shaped World History��������������� 109
Lecture 13
A Brief History of Bread���������������������������������������������� 119
Lecture 14
The Science and Secrets
of Chocolate��������������������������������������������������������������� 128
Lecture 15
Water: The Liquid of Life�������������������������������������������� 138
Lecture 16
Beer, Mead, and the Fun of Fermentation������������������ 148
Lecture 17
Humanity’s Love of Wine�������������������������������������������� 158
Lecture 18
Coffee: Love or Addiction?����������������������������������������� 167
Lecture 19
The Roots of Tea�������������������������������������������������������� 176
Lecture 20
The Fizz on Soda�������������������������������������������������������� 186
iv Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lecture 21
Food as Ritual������������������������������������������������������������ 195
Lecture 22
When People
Eat Things That Aren’t Food��������������������������������������� 204
Lecture 23
Food as Recreational Drugs��������������������������������������� 213
Lecture 24
Food as Medicine������������������������������������������������������� 222
Lecture 25
The Coevolution of Genes and Diet���������������������������� 233
Lecture 26
The Scoop on Poop���������������������������������������������������� 243
Lecture 27
The Gut Microbiome��������������������������������������������������� 253
Lecture 28
Brain Food������������������������������������������������������������������ 264
Lecture 29
You Are What Your Mother Ate����������������������������������� 273
Lecture 30
Civilization: Diets and Diseases��������������������������������� 282
Lecture 31
What the World Is Eating�������������������������������������������� 291
Lecture 32
The Overnutrition Epidemic���������������������������������������� 301
Lecture 33
World Poverty and Undernutrition������������������������������ 309
Lecture 34
Should the World Eat Meat?��������������������������������������� 318
Lecture 35
Should We Be Powered by Plants?���������������������������� 328
Lecture 36
The Future of Food����������������������������������������������������� 338
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Bibliography���������������������������������������������������������������� 347
Image Credits������������������������������������������������������������� 366
vi Table of Contents
DISCLAIMER
We then follow the history of humans and their food to the Neolithic period,
when our ancestors first began domesticating plants and animals. This
was a critical shift in the evolution of our species and involved much more
than simply changing food-producing techniques. It was also the time
when, thanks to new surpluses in food, we had a huge population boom.
Agriculture is associated with many hallmarks of human evolution, such
as the development of economies of scale, the division of labor, social
With the advent of large-scale trade starting in the 13th century, new foods
were disseminated throughout the world, changing the history of human
cuisine forever. We’ll explore the roles that sugar, salt, and spices play and
discover the antiquity and global importance of these powders, plants, and
granules. Other consumables have also left their mark on world history.
Foods such as bread and chocolate and drinks such as beer, mead,
wine, coffee, and soda have been key players in culture, cuisine, religion,
economy, and even medicinal treatments around the world.
After the rich historical overview, we’ll look at the ways in which food is
associated with rituals, holidays, and cultural identity, highlighting the
different foods that people eat, including unusual appetites for things that
are not considered to be food at all. We’ll also look at the fascinating ways
in which foods have been used as recreational drugs and medicine.
What we eat is also associated with our health, both now and in the past.
Data on the relationship between diet and the brain will be presented, as
well as the ways in which food has acted as a powerful force in evolution.
We’ll review exciting findings from research on the gut microbiome and
patterns of contemporary disease and discover what biology tells us about
the health effects of a diet based on meat or plants.
The course ends with a thorough examination of food wars and the politics
of the production of food. As we look ahead to the future with a rapidly
expanding global population, we will need to feed almost 10 billion people
by 2050, making the question of what to eat a critical dilemma. The foods
that we choose to eat—as a species—will have great implications for the
health of the planet and its inhabitants. ■
2 Scope
LECTURE
●● Many people are under the misconception that the Paleo diet
mimics the actual diet during the Paleolithic period and that we
need to get back to our Paleolithic baseline.
●● The Paleo diet has been around since the 1970s. It started out
as an actual diet and increasingly became a lifestyle and fitness
regimen, and it eventually morphed into the Paleo craze that we
see today.
●● There are many hundreds of iterations of the Paleo diet, with many
different guidelines, menus, blogs, and nutrition pamphlets. In its
original form, however, it was based on Loren Cordain’s Paleo
Diet, which outlines the foods that people are supposed to eat that
are most similar to the diet of our ancestors.
○○ Fruits and vegetables were on the list, because the bulk of the
Paleolithic diet likely came from plant foods.
○○ We were originally told not to eat cereal grains, which were not
available until 10,000 years ago, with the advent of agriculture.
○○ The diet told us to avoid dairy and refined sugar, as they were
also not available before the domestication of plants and animals.
●● There are so many different versions of the Paleo diet now that it
can become almost impossible to adhere to all of the guidelines.
Because of conflicting recommendations, not only can it become
very difficult to determine what to eat if you are attempting try a
Paleo diet, but it also becomes almost impossible to figure out
what food, if any, was similar to the foods that our ancestors ate
during the Paleolithic period.
●● Just how much they ate is up for debate. But the bulk of the
Paleolithic diet was most likely plant based and supplemented with
meat. Our Paleolithic ancestors also ate nuts and seeds, which
are found in almost every environment and are very rich in fats.
●● We also know that many of these key shifts in diet occurred during
the Pliocene epoch, which extended between 5.3 and 2.5 million
●● Apes are our closest living relatives. We didn’t evolve from apes;
rather, we share a common ancestor with our closest African ape
relatives in the genus Pan. There are 2 species in this genus: the
chimpanzee and the bonobo. We shared a common ancestor with
them about 6 to 7 million years ago. We share 99% of our DNA
with chimpanzees and bonobos.
●● These include a reduction in the size of the colon and the overall
size of the gut and an enlargement of the small intestine. There’s a
link between the size and shape of an animal’s GI tract and what it
eats. These changes suggest that our species is adapted to eat a
diet of highly nutritious foods that are easy to digest.
●● There is also a link between diet and relative brain size. During
the evolution of our genus, brain size dramatically increased.
From approximately 2 million years ago to today, brain volume has
greatly increased, and many scientists argue that it has tripled.
●● This means that big brains are very costly in terms of energy. In
the mid-1990s, anthropologists Leslie Aiello and Peter Wheeler
proposed that the increase in brain size that we see in human
evolution was balanced by a nearly equivalent reduction in the
size of the GI tract.
Suggested Reading
Eaton, Shostak, and Konner, The Paleolithic Prescription.
●● The idea that there are still lost tribes in the world who are
subsisting on only wild foods isn’t supported by any data. In 1966,
●● We have good historic data from foragers all around the world.
For those populations who are no longer foraging, we know what
they were eating when they were. For these groups, much of
the ethnographic data was collected at or before the turn of the
20th century.
●● These data are important, now more than ever, because they can
help us ascertain what foragers eat in different ecosystems and how
they stay healthy year-round with a limited diet. We can also learn
if a wild diet can really provide what our species needs nutritionally.
●● This is one of the reasons why early scientists have been so keen
on researching foraging diet for more than the past 100 years.
●● This language was used because the general consensus was that
they lived a life like the one Thomas Hobbes famously dubbed as
“nasty, brutish, and short.” But this notion is inaccurate.
●● These notions persisted, even at the turn of the 20th century. And
by the time the 21st century rolled around, the number of foraging
populations had plummeted to less than a dozen. This would be the
number we would use if we define hunter-gatherers as individuals
who obtain the majority of their food from wild resources.
●● While the specific foods and the foraging techniques used might
vary around the world, there are some basic generalizations.
All hunting-and-gathering groups in the world, for example,
●● There are also some general traits of how much plant material
might make up the diet, depending on where in the world foragers
live. Some have suggested that the closer a group lives to the
equator, with a higher temperature, the more it depends on a
broadly plant-based diet, supplemented with meat. And the lower
the temperature, the more the group depends on fishing.
●● The dietary data we have for arctic foragers suggests that, unlike
their neighbors from more temperate climates, they consume a
majority of meat. This is likely due to the fact that they are able to
harvest marine resources more readily in the winter months.
●● The Hadza are not a Stone Age population; they’re just as modern
as we are. But they live a nomadic lifestyle in the absence of
agriculture or permanent dwellings.
●● And much of the meat that we eat is from grain-fed animals. What
an animal eats can have a profound impact on the nutritive qualities
of the meat that it produces. Much of the meat that’s consumed by
contemporary foragers comes from small- to medium-sized game
animals and birds. The Hadza routinely target small antelope
species, monkeys, and hyrax.
Suggested Reading
Gibbons, “The Evolution of Diet.”
Kelly, The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers.
Marlowe, The Hadza.
Questions
1. Why is data from contemporary hunting-and-gathering populations
important to modeling ancestral diet?
STONES, BONES,
AND TEETH
Stone Tools
●● The invention of stone tools is an aspect of the diet story that has
fascinated scientists and the public alike for generations.
●● These Ethiopian tools fall into a type of tool kit called Oldowan.
The name comes from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where
archaeologist Louis Leakey found the first tools of this type in
●● It has been suggested that these early tools were used to butcher
game animals, particularly the large hand axes. Increasingly,
however, scientists are beginning to think that these tools might
have been multipurpose tools that allowed our ancestors not only
to butcher animals but also to aid them in the procurement of
plant foods.
●● The Middle Stone Age, which lasted from about 200,000 to 30,000
years ago, is not only the time when Neanderthals flourished but is
also the time when our species, Homo sapiens sapiens, evolved.
Skeletal Material
●● Aspects of an animal’s skeleton can tell us a lot about what
it eats. Some of the oldest species in the fossil record, called
Australopithecines, had some very interesting and distinct cranial
features that have allowed anthropologists to infer what their diet
might have been.
Dentition
●● Teeth, and the information that they convey, are also important.
Teeth can tell us about the types of foods consumed, the amount
of energy it takes to chew, and patterns of disease—all of which
are critical components of an organism’s biology.
●● Many different types of teeth exist within the animal kingdom. Many
reptiles have teeth that all look the same, and many vertebrates
shed their teeth and regrow them throughout their lifetime. But
mammals, such as humans, are a bit different. We don’t replace
our teeth multiple times throughout our lives as sharks do. We
have jaws that stop growing as adults and shed our teeth only
once: in childhood.
molar
premolar
canine
incisor
●● By the time our genus, Homo, appeared on the scene more than
2 million years ago, they already had teeth that looked strikingly
similar to ours. Their teeth showed generalized dentition that
functioned as a tool kit to process and consume both plant and
animal matter.
●● Species that shear their food, for example, such as leaf and meat
eaters, tend to have a lot of long, parallel scratches on their teeth.
Species that are hard-object feeders, such as those that crush
nuts and bones, have more pitting, or small circular impressions
imbedded in the enamel.
Suggested Reading
Beeler and Karas, Throw Your Tooth on the Roof.
Questions
1. What can stone tools that are found in the archaeological record tell us
about diet and hominin behavior?
2. What is dental microwear, and what can it tell us about ancestral diet?
●● Other intriguing data has come from Senegal and the field
site of primatologist Jill Pruetz. who reported the first data on
chimpanzees making and using spears for hunting. Interestingly,
it turns out that female chimpanzees are more likely to use tools
for hunting.
●● The most robust evidence that we have for meat eating in early
members of our genus comes from butchery marks found on
animal bones. The actions used to access bone marrow or to skin
an animal leave distinct impressions: cut and percussion marks.
●● The tools associated with these finds don’t necessarily seem like
they would be linked with routine big-game hunting. Many of these
●● So, how did our ancestors hunt the animals that they were
eating? The hunting-versus-scavenging debate that ensues is
heated. Some anthropologists are stalwart in their belief that early
humans, and our ancestors, were accomplished hunters. Others
are equally adamant that it is likely that the earliest members of
our genus were scavengers.
Questions
1. Why is evidence of tool use among wild chimpanzees an important
discovery for human evolution?
2. While the image of “man the hunter” is one that dominates public
perception of our ancestral past, how accurate is that depiction?
Entomophagy
●● The practice of eating bugs is called entomophagy, and it has been
around for most of human history, if not all of it. Even though the
practice dates to antiquity, the appreciation of insects as food has
not gained popular momentum in the United States until recently.
●● Another chef from Louisiana has even suggested that it’s possible
to use a net in your own backyard. He encourages people to swing
a net around during hot summer nights to catch dragonflies. Once
caught, you can freeze them and then prepare them just as you
would fried soft-shell crab.
●● Honey is actually
regurgitated nectar, or
bee vomit, from worker bees.
Honey is one of the most energy-dense
foods in nature. It’s a concentrated source of glucose and fructose
and contains trace amounts of several essential vitamins and
minerals. It also has components that act as preservatives.
●● And this is just liquid honey. As soon as you add bee larvae, it also
becomes a good source of protein, fat, and B vitamins.
●● Our ancestors could have easily targeted hives with the stone tools
that they had available, and honey, with the added boost of protein
and larvae, would have been an ideal food for an enlarging brain.
●● Other lines of evidence also suggest that honey has long been a
part of the human sweet tooth. We have data from actual teeth
that tell the story of a long connection with the sweet stuff.
●● Another line of evidence for the long use of honey comes from
beeswax residues found in ancient Neolithic pottery that dates to
around 9000 years ago.
●● Other forms of ancient art and material culture also show how
important honey collection and consumption were. The earliest
written record of bees in China is recorded on inscriptions on
animal bones dating to 3000 years ago. And a famed jar of honey
Beekeeping
●● Some historians of apiculture, or the keeping of bees, contend that
the earliest form of beekeeping was nest ownership. Once people
began settling down in the Neolithic period, they would mark hives
to indicate that the hive, and its contents, were their property.
Sustainability
●● Bees and their habitats are threatened, so quite often, discussions
about wild foods come back to the crux of the issue: sustainability.
The harsh reality is that bees are disappearing around the world.
Scientists call it colony collapse disorder, and it’s when there is a
●● The loss of these tiny workers can cause a lot of damage to our
ecosystem—and to our dinner table. Bees work really hard to
bring all kinds of foods to our table, not just honey. We have bees
to thank for many of our favorite foods, including almonds, apples,
and blueberries.
●● The United Nations agrees that insects do, indeed, have a much
smaller carbon footprint. This suggests that insects might be able
to provide a sustainable source of nutrition for an ever-growing
global population.
●● Food fairs and exotic food markets are starting to turn the tide.
Some popular companies make all of their snacks using cricket
flour for protein, and other insect-based proteins are popping up in
natural food markets throughout the United States.
●● You can also purchase edible insects from retailers who specialize
in selling insects for consumption. But for people who know their
insects and how to harvest them, they can certainly obtain bugs
Suggested Reading
Crane, The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting.
Crittenden, “The Importance of Honey Consumption in Human Evolution.”
Oaklander, “20 Delicious Bug Recipes from Chefs.”
Questions
1. Why has the United Nations recently endorsed edible insects as one of
the foods of the future?
2. What does the evidence of honey hunting from around the world tell us
about the relationship between humans and honeybees?
●● Making flour meant that ancestral humans may have also had
the ability to store flour, which has implications for the transport
of resources—something that is very interesting to archaeologists.
●● Another line of evidence that we can use from fossil teeth is that
of microwear. The foods that an animal eats leave distinct “food
prints” on the teeth in the form of pits, grooves, and scratches.
These markings can tell us the types of food that were being
consumed. They tell us the general traits of a food, such as if it
was hard or soft.
●● Plant foods are an important component of the diet for all foragers
on the planet. This even extends to arctic foragers, whose diet
contains fewer plant foods but still relies on plant contributions for
some months out of the year.
●● They’re not only popular with foraging populations but also in the
diet of populations from the postindustrialized West. Americans
●● The degree to which people rely on these foods varies around the
world, both regionally and seasonally, and many scientists believe
that our species has had a long and fruitful relationship with these
fibrous plants.
●● While Hadza tubers might be low in fat and protein, they are
relatively high in fiber and simple carbohydrates and might also be
an important source of water, particularly during the dry season.
●● Tubers don’t only help tell the story of the evolution of the human
diet; they may also tell us something about human life history and
the nature of cooperation.
●● She maintains that help during the Paleolithic period likely came
from many sources—fathers, siblings, grandparents, extended
family, and friends. This assistance would have taken the shape of
actual food sharing as well as behavioral investment.
●● Tubers have not only been linked to reproduction but have also
consistently entered into the debate on brain evolution. Some
scientists believe that tubers are low-quality foods and are likely
too energy-poor to nourish and sustain large-brained, large-bodied
creatures like our early ancestors.
Suggested Reading
Gibbons, “The Evolution of Diet.”
Gremillion, Ancestral Appetites.
Hrdy, Mothers and Others.
Questions
1. What is a phytolith, and what information can it provide to scientists
interested in reconstructing historic diet?
2. Based on the evidence, was the Stone Age menu mostly meat based
or mostly vegetarian?
●● This team has argued that in our evolutionary past, the advent of
cooking was responsible for our sociality, intelligence, and even
the way that we choose our mates.
●● Scientists that dispute the evidence from these old sites claim
that dating techniques and methodology aren’t able to distinguish
between natural brush fires and controlled fires created by
humans, or our ancestors.
●● We’re not sure how early humans and their ancestors were
utilizing fire to cook food. Most believe that they were simply laying
food on top of the fire, or very near to the coals—what we would
call roasting.
●● Others believe that they were also boiling their food, using a
few different techniques. Stones that have been heated can
be transferred into containers made out of hides, gut, or even
ostrich eggshells to heat the water to a boil. Once the water in the
container is hot enough, it can be used to cook whatever is inside
the container.
●● Some scientists even believe that you don’t need hot stones to
boil water and that, depending on the container, one could boil
water in perishable containers directly over a small flame.
●● We have mouths and teeth that can more easily break up cooked
food—smaller teeth, less powerful jaws, and smaller guts than our
ancestors.
●● Those that don’t buy such an old date for fire also point to the
anatomical differences that we see in the fossil record. They argue
●● Some scientists argue that early humans would have been able
to consume small amounts of raw meat, much like contemporary
raw foodists, maybe by pounding it or processing it in a way that
allowed the meat to be more easily chewed. Other suggestions
are that it might have been dried, sort of like beef jerky.
●● We’ve evolved to eat our meat cooked. We know that cooked meat
is easier to digest and that cooking eradicates bacteria. We also
know that our ancestors were likely roasting or boiling their meat.
But we still don’t really know, definitively, when our ancestors
began eating cooked meat routinely.
●● It all depends on what dates you prefer for the evidence of fire.
It’s also important to remember that many scientists now believe
that the foods in our evolutionary past that paved the way for our
Suggested Reading
Wrangham, Catching Fire.
Questions
1. Why is the evidence of the first control of fire controversial?
Plant Domestication
●● There are several hypotheses as to why humans decided to take
up agriculture, and many of them differ depending on where in the
world is being discussed.
●● This warmer period began with the end of a very cold period
known as the Younger Dryas, the earliest and longest of 3 cold
periods that resulted from fairly abrupt climatic changes that took
place around 14,500 years ago.
●● During this time, the Earth’s climate began to shift from a cold
glacial environment to a warmer interglacial state. During this
transition, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rapidly
returned to almost glacial conditions in decades.
●● Yet other models argue that the beginnings of cultivation are linked
with increased sedentism, when populations shifted from being
nomadic to a lifestyle where they were more settled. Population
growth also led to increased pressure on a limited wild food
supply. Proponents of this idea include famous archaeologists
Lewis Binford and Kent Flannery.
●● These models are only some of the explanations for the origins
of agriculture. There is no single consensus on what drove the
origins of plant domestication or on where and when agriculture
began.
●● Most scientists agree that wheat was likely the first of these crops
to be grown and cultivated on a large scale, although there is some
debate about the issue. And it remains unclear whether the first
evidence of these plant species indicates deliberate harvesting
and replanting, or cultivation.
●● And it was not just China. There is strong evidence to suggest that
early agriculture was also present in India. By 10,000 years ago,
we find evidence of domesticated wheat, barley, and jujube.
●● It wasn’t until around 5000 years ago that we see ancient farming
hit North America. Squash, sunflower, and marsh elder are the
likely candidates for first domesticated plants in the United States.
Animal Domestication
●● Our ancestors starting hunting long ago, possibly as far back as 3
million years ago. But how did we go from hunting wild animals to
domesticating them?
●● While dogs were not initially domesticated for food, they certainly
played a role in the ways in which humans interacted with their
foods. Eventually, humans began using dogs to assist with hunting.
●● It’s likely that cats also initiated contact first. It’s thought that they
started taking up residence around human camps for a similar
reason to dogs—to take advantage of foods scraps. The first cats
come on the scene in the Near and Middle East around 10,000
years ago. Cats were probably not very likely to simply stay put.
The argument is that they wanted to stay with people.
●● This was likely a different scenario for other animals that were
domesticated around the same time, namely goats and sheep.
They were first domesticated between 11,000 and 12,000 years
ago—also from the Near and Middle East.
●● Cows are found a bit later in time, around 10,000 years ago, in India,
the Middle East, and North Africa. While preceded by sheep, goats,
and pigs, many researchers now think that cattle have actually
made the largest impact on human agricultural productivity. They
have been used throughout history for various things, including as
beasts of burden and for their milk and manure.
Suggested Reading
Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Hanson, The Triumph of Seeds.
Questions
1. Approximately when in human history did we first begin domesticating
plants and animals?
2. What are the 8 founder crops that are considered to be the first-known
plant domesticates?
THE CHANGING
DISEASE-SCAPE
Parasites
●● When people became sedentary and began producing and storing
their food, this led to population growth. This was because the
time between pregnancies could be shortened due to more energy
in the diet, which led to higher fertility.
●● But this higher fertility was not sustainable, because mortality was
also high. Life expectancy was also low and variable, with some
estimates putting it between 20 and 40 years.
●● They were also now living with their domesticated animals, which
greatly increased the transmission of zoonotic diseases, which are
diseases that can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasites and
are spread between animals and humans.
●● While lice can infect many different animals, humans have proven
to be a fantastic home. We can harbor multiple species of lice.
And scientists have identified many different types—head lice,
body hair lice, and clothing lice—searching for clues as to how lice
might tell us something about human evolution.
●● They argue that one group likely evolved onto Homo erectus, who
lived from around 2 million years ago to probably about 70,000 years
ago. Another group likely evolved onto Neanderthals, who lived in
Eurasia from around 300,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago.
●● It turns out that lice might not be all that bad for us. Surprisingly,
they might even carry a few benefits. Researchers have found that
lice might help our immune system to function and reduce the risk
of things like allergies.
●● There are also other zoonotic diseases that likely hit our early
ancestors pretty hard. Some of these likely led to the high mortality
rates that we see during the first epidemiological transition. They
included typhus, typhoid, and schistosomiasis.
Nutritional Deficiencies
●● In addition to the transmission of these zoonotic diseases, the
transition to agriculture also came with increased nutritional
deficiencies. During a time of population growth, there was a
decline in health. This is not only linked with disease vectors but is
also associated with declines in nutrition.
●● The reasons that malnutrition might have been higher are debated,
but it’s likely due to the fact that early farmers were reliant on a
handful of crops that might have been nutritionally deficient. This
is very different from the varied and seasonal diet that foragers
were consuming.
●● Up until very recently, the dominating opinion was that cavities formed
as tooth enamel and dentin were demineralized by acids produced
from plaque bacteria during the fermentation of carbohydrates.
●● While the narrative that declining oral health maps onto the origins
of plant domestication is well ensconced in the literature, this
assumption is now being challenged. As more studies of living
populations outside of the postindustrialized West are conducted,
we are learning more about what a transition away from foraging
looks like in real time.
●● Women residing in the bush had the best oral health overall,
whereas men residing in the bush had the worst oral health.
Women living in the village, however, had worse teeth compared
to the men living in the bush. The differences most likely come
down to diet and lifestyle choices.
●● Hadza women in the bush tend to eat more fibrous tubers, which
are covered with grit, which might act to clean the teeth of biofilm,
or plaque, that builds up to create cavities. In addition, men smoke
much more tobacco than women, and smoking leads to higher
rates of caries and periodontal disease.
Suggested Reading
Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Rook, ed., The Hygiene Hypothesis and Darwinian Medicine.
Questions
1. Why is the first epidemiological transition important, and how does it
map onto the origins of agriculture?
2. What are some of the diseases that are associated with the
domestication of animals?
10
HOW FOODS
SPREAD AROUND
THE WORLD
Delocalization
●● Our foraging ancestors were limited in the foods that they could
consume. They were limited by availability, as they could only
access and consume foods that were indigenous to the region in
which they were living. They were also tethered to seasonality,
just like the plants and animals that they consumed. This meant a
healthy and likely well-balanced diet, but one that was ecologically
variable and geographically dependent.
●● Before World War II, many food systems around the world were
still very localized. The United States, like other countries in the
postindustrialized West, was a bit different. Thanks to efficient
national railway systems, foods produced on one side of the
country could be easily distributed throughout the nation.
Bananas
●● Bananas were first domesticated approximately 8000 years
ago, with the earliest evidence coming from Southeast Asia and
surrounding areas, such as Papua New Guinea and the South
Pacific. Researchers find it difficult to trace the precise migration
of the banana because it was independently domesticated in
several different regions around the same time.
Apples
●● The original wild ancestor of the apple hails from the mountains
of Central Asia. Apples are a member of the Rosaceae, or rose
family, which they share with other fruits, such as pears, peaches,
plums, strawberries, cherries, and raspberries. They made it to
North America in the 17th century, when Reverend William Blaxton
planted the first trees in Boston.
●● There are about 2000 different apple varieties, which is great for
the fruit as a species but tricky for cultivators. John Chapman, also
Potatoes
●● While some associate the potato with Ireland and others with the
United States, it actually likely comes from South America.
●● But the first domesticated tuber didn’t come on the scene until
around 10,000 years ago with the beginnings of agriculture. Although
there is debate as to where and when the first domesticated potato
appeared, many believe that it’s from the Andes region of South
America, dating to as early as 8000 years ago.
●● The height of the Inca empire was from around 1438 to 1533, the
center of which was located in the current-day countries of Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The Incas developed resilient
breeds of potatoes—and other crops, such as corn and quinoa.
These crops fared very well on the high plateaus.
●● Potatoes left the Andes region after the fall of the Inca empire and
began their long trek around the world. By the 1500s, sailors from
Tomatoes
●● The tomato started its journey in Central and South America
thousands of years ago. Tomatoes are members of the nightshade
family, which also includes many poisonous plants. They are
technically a fruit, but the question of whether a tomato is a
vegetable or a fruit dates back to the 19th century.
●● While the wild species of tomato are native to the Andes region of
South America, they reached Mesoamerica likely by 2500 years
ago. Archaeologists don’t know how the tomato traveled from the
Andean region—whether it was due to intentional transportation
by people or unintentional transportation by water, wind, or
migrating birds.
Corn
●● Another plant that is produced in massive quantities for global
consumption is corn. Corn is arguably one of most important crops
in the world—both historically and today. In the United States,
when people say “corn,” they mean maize. But in other countries,
the word can refer to different plant species.
●● The earliest directly dated maize cobs were found in the Mexican
highlands. Cobs were found in Tehuacán and Oaxaca in the
1960s, but dating methods were not yet available, so we had no
direct dates until the early 2000s. Archaeologists Kent Flannery
and Dolores Piperno have now dated the cobs to about 6250
years ago.
●● Evidence of early maize has also been found in the Andean region
of Peru. Archaeologist Jonathan Haas and colleagues discovered
microscopic evidence in soil, on stone tools, and in coprolites
that suggests that Peruvians were growing and eating corn 5000
years ago.
●● Data from Peru and Mexico suggest that dozens of different types
of maize were used, some for consumption (such as beer and
flour) and some for other uses (such as textile dyes).
Suggested Reading
Kiple, ed., The Cambridge World History of Food.
Koeppel, Banana.
Questions
1. How is the concept of delocalization linked to the migration of foods?
11
●● But it wasn’t until more than 100 years later that the first successful
search for the Spice Islands would commence. A key player in the
birth of the age of exploration was Henry the Navigator, the third
child of the Portuguese King John I and his wife, Queen Philippa,
sister to King Henry the IV of England.
●● The one key difference is that Magellan knew that North America
was blocking his passage. So, he planned a route that would go
south—past South America—and then west.
●● By the late 1500s, the Dutch were ready to make their move into
the international spice trade. Dutch merchants, such as Cornelis
de Houtman, were also spice hunters.
Pepper
●● Black pepper comes from a flowering vine. The fruits, called
peppercorns, are dried and ground up to create the pepper that
we use. There are many other varieties, including white, green,
red, and orange, but black pepper is the most famous in history.
Pepper is argued to be the king of the spices and may be the most
widely used spice in the world.
Ginger
●● Ginger, a very common ingredient in Asian cuisine, has long been
touted as a remedy for nausea and motion sickness.
Cloves
●● Like pepper, cloves are native to the Maluku Islands in Indonesia.
They are common to the cuisines of countries in Asia, Africa, and
the Near and Middle East. Outside of culinary uses, cloves have
also been long used in Ayurvedic medicine.
●● Cloves are actually the dried and unripe flower buds of a tree from
the Myrtle family. The chemical component that is responsible
for the distinct flavor and scent that are associated with cloves is
called eugenol.
●● First under Portuguese control for almost 200 years, Zanzibar then
fell under control of Oman. The Omani developed an economy of
trade crops, where the Arabs were the ruling elite and the local
Bantu-speaking Africans provided all of the labor.
●● The Spice Islands of the 21st century are now the Zanzibar
archipelago, and a large population of residents on these islands
depends on the clove harvest for their livelihood.
Nutmeg
●● Nutmeg is a seed of an evergreen tree that is also native to
the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. Nutmeg was thought to be a
commodity by Muslim sailors from the ancient port of Basra,
located between Kuwait and Iran.
Cinnamon
●● Cinnamon, also with origins in Asia, comes from the bark of
trees from the Cinnamomum genus, a type of laurel tree. Some
of the oldest evidence of cinnamon consumption comes from
Israel. Archaeologists analyzed 10 flasks and found residue
of cinnamaldehyde, a major component of cinnamon that is
associated with its distinct flavor.
●● Even earlier evidence, from around 3500 years ago, suggests that
ancient Egyptians were using cinnamon as part of the embalming
process, much like pepper. It was also mentioned in Sanskrit
documents from around this time.
Suggested Reading
Czarra, Spices.
Questions
1. How does the history of the spice trade map onto the European age of
discovery?
2. What is the history of the Dutch East India Company and the spice
trade?
12
HOW SUGAR
AND SALT SHAPED
WORLD HISTORY
Sugar
●● Sugar is consumed all around us every day. From the granulated
variety that we sprinkle into our morning coffee, to the cane
that people all around the world routinely chew on, to the sweet
carbonated soft drinks that have become ubiquitous with
American culture.
●● Sugars are found in almost all plant foods but only exist in
adequate concentrations for extraction in some plants, mainly
sugarcane and the sugar beet. Sugarcane (from the genus
Saccharum) consists of several different species of tall fibrous
grasses that grow in tropical climates.
●● During this time, many warriors traveled from Europe to the Holy
Lands, returning with very expensive and highly valuable “sweet
salt.” In the right climates, sugar began being produced, largely as
a product of Arab expansion.
●● It wasn’t until the 1390s that an efficient sugar press was invented.
Both Portugal and Spain wanted to increase production, and in
both countries, a growing demand for sugar was met with the use
of slave labor.
●● Some historians argue that this practice was borrowed from the
sugar plantations that were seen in the Middle East during the
Crusades. And it was Spain, who sent Christopher Columbus
to the New World, that was responsible for sugar reaching the
shores of the Americas. It is thought that Columbus first brought
sugar with him in 1493.
●● The fear was that as food and other items became scarcer, prices
would rise and only rich people would be able to buy them. There
was also a danger that some people might hoard items, leaving
none for others.
●● In World War II, sugar was the first article to be rationed in the
United States. By the spring of 1942, Americans were unable to
purchase sugar without government-issued food coupons. The
war with Japan had cut off U.S. imports from the Philippines, and
cargo ships from Hawaii were diverted for military purposes.
Salt
●● Salt is so easily acquired today, and so inexpensive, that we
often forget that until about 100 years ago, it was one of the most
sought-after items in the world.
●● The first salt dates to nearly 10,000 years ago. Some scholars
believe that it was first processed in China, whereas others believe
it may have been Romania. Processing sites dating to roughly
the same time period, around 8000 years ago, have been found
in both locations. It was also a valued commodity to many other
ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines,
Hittites, and Egyptians.
●● One of the most famous salt markets of the Old World was
Timbuktu, a city located in the West African country of Mali. It
was originally a seasonal settlement but, over time, became a
flourishing center of trade.
●● Salt was integral in Chinese history. It was not only a stable source
of revenue for the government but also a driver of technological
change. The Chinese government was one of the first to impose
salt taxes, greatly propelling their economic development forward.
●● Salt was, and still is, important in the religious practices of some
cultures. There are more than 30 direct references to the use of
salt in the Bible. Salt was very important to both ancient Hebrews
and people of Jewish faith today. It is thought by many religions
that evil spirits avoid salt. Salt is also important in religious rituals
in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
●● The leading salt producers in the world today are China (which
produces about 23% of the world’s salt supply), the United States
(about 15%), India (about 9%), and Germany (about 7%). The
remainder is produced all over the world, largely for domestic
consumption in the country where it is collected and processed.
●● Morton is still the leading brand in America, but it’s having a more
difficult time selling its product as a health product today. While
we do have a physiological need for salt in our diet, many medical
professionals now argue that most Americans might be getting
way too much of it.
●● Too much salt can eventually lead to high blood pressure and
hypertension. Medical professionals argue that limiting intake
of salty foods significantly reduces an individual’s risk of heart
disease, heart failure, and kidney disease.
Questions
1. How did sugar travel around the world and become such a commodity?
2. Why was salt an important additive, and how is it linked to world history?
13
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF BREAD
●● The basic ingredients that form bread, grains and water that made
gruel, were being consumed at least 22,500 years ago in the area
that is now Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, and Israel.
●● Humans cannot eat raw grains because our teeth and digestive
systems can’t handle it, so it must be cooked or fermented. Barley
and wheat found imbedded in a grindstone by the Sea of Galilee
have been dated to around 22,500 years old. The same site had
a grouping of burned stones that archaeologists believe may have
been used for cooking or baking.
●● Not only does bread date to prehistoric times, but it’s consumed all
around the world and across cultures, with only a few exceptions.
It was a small step for prehistoric people to turn their liquid gruel
into a solid substance by frying it on hot stones. Campfires can
also be used for baking bread.
●● The next big step for bread was leavening—the key to making
bread rise. We don’t know when or how the first leavened bread
came about, but we do know that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
show bakehouses with dough rising next to bake ovens. Gradually,
the production of leavened bread, light and airier than flatbread,
became a routine.
●● Even into the 1600s and beyond, bread remained an integral part
of European diet. It was one of the cheapest forms of energy.
Governments that were perceived as remiss about the supply of
bread faced bread riots or worse.
●● Bread was typically made with wheat, rye, and buckwheat at this
time. To make the flour go further, bakers added “fillers”: sawdust,
dirt, hay, and even dung. Only France’s upper class could afford
white bread because wheat was very costly and underwent
considerable refinement to make the best and whitest bread.
●● From the Cold War to the early 1960s, industrial white bread was
viewed as superior. In the early 1960s, it went global and played
an essential role in America’s postwar dominance of the world
food system.
Bread as a Symbol
●● Throughout history, the type of bread that a person ate defined his
or her social status. The lightest and whitest bread was reserved
for the elites. Dark, heavy bread was for everyone else. Even early
20th-century immigrants to the United States were looked down
on if they ate dark, dense bread. White bread was thought to be
distinctly American. But this changed in the 1960s, when bread
consumption, in general, declined in the United States.
Suggested Reading
Rubel, Bread.
Questions
1. When and where do scientists believe the first bread was made?
14
THE SCIENCE
AND SECRETS
OF CHOCOLATE
●● The cacao beans were not initially used for sweet treats but,
rather, were initially harvested to make a somewhat bitter, frothy
drink. Ancient Maya and Aztec beverages used fermented cacao
seeds as the base of their drinks.
●● The cacao tree, and its fruits, were important far beyond their role
in cuisine. The Mayans worshipped a god of cacao, and the beans
were thought to have been a powerful aphrodisiac. Chocolate was
also thought to help with several ailments and was considered
medicinal. Cacao beans were so valued, in fact, that they were
used as currency.
●● The canoe was filled with cocoa beans, which he was told were
currency. Columbus is credited with bringing chocolate back to
Europe, but when he did, they received much less attention than
the spices, gold, and silver that he carried with him.
●● When it did finally catch on, cocoa was a highly valued drink. This is
also when it started becoming sweeter, as Spanish conquistadores
are rumored to have been the first to add sugarcane to the drink.
●● Unfortunately, hand in hand with this taste for the cacao bean
also came the introduction of massive slave labor to produce and
harvest it. Cacao was—and remains even today—harvested by
hand all around the world. While some machinery can assist with
part of the process, the main act of harvesting is very similar today
as it was when cacao beans were first harvested.
●● In 1923, the company introduced the Milky Way chocolate bar. The
Snickers bar followed in 1930, and in 1941, the company began
producing M&Ms. Today, Mars produces more than 400 million
candies every day all over the world.
Questions
1. What is the first evidence of chocolate consumption, and where did
it occur?
2. What is the dark side of chocolate production, and how is the global
chocolate industry trying to address concerns about production?
15
Water on Earth
●● Scientists still consider water’s arrival on planet Earth to be
somewhat of a mystery. For the last several decades, scientists
have gone back and forth between thinking that it might be
asteroids or comets that brought this substance to Earth.
●● Both asteroids and comets contain ice, and the thinking is that
when they collided with Earth, they may have contained oceans
worth of the liquid. Some have suggested that asteroids and
the comets from the Jupiter-Saturn region were the first water
deliverers, when Earth was half the size it is today.
●● Interestingly, this idea that water came after Earth was formed
is not the only perspective on water’s origins. Scientists from
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution believe that the water we
have on our planet today is quite old and likely comes from the
oldest meteorites.
●● About 326 million cubic miles of water covers the Earth. But of
all of the water on Earth, only a fraction of it is drinkable. Some
estimates suggest that only 0.3% of Earth’s water is available for
consumption, and most of this is from groundwater aquifers, lakes,
and rivers.
Drinking Water
●● Nutritionists at Mayo Clinic say that if you’re feeling thirsty, you
might already be slightly dehydrated. They recommend drinking a
glass of water with every meal—and when thirsty.
●● When you drink too much water, it inhibits your kidneys from
effectively excreting the excess water. This means that the
electrolyte content of your blood is now diluted, which can cause
low sodium levels in your blood.
●● Today, it seems like more and more people are carrying around
water bottles to meet their minimum water requirements. Even
though tap water is the second most consumed drink after
carbonated soft drinks, bottled water is third.
●● And it’s a tricky situation to figure out who regulates water. While
the Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water sold
commercially, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates
tap water.
●● The majority of bottled water comes from springs and other natural
sources, and about 25% comes from municipal sources, where
the manufacturers essentially take tap water, treat it, purify it, and
then bottle it and sell it at a greatly increased price.
Freshwater Sources
●● Water is a valuable resource—one that is necessary for survival.
Yet according to a United Nations World Water Development
Report in the early 2000s, only 3% of the world’s water is drinkable.
And 2.5% of this drinkable water is currently frozen and locked up
in the Arctic and Antarctic. This means that the world must live on,
and share, the approximately 0.5% of freshwater that is drinkable.
●● The Ogallala, filled with water that has been there for an estimated
3 million years, is disappearing. In some places, it is already gone.
And there is no sign of recovery. Scientists say that if the Ogallala
is drained, it would likely take more than 6000 years to fill up
again naturally.
●● This is bad news for the farmers in the grain belt, who not only
need to make a living to feed their families but are responsible for
growing the food that feeds our country.
●● There is a small but growing trend for farmers to move away from
total groundwater reliance. And some are using low- or no-till
farming techniques, which means that the soil disturbance is kept
to a minimum. This keeps the topsoil in place and increases the
water-holding capacity of the soil.
●● The United States tops the chart, by far, for per-capita access
to drinking water. Given the way that water is distributed around
the globe, more than 1 billion people in the world do not have
sustained access to clean drinking water. The majority of these
people are living in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Suggested Reading
Feldman, Water.
Fishman, The Big Thirst.
2. What are the barriers to freely available drinking water for everyone all
around the world?
16
BEER, MEAD,
AND THE FUN OF
FERMENTATION
Beer
●● The discovery of beer was thought to have been accidental. It is
argued to have taken place in Mesopotamia, one of the first great
civilizations, sometime around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. No
one knows when the first beer was actually brewed. No traces of
beer have been found prior to 10,000 years ago, but there is some
tantalizing archaeological evidence of beer around 8000 years ago.
●● Grain crops flourished in the Near and Middle East region around
the time of the advent of agriculture. Cereal grains, such as
wheat and barley, were used for diet staples, which included beer
and gruel.
●● In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch commanded the largest
fleet on the seas and established a trading empire stretching from
New York to Jakarta. The rise of the Netherlands to this height was
accompanied by the formation of a brewing industry unmatched in
its time.
●● The Britons established the next great fleet and made sure that
they had plenty of nourishing and stable beer. For sea voyages,
beer was indispensable for the sailors’ health.
●● With the widespread use of hops over the last 1000 years, given
its natural preservation properties, beer began to be transported
around the world. As hops migrated around the world, they
adapted to different climates and soils. When this happened, the
beer’s taste varied depending on the geographic location.
●● The giant leap in brewing during the 18th and 19th centuries was,
for the most part, the result of scientific principles put in place. The
process of fermentation still remained a mystery in the early 1800s;
it wasn’t until 1838 when 3 scientists independently discovered
that yeasts are living organisms. Between 1855 and 1875, Louis
Pasteur brought to light the role of yeast in alcoholic fermentation
and the physiological nature of fermentation.
Mead
●● Mead, which nearly died out after the Middle Ages, is currently the
fastest-growing segment of the U.S. alcohol industry. Like beer,
mead can be traced back to at least 800 years ago. Also like
beer, it was discovered accidentally. Some believe that it was first
consumed by our foraging ancestors, who stumbled on the drink
when honey and water were fermented.
●● By the 7th century in England, every castle had a mead hall, where
mead was served to guests with great ceremony. About 1000
years later, mead was still being served in England.
Suggested Reading
Alba-Lois and Segal-Kischinevzky, “Yeast Fermentation and the Making of
Beer and Wine.”
Bostwick, The Brewer’s Tale.
Questions
1. What did poet John Ciardi mean when he stated, “Fermentation and
civilization are inseparable”?
2. What has led to the recent increase in local, regional craft breweries
across the United States?
17
HUMANITY’S LOVE
OF WINE
●● In his book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and
Other Alcoholic Beverages, Patrick McGovern, one of the world’s
foremost experts on ancient wine, argues that biomolecular
evidence of wine (in the form of residue) has been found all
over the world. He argues that several studies suggest that the
●● Red wine dates to around 7000 or 8000 years ago, and white wine
is a bit younger by a few thousand years. But McGovern thinks it’s
possible that wine dates to even before we have archaeological
evidence for it. In one of the chapters in his book, he theorizes
that our ancestors, possibly early members of the genus Homo,
stumbled upon the fermentation process while collecting and
storing wild berries and other small fruits.
a. For white wine, the grapes are then moved into a press,
where the skins are removed and the sweet juice is
collected and transferred into tanks. Once the juice has
settled, it is racked, meaning that the sedimentation is
filtered out and the juice is transferred to another tank.
The key is to get a clear, frothy juice, which can range in
flavor, depending on the grape, from sweet to sour.
5. The next stage is bottling the wine. White wines are typically
filtered again before bottling, and they often age for much less
time than red wines. Many white wines are ready to bottle
after a few short months, whereas most dry reds can take up
to 2 years before they’re ready to go into the bottle.
6. Once they are bottled, they are finished off with either a cork
or a screw top—a battle that has been going on for decades.
Many wine makers argue that a screw cap is better for white
wines or red wines that are meant to be consumed young. The
screw top keeps the bottle better sealed, making sure that no
oxygen enters. More complex wines, such as Chardonnays or
big reds, such as Cabernets and Merlots, can benefit from a
little oxygen in the bottle, which a cork allows.
●● The basic distinction between white and red has to do with the
way in which the wine is fermented and/or aged. But beyond that,
how many different varietals are there?
○○ Your basic red can be further divided into sweet, herbal dry,
or fruity dry—not to mention rosé, which is created when the
grapes are left in contact with skin for only a short period
of time.
●● For beginners, most wine enthusiasts argue that you must know
the following 8 types:
○○ There are more than 1000 different types of grapes that get
used to make hundreds of different wines.
●● There is a popular myth that sulfites are bad for our health and
that consuming them can lead to headaches. The data suggests,
however, that most people can tolerate sulfites. Studies have
shown that some people can be very sensitive to sulfites—around
1 in 100. It is most common among asthmatics.
●● Sulfites also occur naturally, meaning that about 99% of all wines
sold contain sulfites. Some organic wines do not add sulfites,
and they say as much on the label. But for those with a sulfite
sensitivity, even organic wines might lead to negative reactions.
●● The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition states that red wine can
contain 10 times the tannin content of white wine, because white
wines have all of the grape skins removed during processing.
Suggested Reading
McGovern, Uncorking the Past.
Standage, A History of the World in 6 Glasses.
Questions
1. How old is the practice of wine making, or viticulture, according to
historians and archaeologists?
18
COFFEE: LOVE
OR ADDICTION?
●● While the coffee business is growing, the actual profits for coffee-
producing countries have been declining precipitously for the last
several decades. While the countries producing the coffee saw a
40% decrease in profit, consumers started paying a hiked-up price
that increased by more than 30%.
●● Fair-trade concerns are not the only issue giving coffee a dark
side. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 37 out of the 50 top
countries with the highest deforestation rates are coffee-producing
countries.
3. The third step is processing the berries. Once the berries have
been picked, it is time to process them, and this must happen
quickly, before the fruits spoil. Each berry has 2 cavities,
or locules, which house the beans. There are 2 methods
4. The fourth step is drying the beans. If the beans were processed
by the wet method, this is the stage in the process where those
beans are dried. They are either dried by the sun, spread on
the tops of tables or on the floor, and turned regularly, or they
are machine dried in large industrial tumblers.
5. The fifth step is milling the beans. Now that the beans have
been dried, they have to be cleaned. Hulling, which is done by
a hulling machine, is when the entire dried husk is removed
from the berry. Polishing, which is also done mechanically, is
another optional step where any skin that might remain on the
bean is removed after hulling. The second part of the milling
process involves sorting the beans by size. Only the highest-
quality beans are then readied for export.
9. The ninth step is grinding the beans. Once you have whole,
roasted coffee beans, they need to be ground to brew your
cup of coffee. There are different types of coarseness,
depending on how you drink your coffee: coarse grind, used
for French press, vacuum coffee makers, or percolaters;
medium grind, used in drip coffee makers; fine grind, used in
some drip makers and in stove-top espresso pots; superfine
grind, used in most espresso machines; and super-superfine
grind, used in Turkish coffee.
10. The tenth step is brewing your coffee. Depending on how you
like to drink your coffee, the amount of time that your grounds
will be in touch with hot water is up to you. A general rule of
thumb, however, is that the finer the coffee grind, the more
quickly it should be prepared and consumed.
Caffeine
●● In addition to the delicious taste, rich aroma, and long culinary
history of coffee, we also find the caffeine irresistible. According
to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), caffeine naturally
occurs in more than 60 different plant species. But the majority of
caffeine on the planet is consumed in coffee form.
●● But many people are willing to pay this price for increased
alertness, which is thought to be the top reason people turn to
caffeine. This alertness is due to the fact that caffeine is similar to
a molecule called adenosine, which is found in human cells and
plays an important role in biochemical processes.
Suggested Reading
Braun, Buzz.
King, Tea, Coffee, & Chocolate.
Standage, A History of the World in 6 Glasses.
Wild, Coffee.
Questions
1. What evidence do scientists look to when determining if coffee is
addictive?
19
Tea in Asia
●● Experts say that there may be as many as 1500 different types
of tea. All types stem from an evergreen bush called Camelia
sinensis. This plant species likely evolved in the Himalayas, near
what is today the border between India and China. It remains
unclear how tea initially traveled from this area to China, but
the history books tell us that it was likely with the assistance of
Buddhist monks more than 1000 years ago.
●● It is thought that drinking hot tea may have reduced the rates
of typhoid, dysentery, and cholera during this time in China. In
addition to these health effects, tea was also a great driver for the
ancient Chinese economy.
●● Tea fell from grace for a short period of time during the 13th century
when China was under Mongolian rule. Under Genghis Khan’s
●● Once the Mongols were expelled from China, tea drinking was a
way to reassert Chinese culture. The celebration of tea became
synonymous with the Ming dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644.
●● Up until this time, the most popular and most commonly produced
type of tea in China was called block tea, and these bricks of finely
ground post-oxidized tea, sometimes mixed with binding agents
such as flour or manure, were used as currency.
●● The old way of drinking tea, from the bricks, was an elaborate
process. First, a piece of the large brick had to be removed,
cleaned, and then toasted. This piece was then pounded and
ground into a powder. The final step was whisking it with hot water.
●● This process was time consuming and required many tea utensils.
Once people began drinking loose-leaf tea, it simplified the
process immensely. This is when teapots became fashionable,
and the teapot has been associated with the leaves ever since.
●● In Japan, tea was first written about as early as the 9th century.
The first tea was brought from China and was likely in brick form.
The oldest tea specialty book in Japan is translated to How to Stay
Healthy by Drinking Tea and was written by Myoan Eisai, a priest
who had traveled to China to study religion.
●● In the book, tea is called the elixir of life. And up until this book
was introduced, around the year 1191, when Eisai was rumored
to bring back tea seeds to Kyoto, the beverage was largely
Tea in Europe
●● Tea started being consumed in Europe around the 16th century,
when Portuguese missionaries returned to Europe from China
with the beverage in hand. Tea did not become a large-scale trade
item until the Dutch entered into the tea business.
●● The first shipments of tea from China and Japan entered Europe
in 1610—brought in by the Dutch East India Company. Tea was
also brought in over land, on the backs of camels, into Russia and
then to cities such as Amsterdam and Paris.
●● But tea, which is now associated with British culture, was originally
introduced by a Portuguese queen. When Charles II’s queen,
Catherine of Braganza, moved from Portugal, she wanted to
continue drinking tea, which she had grown up consuming.
●● The 18th century was a bit different. Tea was very expensive but
was liked by everyone, not just the wealthy. To meet the demands
of the less-affluent tea drinkers, a lot of tea was smuggled into the
country illegally.
●● The Commutation Act of 1784 reduced the tax on tea from 119%
to 12.5%. This drastic decrease was meant to stimulate trade and
revenue for the British East India Company.
●● The tea, which was quite popular with the colonists, was then
taxed at $3 per pound. People were outraged by this controversial
Tea Act of 1773. On December 16, 1773, a political protest by
the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, involved sneaking
aboard 3 East India Company ships in the harbor and throwing the
tea overboard.
●● The patriots of the movement are credited with the saying, “Taxation
without representation is tyranny,” which meant that they did not
want to be taxed by a British Parliament in which they were not
represented but wanted to be taxed by their own elected officials.
●● The British Parliament was not pleased with the Tea Party protest
and responded with the Coercive Acts in 1774. Among other
things, this legislation ended self-government in Massachusetts.
Types of Tea
●● Pure tea, made from Camellia sinensis, includes green, black,
white, pu-erh (meaning fermented), and oolong varieties.
●● Of the true teas, black tea, which is referred to as red tea in China,
is generally thought to be the strongest in terms of flavor. This has
to do with the level of oxidation, which is greater than other types
of tea. Oxidation is a set of chemical reactions that tea leaves
go through that browns them and is responsible for the flavor
and aroma.
●● Tea contains polyphenols, and many of the health claims of tea are
linked to its phenolic content—the phenols and polyphenols, plant
components that contain natural antioxidants. The polyphenol
●● Research has shown that drinking too much tea can cause adverse
effects, such as intestinal gas, nausea, heartburn, stomach pains,
dizziness, or headaches.
●● But not all herbal teas provide benefits. Yerba mate, for example,
which was traditionally consumed in South America, is a popular
drink. But Mayo Clinic warns that you should probably only enjoy
it in moderation. Some studies found data to suggest that people
who drink a lot of yerba mate over an extended period of time may
be at increased risk of some types of cancer, such as that of the
mouth, esophagus, and lungs.
Suggested Reading
King, Tea, Coffee, & Chocolate.
Standage, A History of the World in 6 Glasses.
2. How was the Commutation Act of 1784 associated with U.S. history
and tea consumption?
20
●● We don’t know for sure who the first people were to add flavoring to
sparkling water, but it is said that in Tudor England and throughout
Paris in the late 1600s, non-carbonated sodas or lemonades were
very popular. Mixing carbonated water with syrup flavorings was
happening in America by at least the early 1800s.
●● Success did not come until the swing stopper was invented: A wire
held the stopper in place and a wire lever allowed easy opening.
However, the swing stopper was costly to make. It wasn’t until
1892, when William Painter invented the crown cork bottle cap,
that an effective and cheap way of bottle capping was found.
●● For this method, the edges of the metal cap were crimped around
the mouth of the bottle to keep it airtight. Painter also invented
the Crown soda machine in 1898 that mixed the soda ingredients,
bottled the liquid, and capped it all by machine, making it much
faster than by hand.
Root Beer
●● One of the first soft drinks to follow the trajectory from medicine to
mass-marketed popular beverage was root beer.
●● In medieval Europe, people would brew roots and herbs with the
fizz of fermentation to cure a long list of ailments. These home-
brew recipes followed immigrants to America. In the mid-1800s,
entrepreneurs were looking for ways to sell root beer from stores
and fountains.
●● Hires’s root beer extract was sold in packets for 25 cents and
could produce 5 gallons of the refreshment. All consumers had to
do was add sugar, water, and yeast.
Dr Pepper
●● Dr Pepper is another one of the oldest major soft drinks in the
United States. It was created, manufactured, and sold beginning
in 1885 in the central Texas town of Waco. Charles Alderton, a
young pharmacist working at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store, is
believed to be the inventor of the now-famous drink.
Coca-Cola
●● The story of Coca-Cola starts with its inventor, John Pemberton.
He moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1869 and opened up his own
drugstore. By 1872, he was broke and heavily in debt.
●● After spending several years paying off his debt, he started making
patent medicines to sell throughout Atlanta. He happened to hear
that coca leaves, what we know as the substance cocaine, had
great positive energy effects, so he decided to give coca a try.
●● Cocaine was not only legal then, but it was also in high demand.
Pemberton’s wine-coca business was a success, so in 1886, he
founded Pemberton Chemical Company and started developing a
product to sell to the soda fountains in town.
●● Robinson and Doe then used their agency to advertise the new
Coca-Cola (named after the coca leaf and kola nut ingredients).
When the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 required all narcotics in
a product to be labeled, Coca-Cola removed most of the cocaine
from the drink. But it wasn’t until 1929 that all traces of the drug
were removed.
7UP
●● 7UP, the world’s most beloved lime-flavored soda, has its roots in
the Howdy Corporation in 1920. It was invented by Charles Leiper
Grigg, who had previously created an orange soda called Whistle.
●● 7UP introduced one of the first diet sodas, originally called Like
and introduced in 1963. It was only on the market for 6 years,
however, as the sweetener used—cyclamate—was then banned
by the U.S. government.
Health Concerns
●● Soft drinks are increasingly linked with obesity and other health
issues, such as cavity formation. A 2-liter bottle of soda contains
about 54 teaspoons of sugar while a 12-oz can of soda typically
contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar—which amounts to 140 and
150 calories respectively. All of soda’s calories come from sugar. It
is due to this high sugar content that soda is now considered to be
a main contributor to the global obesity pandemic.
●● Along with new policies that restrict where sodas are sold, our
growing awareness of soda’s unhealthy impact is hurting soda
sales. Although the carbonated soft drink remains a remarkably
American beverage, statistics show a decline in American soda
purchases over the last few years.
Suggested Reading
Donovan, Fizz.
Standage, A History of the World in 6 Glasses.
Questions
1. What is the historical link between soda and medicinal tonics?
2. How did the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 affect the ingredients
used in cola beverages, such as Coca-Cola?
21
FOOD AS RITUAL
Religious Ceremonies
●● Libation in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome was a vital aspect of
religious practice. The practice involved making liquid offerings—
using water, wine, or milk and honey—to deities or to honor
the dead.
●● Beyond libation and its link to religious practice, there are many
other examples of the way that food is ritualized in religious
practice. The Jewish Sabbath is just one example. The Sabbath
is Judaism’s seventh day of the week, a day of rest where people
are supposed to relax and refrain from working.
●● Religions all over the world are also associated with many food
restrictions. Buddhism, for example, is often linked with veganism
●● People who practice Jainism can choose to fast at any time but
most often do it during religious holy days. They not only stop
eating, but they also aim to stop desiring to eat.
●● Easter traditions that are relished in the United States also have
deep roots in paganism. Many ancient Pagan rituals centered
around the spring, or vernal, equinox. This occurs when the Sun
crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary line above the Earth’s
equator.
Halloween
●● Another holiday that has pagan roots and underscores the link
between food and ritual is Halloween. Many think that this holiday
has roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks
the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the “darker”
part of the year.
●● In about the 9th century, the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic
Church shifted the date of All Hallows, or Day of the Saints, to
November 1. The vigil for the festival was October 31. November
2 later became All Souls Day, when people commemorated the
Thanksgiving
●● Another American holiday that is certainly associated with ritual is
Thanksgiving. In 1621, colonists from Plymouth, Massachusetts,
shared a meal with Native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe.
While some might think that this was the first Thanksgiving meal,
historians have pointed to an even earlier beginning of the tradition.
●● That fall, the pilgrims held a multiday feast to give thanks to god
and to the harvest. This tradition was something they brought
with them from the old country, but with a new twist: They invited
Squanto and the Wampanoag to join them.
●● The spread of food that they offered looked very different from
what we have come to expect at our Thanksgiving table today.
They did feast on roast turkey, but they also ate roast goose,
codfish, lobster, eel, and clams. Their guests brought 5 deer and
shared the venison. From then on, the colonies began celebrating
harvest with large meals.
●● Until 1777, the celebration was confined to the New England area.
The first Thanksgiving that was celebrated nationwide was in
response to a military victory during the Revolutionary War.
●● The large festive meals were not always good for the native
peoples who participated in them, and there were many
massacres of Indian tribes associated with the feasts. Despite the
darker side of the history, Thanksgiving is one of the most popular
and commonly celebrated holidays in the United States.
●● Thanksgiving has many rituals associated with it, not the least of
which is the turkey. It meets all of the criteria for a ritual sacrifice
and is even replete with the famous “pardoning” of a turkey done
by the American President every year. We also tend to associate
pies, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes with the
holiday—and these are just a few of the culinary traditions.
Suggested Reading
Visser, The Rituals of Dinner.
Questions
1. What is one example of how fasting is related to ritual?
2. How is ritual associated with many of our holiday culinary rituals in the
United States?
22
WHEN PEOPLE
EAT THINGS THAT
AREN’T FOOD
Pica
●● Some of the strangest things that people have been reported
eating include a cell phone, a lighter, and a 14-pound hair ball.
This last example was from a woman who ate her own hair. She
suffered from a condition called trichotillomania, which is the
compulsion to pull out your own hair, and tricophagia, which is the
compulsion to eat it.
Geophagia
●● People are also known to crave nonfood items. One of the most
popular types of pica is called geophagy or geophagia, the
consumption of soil, clay, or chalk.
●● But it is not just a historical practice; people all around the world
still eat soil and clay. And while the mineral content can vary,
depending on geographic region, most soils contain calcium,
copper, iron, zinc, and magnesium.
●● Oxygen and nutrients pass from the maternal blood supply into
the placenta and are carried by the umbilical cord to the unborn
gestating fetus. It also functions to remove waste products from the
baby, such as carbon dioxide, that travel back along the umbilical
cord to the placenta and then into the mother’s bloodstream,
where her body easily disposes of the waste.
●● The umbilical cord plays a crucial role during pregnancy and is the
lifeline between baby and mother, and many people believe that it
also has a beneficial role to play after the baby is born. The practice
of placentophagy is the consumption of the placenta postpartum.
●● The women who ingest their placenta report that it helps them
combat baby blues, increases their breast milk production,
reduces stress, and restores iron. It is important to note, however,
that there is currently no scientific evidence to support the claims
that are made.
●● The Middle Ages saw quite a bit of cannibalism all around the
world. Medieval doctors, for example, used to grind up Egyptian
mummies and sell the powder. It was thought to cure a wide range
of ailments, from headaches to stomach pains.
●● The idea that mummy powder could cure ailments stems from the
practice of using bitumen for arthritis, cataracts, and even leprosy.
●● The key part of this practice is that you are consuming someone
who is part of your social group or community. The opposite of
endocannibalism, then, is the practice of exocannibalism—eating
someone outside of your social group (such as your enemy).
Suggested Reading
Schutt, Cannibalism.
Young, Craving Earth.
Questions
1. What is pica?
2. How has cannibalism (in its many forms) been associated with human
consumption patterns throughout history?
23
FOOD AS
RECREATIONAL DRUGS
Hallucinogenic Mushrooms
●● Humans have had a long history with psilocybin, or hallucinogenic
mushrooms, with evidence dating back to the Aztecs. During pre-
Columbian times, the mushrooms we now know as psilocybin
were called god’s flesh by the Aztecs. The Mexican mushroom
had cult status among natives, and even the Spanish conquest in
the 16th century didn’t disrupt mushroom worship.
Cannabis
●● With marijuana becoming legal in some states in the United States,
the sale of edible treats has risen. There is a growing preference
for marijuana edibles among patients and recreational users alike.
●● Even though New York is not one of the United States that has
legalized marijuana for recreational use (yet), that hasn’t stopped
a new trend in the city: marijuana restaurants. With legalization
taking off, marijuana restaurants could be the new culinary craze.
●● Like wine tasting, cigar smoking, and gourmet cooking, pot also
has differentiating smells for the aficionado. Terpenes, which are
hydrocarbons found in the essential oils of plants, give pot and
other foods their unique aroma and taste. Pairing the terpene of a
certain marijuana strain with a food that has the same terpene is
argued to make an unforgettable combination.
Food Addiction
●● The satisfaction and joy that you can get from your favorite foods
can be a real high for many people. Of course, we get energy from
food intake, but it’s much more than that—it can be one of the
greatest pleasures of our lives.
●● Certain herbs, spices, and aromatics used in the kitchen can have
a direct effect on mood. For example, orange, rosemary, and lemon
are argued to help energize. Lavender and sage are thought to be
great stress relievers. And some argue that chamomile can ease
insomnia, while mint and basil are thought to be mood boosting.
●● Doing drugs, just like overeating junk food, causes the brain’s
pleasure centers to overload. Eventually, the pleasure centers
reach a plateau, so to feel the same pleasure, a person has to
increase the amount of food or drugs.
Suggested Reading
Bone, Mycophilia.
McKenna, Food of the Gods.
Questions
1. What is psilocybin, and how does it illustrate the blurred boundaries
between food and recreational drugs?
24
FOOD AS MEDICINE
Hippocrates
Ancient Greek Medicine
●● Hippocrates is hailed as one of the most
influential figures in the history of medicine,
and much of his medical advice stemmed from
the idea that a healthy diet could be healing.
●● The humors were the basis for much of Greek medicine, and
medical practitioners of the day believed that they were intricately
tied to food. Practices involved assessing the temperament of the
food and then eating accordingly to remedy ills and imbalances.
Garlic
●● While garlic is primarily used as a flavoring, it is increasingly being
touted as a nutritional supplement with beneficial properties.
●● While promising data from clinical trials has shown that garlic
has potential benefits for heart health, such as lowering blood
pressure, Mayo Clinic warns that the research is still preliminary
and cautions people to avoid using garlic supplements as their
only approach.
●● There is also some exciting new research to suggest that garlic may
help reduce cancer risk. The results from clinical trials for garlic are
mixed—but ongoing. Given this, the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) doesn’t currently recommend any dietary supplement for the
prevention of cancer. Based on the promising data, however, it does
recognize garlic as having potential anticancer properties.
Turmeric
●● Turmeric is also known as Indian saffron and is a member of the
ginger family. Turmeric has a long history of use in Ayurvedic
medicine, an ancient Indian system of natural healing. It is one of
the world’s oldest medical systems and is thought to be 3000 to
4000 years old.
Ginger
●● While commonly used in cooking to add flavor, ginger has long
been thought to cure various ailments, such as nausea, motion
sickness, and other digestive issues.
Cinnamon
●● Cinnamon also shares a history of being used in TCM. It was used
for treating respiratory, digestive, and gynecological ailments.
Goji Berries
●● Another ancient medical system that blurred the boundaries
between medicine and food were the ancient Aztecs. Much of their
medical practice was driven by magic, sorcery, and their religious
beliefs, but it turns out that for some of these plants, there is
evidence to suggest that they might be effective.
●● One of these is goji berries, or wolf berries. The little fruits were
used historically to treat conditions such as fever and were also
thought to be an antiaging drug. Today, their touted benefits
include treating such health conditions as high blood pressure,
diabetes, and age-related eye problems.
Chocolate
●● Another food that was used in ancient Aztec medicine is chocolate.
Some believe that the Aztecs thought chocolate was a gift from
the gods. It’s mentioned in the famous text the Florentine Codex,
which was an ethnographic text written by a Spanish Franciscan
friar, Bernardino de Sahagún. It listed many medical uses for
chocolate, including increased libido, fertility assistance, soothing
burns, disinfecting cuts, and even facilitating childbirth.
Hibiscus Tea
●● Other foods that are popular in the United States that also show
promising results but are not yet backed as supplements by the
NIH include hibiscus tea and pomegranate fruit. Both were part
of ancient Chinese medical practices and are still used today in
TCM.
●● Some research has shown that drinking hibiscus tea, made out of
the flower, can lower systolic blood pressure. Researchers from
Tufts University found that drinking 3 cups of herbal tea a day
has similar effects as standard prescription blood pressure drugs.
The NIH warns that these results must not be taken as definitive
evidence. More research is needed.
Pomegranate Fruit
●● The pomegranate has a long and rich history all over the world. It
was historically seen as a sign of fertility in many places, including
the Middle East. It holds religious significance for people of the
Jewish faith.
Fish Oil
●● Fish oil is either consumed when eating certain fish or as a
supplement. Fish oil is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are
known to be critical for brain health.
Suggested Reading
McKenna, Food of the Gods.
Taylor, ed., Turmeric.
2. How are clinical trials used by the Food and Drug Administration and
the National Institutes of Health to determine whether a food can also
be used as an effective medicine?
25
THE COEVOLUTION
OF GENES AND DIET
Lactose
●● Lactose intolerance is when your body cannot digest lactose, the
main sugar in milk, very well in adulthood. Compounds in food are
sources of energy for cells in the body, but before they can do their
job, they have to be broken down into simple molecules that can
be absorbed and used by cells.
●● It turns out that most adults in the world cannot tolerate lactose.
The highest prevalence of intolerance is found among Asians,
American Indians, Latinos, African Americans, and Ashkenazi
Jewish people.
Amylase
●● All vertebrates have amylase, an enzyme that is made in the
pancreas and secreted into the small intestine. Some mammals—
including humans and other primates, rabbits, rodents, and a few
bat species—also produce amylase in their saliva. For humans, it
helps us digest carbohydrates by breaking down starch to sugar
and begins the chemical process of digestion.
●● This means that people who produce more salivary amylase are
better able to digest starch and are, therefore, maybe able to
obtain more energy from starches than people with less amylase.
●● Most of the medical research that has been done testing the
protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids against heart disease or
strokes are inconclusive. Evidence suggests that they do lower
blood pressure in people with hypertension.
Nutrigenomics
●● The field of nutrigenomics specifically looks at the ways in which
diet alters the expression of genetic information. Fascinating data
is emerging from this field.
●● The historic argument for why some people have this ability and
others don’t was that the gene helps us avoid plant toxins that
may be harmful. While this explanation was longstanding in the
scientific literature, geneticist Sarah Tishkoff set out to determine if
this was really the case.
●● For this experiment, they did not give actual vegetables containing
PTC to subjects, but instead spiked their water with it. They found
that, globally, the sensitivity to bitterness varied more than they
expected.
Questions
1. How is lactose intolerance an example of gene-culture coevolution?
26
Fossil Feces
●● The oldest poop that has been found is in the form of coprolites, or
fossil feces. The world’s largest coprolite is thought to come from
an unknown reptilian creature living between the Miocene and the
Oligocene eras, approximately 20 million years ago. The specimen
is 40 inches in length and was sold at an auction in Beverly Hills,
California, for about $5000. Coprolites are very popular among
fossil collectors.
●● The East of England became a fertilizer hub. England was the site
of a coprolite mining rush. One of the reasons for this is because
coprolites were one of the cheapest forms of fertilizer. When a
farmer ordered it, the coprolite fertilizer would come as a loose
powder. It could then be mixed with manure or used on its own.
●● Data from their excrement tells a different story, and it’s one that
aligns with data collected from other lines of evidence: mainly that
Neanderthals, like all of our human ancestors, had a diet that was
composed of both plants and animals.
Latrines
●● The study of latrines can reveal quite a bit about human history in
a variety of contexts. A recent analysis of the sanitation system in
ancient Rome yielded some surprising results.
Stool Composition
●● We can learn a lot about our own health by looking to the end
product of our digestion. Because it can often tell you quite a bit
about disease and infection, it’s important to know your poop.
●● Mayo Clinic states that there are other colors that you might also
want to watch out for—anything that isn’t your standard brown—
and urges people to look before they flush to evaluate shape,
color, and consistency.
●● Some types of dietary fiber that pass into the large intestine are
fermented by gut bacteria that resides in our colon that then
●● The role of fiber in our digestion and how it’s linked to the colonies
of bacteria in our digestive system is an ongoing line of research.
●● The bacteria in our guts plays a big role in the health of our bowel
movements. The trillions of little bugs that swim around in our
gastrointestinal tract not only influence our digestive and metabolic
processes but also influence the smell of excrement.
●● The way that your stool smells can indicate health problems, and
doctors urge people to take notice of anything out of the ordinary.
The bacteria that live in our gut cause the odor, and the fact that
it has an unpleasant aroma is a good sign that your resident
bacterial freeloaders are doing their job to keep your digestive
system healthy.
●● Vegetarians, for example, who tend to have diets that are high in
fiber, have faster transit times than people consuming more meat.
Questions
1. What are coprolites, and how do they inform our understanding of
past diets?
2. What is the most accepted definition of dietary fiber, and what role
does it play in our digestion?
27
Our Microbiome
●● The exploration of the diverse communities that reside within our
body are not new—only the sophistication of the methods used
to analyze them are. Investigations of oral and fecal microbiota
started with Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the 1680s.
●● Our gut flora play a role how our bodies metabolize nutrients, how
our bodies store fat, how we balance blood glucose levels, and
how we respond to hormones that make us feel either hungry or
satiated. The microbiota living in our guts get most of their nutrition
from dietary carbohydrates—food that we eat that works, in turn,
to feed the colonies of bacteria that we host.
●● The first 2 years of a child’s life are critical to building the population
of commensal bacteria that they will carry around with them.
And what we eat throughout our lifetime continues to influence
our microbiota.
●● The wrong mix of microbes in our gut appears to help set the
stage for some diseases. Dysbiosis, or an imbalance of the gut
●● While this particular line of research is still in its infancy and the
strength of evidence is not as robust as many scientists would
like it to be, there is great interest in this field, and many research
hours and dollars are being spent trying to better understand
these causal links.
●● One fruitful line of inquiry has been exploring the ways in which
bacterial genes have hitchhiked into our genome. Scientists at
the University of Cambridge have recently discovered that almost
150 of the genes in human genome are bacterial genes that have
jumped into human DNA over the course of our evolution in a
process called horizontal gene transfer.
Antibiotics
●● Humans have long used bacteria to fight infection. We have
known since the 19th century that specific types of bacteria cause
disease. Based on this discovery, we made moves to increase
sanitation and hygiene, such as introducing routine garbage
collection and potable water, which led to drastic reductions of
infectious diseases.
●● Many medical researchers now suggest that the best way forward
is to combine several strategies of increasing our microbial load.
●● Roughage is not only good for you—the host—but it’s also good
for your resident microbes. Fermented treats, such as kimchi,
sauerkraut, and kombucha, encourage the growth of good
bacteria. You can also eat more foods that contain microbiota-
accessible carbohydrates, such as artichokes, garlic, asparagus,
beans, whole grains, and legumes.
Questions
1. What are microbiota, and how can they inform our understanding of
gut health and function?
28
BRAIN FOOD
●● Whether the ancestral diet was mostly meat or mostly plants is still
up for debate. A group of scientists, mostly anthropologists and
archaeologists, stress the importance of marine and freshwater
resources in our evolutionary past.
●● Fish and fish oil are wonderful sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
Docosahexaenoic acid and icosapentaenoic acid are 2 omega-3
fatty acids that evolutionary biologists are particularly interested
in. They are critical for brain health during development and
in adulthood.
●● Only about 2/3 of our brain’s energy is being used to help nerve
cells or neurons send signals. The rest of it is being used for basic
cell-health maintenance, so it’s important to feed our brain the
energy that it needs to properly function.
●● Foods that are low on the glycemic index scale release glucose at
a slow and steady output. Foods that are high on the index, on the
other hand, release glucose quickly.
●● Serotonin can affect mood and make you feel calm. It has also
been said to influence social behavior, sleep patterns, memory,
and even sexual desire. Remarkably, most of the body’s
serotonin, somewhere around 80% to 90%, can be found in the
gastrointestinal tract. It’s this link between serotonin and our gut
that might be responsible for the urge to snack.
●● Since its discovery in 1994, leptin has received a lot attention for
its ability to help curb the global obesity pandemic. Research is still
under way as we learn more about the ways in which circulating
leptin levels affect satiation.
●● While the big hormones to consider are insulin, leptin, and ghrelin,
other molecules are at work, too. Orexin is one of them. Also called
hypocretin, it’s a neuropeptide that controls and regulates feelings
of wakefulness, sexual arousal, and even appetite.
●● The DASH diet is low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol and
is based on about 2000 calories a day. It includes whole grains,
fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and limited fish, poultry,
and legumes. You are encouraged to eat a small number of nuts
and seeds a few times a week and limit consumption of red meat,
sweets, and fats to very small amounts.
●● Some of the foods on the “do eat” list are the usual suspects. For
example, we have long known that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids
support cognitive processes. It’s one of the many touted benefits
of taking fish oil as a supplement. Berries making the list is also
not a surprise; they contain antioxidants, including those that are
thought to protect against cancer and some types of dementia.
Questions
1. What is the encephalization quotient, and what does it tell us about the
evolution of the human brain?
2. Why are omega-3 fatty acids critical for brain health, and what food
sources provide them?
29
Important Micronutrients
●● Vitamin B12, also called cobalamin, is one of 8 B vitamins that
helps the body produce energy. It is one of the vitamins known
as the B complex and helps with neural function and maintaining
healthy nerve cells. B12 is also important for making red blood
cells, which it does in partnership with folic acid, or vitamin B9, also
called folate.
●● Some research has reported that low vitamin B12 levels during
pregnancy can negatively affect mental function in infants and
that infants who are breastfed by a mother who is deficient in
●● Adults who are deficient in this vitamin can suffer from brain and
nerve damage and, if it gets serious enough, have a higher risk of
developing dementia and some forms of psychosis.
●● Women are told that they must get enough folate or folic acid
during pregnancy to ensure that their infants have proper
neurodevelopment. When a pregnant woman hasn’t ingested
enough folate during pregnancy, her infant is at greater risk
of having neural-tube defects or spina bifida, which is a split or
splayed vertebral column.
●● The idea is to make sure that you get the optimum amount,
which can be difficult for expectant mothers today, as people are
eating more processed foods and fewer fresh ones. The United
States has laws that require folate to be added to fortified foods to
improve the folate status of pregnant women.
●● Mothers are also warned that having too much folate or B12
in their system can also be bad for the developing fetus, and a
combination of high folate levels and low vitamin B12 levels might
be linked with increased risk of insulin resistance and obesity in
their children.
●● When there are more calories, fats, and sugars available, the thrifty
metabolism turns those extra calories into visceral fat, increased
plaque in the arteries, and excessive sugar in the bloodstream.
●● This type of diet, coupled with low fiber intake and limited physical
activity, is one that characterizes most Americans today—and,
increasingly, much of the world. We now have overwhelming
●● Scientists think that there are a few different ways that this
programming might occur. The first one is continued environmental
exposure, meaning repeated exposure during critical periods of
development, generation after generation.
●● Genes are turned on and off during development, which allows the
cells to react, as needed, to changes in their environment.
Suggested Reading
Paul, Origins.
Questions
1. How did birth records from the Dutch Hunger Winter provide data on
generational effects of substandard nutrition during pregnancy?
30
CIVILIZATION: DIETS
AND DISEASES
●● Before the Industrial Revolution, which took place from about 1760
until about 1840, people were largely employed in agriculture,
either as self-employed farmers or as agricultural laborers. By
1870, machine jobs were taking over the industry, and diets were
composed of high-fat and high-sugar foods. This combination
marks the beginning of the second epidemiological transition.
●● But it isn’t the fact that they are prepackaged that expanded health
concerns—and waistlines—starting in the 1960s. It was how they
were packaged and preserved.
●● Once the trays are filled with foods, the meals are cryogenically
frozen, which decreases the chances that it will get spoiled and
causes little-to-no damage of the shapes of the individual food
pieces. This freezing process, however, is problematic because it
●● The Pig Stands out of Dallas, Texas, are credited with the first drive-
up window—in 1921—and patrons would drive from all around the
area to consume their famous barbeque sandwiches. By the late
1940s, drive-throughs were popping up all around the country. The
first McDonald’s drive-through didn’t show up until 1975.
●● In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control estimated that more than
1/3 of Americans are obese and that obesity-related conditions,
such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types
of cancer, are among the leading causes of preventable death. It
also includes the rise of autoimmune diseases, such as asthma.
●● During the last half of the 20th century, the world saw a sharp
increase in the rate of allergies and diseases of the immune
system. One argument for this sharp increase may be explained
by the hygiene hypothesis, which proposes that in high-income
nations, there is a lack of childhood exposure to symbiotic
microorganisms and infectious pathogens.
●● Fruit bats are thought to be the natural Ebola virus hosts. The virus
is contracted initially from close contact with the blood, organs, or
bodily fluids of animals that are infected. These include monkeys,
apes, antelope, and porcupines—typically found ill or dead or in
the rainforest.
●● Children born with the virus have a birth defect called microcephaly,
where their heads are considerably smaller than their counterparts
without the virus. They often have brains that are not fully
developed; in severe cases, children with microcephaly also have
issues with vision, speech, hearing, locomotion, and balance.
Suggested Reading
Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Schlosser, Fast Food Nation.
Questions
1. What are the diseases that are associated with the third epidemiological
transition, and which transition are we in now?
31
Global Nutrition
●● In an ambitious project called Hungry Planet, writer Faith D’Aluisio
and photographer Peter Menzel traveled the world in the early
2000s to document what the world was eating. In a stunning
series of photographs, they captured images of 24 families from
around the world and the typical diet that family would consume in
an average week.
●● The book was published in 2005, and in 2013, the images were
exhibited by the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, in an
attempt to raise global awareness about the cost, content, calories,
and cultural significance of different cuisines around the world.
●● In the United States, for example, with data based on 2011, they
calculated that the average daily diet consisted of about 3641
calories. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that
moderately active adults between the ages of 41 and 60 years old
consume about 2600 calories a day for men and 2000 calories a
day for women.
●● They divided these calories in the following way: 36% sugar and
fat, 22% grain, 14% dairy and eggs, 13% meat, 8% produce, and
about 6% other.
Japanese Cuisine
●● While it would be impossible to take a comprehensive world tour
of individual cuisines, we can choose a few cuisines to explore.
The few that we’ll examine are listed by the United Nations as part
of the world’s “intangible cultural heritage.”
Mexican Cuisine
●● Another cuisine that is listed by UNESCO as intangible world
heritage is traditional Mexican cuisine. The United Nations group
states on their website that it is not just food but the behaviors that
accompany them.
●● Maize, which was the basis for the original tortillas, is a crop that is
one of the so-called 3 sisters: the inclusive group of maize, beans,
and squash that were part of the classic Native American mixed-
crops system.
●● French meals often begin with an aperitif, a drink before the meal,
and end with an after-dinner liqueur. The meal itself is composed
of several courses, typically at least 3 or 4, that include a starter,
fish or meat with vegetables, cheese, and dessert.
Questions
1. How does the average daily caloric intake in the United States map
onto the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommendations?
32
THE OVERNUTRITION
EPIDEMIC
Physical Inactivity
●● The primary cause of obesity and being overweight is thought
to be an energy imbalance between the number of calories
consumed and the number of calories expended. Global rates of
obesity have been linked to decreases in physical activity coupled
with increases in the consumption of fatty energy-dense foods.
●● This also extends to youth sports. The National Alliance for Youth
Sports in the United States conducted a wide-ranging poll and
found that most American children quit team sports by the time
they are around 13 years old.
Diet Composition
●● We are now eating 3 times the amount of sugar that we ate 30
years ago. According to several estimates, the average American
eats more than 60 pounds of sugar a year, not including fruits and
fruit juices.
●● The other sugary drinks that people turn to in lieu of soda are energy
drinks and iced teas. Most iced teas, while seemingly a healthy
alternative, can contain 60 grams of sugar and 250 calories. Energy
drinks are also not a healthy option; many of the most popular
brands have as many calories and grams of sugar as soda or more.
●● Mayo Clinic provides some handy tricks for people who are unsure
of what proper serving sizes might be—not the serving sizes listed
on the back of food packaging, as those are based on the amount
of food people tend to actually eat, not the amount of food they are
recommended to eat.
Suggested Reading
Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Schlosser, Fast Food Nation.
33
WORLD POVERTY
AND UNDERNUTRITION
Malnutrition
●● For several decades, reducing poverty around the world has
been a top welfare objective. More recently, the focus has shifted
to distinguishing between food insecurity, monetary poverty, and
nutrition status. These are critical distinctions because while these
things are typically related, they each reveal a particular vulnerability.
●● They are often best dealt with using specific tools meant to target
the population or country in question. The realization that different
countries and economies may require different plans of action has
altered the landscape of programs aimed to end global poverty.
●● Even when adequate food supply exists, not all calories are
created equal. New research on global aims to reduce poverty
have found that lack of dietary diversity is another indicator that
tends to map onto malnutrition. In addition, another factor to
contend with is the idea of a diet based on empty calories, even
when you are getting a lot of them. Malnutrition can be either
undernutrition or overnutrition.
●● In the case of plump poverty, there are enough calories but too
few nutrients. Mothers who are very poor and can only afford low-
quality foods are gearing the metabolisms of their children for
cardiometabolic diseases later in life.
●● You can also have the scenario in which a mother has the worst
of both worlds: where she is eating a diet that is both calorically
restricted and nutrient poor. All of these can lead to plump poverty
via developmental programming.
●● Like many aid organizations, the institute argues that some of the
answers to this global dilemma are to consistently support local
farmers, boost infant health and nutrition in developing countries,
and—a much more controversial solution—possibly introduce
genetically modified foods and stem-cell meat.
●● There are other solutions that are also proving to be quite effective.
While the ultimate goal would be for the entire world to be self-
sustaining, this is a slow process and not realizable in the short
term. Meanwhile, donations are critical. While many people want
to donate food directly, this can be logistically difficult.
Suggested Reading
Davis, “Planet of Slums.”
Questions
1. How does undernutrition contribute to the global burden of disease?
34
Meat Production
●● While the world’s appetite is growing, the planet is not. According
to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United
Nations, about 60% of the world’s ice-free land surface is currently
dedicated to raising crops and providing grazing land for the
animals that we eat, supporting around 360 million cattle and 600
million sheep and goats.
●● Cows have worse belches when they eat certain types of food.
When eating a diet based on corn and soy, which is what the
majority of livestock diets are, the belching problem is only
exacerbated. This is why new research is moving toward changing
the diet of these gaseous beasts. Some in the agricultural industry
are switching to diets of alfalfa, and some are starting to use
supplements that can reduce methane emissions.
Poultry Production
●● Poultry production also poses its own suite of environmental
issues. Many experts argue that this is largely tied to the growth of
the sector.
●● Over the past several decades, there has been a trend toward
more intensification and concentration, which has given rise to a
number of environmental concerns. The increased intensification
is because more of the world is eating more poultry, which includes
chicken, turkey, geese, and ducks.
●● Additional strides are being made. The FAO argues that continued
selection for genetically improved and climate-tolerant plant
cultivars will only continue. This means that the feed options will
expand for more countries, both in the postindustrialized world
and elsewhere.
●● Beyond that, it’s also the main livelihood for millions of people.
Over the last 50 years, however, fishing practices are pushing
many fish stocks dangerously close to the point of collapse. Many
of the problems arise from illegal, unreported, and unregulated
fishing and from poor governance.
●● The FAO argues, however, that these can be overcome and that
the global community is making strides with strategic partnerships
and better engagement with both the public and private sectors.
Meat-Based Diets
●● The costs of meat production are high. Beyond the environmental
costs, a segment of the nutrition science community as well as
animal rights activists argue for eliminating meat consumption
altogether. Given the global rise in consumption patterns, this
doesn’t seem to be the most likely future outcome. Given that,
it’s important to discuss the health consequences of a diet based
largely on meat.
●● The most common red meats eaten around the world are beef,
pork, veal, lamb, mutton, and goat. All of these are great sources
of protein, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, phosphorous, zinc, and
iron. Red meat also contains adequate shares of the essential
amino acids and fatty acids. Another benefit is that it’s about 94%
digestible, so it is highly bioavailable to our bodies.
Suggested Reading
Pollan, In Defense of Food.
Pond, Nichols, and Brown, eds., Adequate Food for All.
Questions
1. Why is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
concerned about the growing global consumption of meat?
2. What are some of the ways in which the meat industry is changing its
practices to become more sustainable?
35
SHOULD WE BE
POWERED BY PLANTS?
Plant-Based Diets
●● More and more people, young adults in particular, are shifting to
a plant-based diet for both ethical and political reasons. They are
opting to become vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian.
●● There are many other reasons why people around the world are
vegetarian. In some instances, it is not by choice. People who
would happily consume meat, which offers an easily digestible
source of good protein, do not have access to it.
●● Some eat nuts and seeds, whereas others do not, arguing that
seeds contain future plants or nuts or seeds. Those that only eat
fruits that have fallen are called ahimsa fruitarians, and their aim is
to eat a diet that does not kill anything, including plants.
●● Our history, up until very recently, was a history that involved living
in close proximity to the livestock and crops that nourished us. But
this is changing drastically. Around the year 1900, about 40% of
the U.S. population was made up of farmers. Today, that number
is less than 1%—and is only expected to drop.
●● Despite the growing concern about what might happen to the food
supply, many organizations are being proactive with the land left
behind. The Society for Ecological Restoration, for example, is
an international organization whose goal is to repair and recover
degraded ecosystems, including effects from agriculture. They
strive to ensure that their conservation efforts work to benefit the
landowner as well as the environment.
●● In addition, retailers often buy and produce more food than they
sell and serve, so much of it ends up in the trash. This also
happens at the level of the individual household, where people
throw away massive amounts of food each year.
●● The way that the industry determines which foods are organic
is based on the way that the foods are grown and produced.
Organic farming practices are meant to encourage water and soil
conservation as well as reduce pollution by using natural fertilizers
and crop rotation.
Suggested Reading
Bloom, American Wasteland.
Gollner, The Fruit Hunters.
Pollan, In Defense of Food.
Questions
1. What are some of the ways in which the United Nations is working to
restore damaged agricultural lands and make plant production more
sustainable?
2. What are a few ways in which we can reduce the virtual carbon
footprint of the food that we eat?
36
●● The first issue is that the way in which crops are currently grown
is not ecologically sustainable. The United Nations Environment
Programme reported in 2010 that approximately 37% of Earth’s
landmass, minus Antarctica, is devoted to crops. The management
of these crops uses about 70% of the world’s freshwater withdrawal
and is responsible for about 24% of the world’s greenhouse
gas emissions.
●● The second critical issue is the so-called food gap. While many
aid organizations point out that right now we do technically
grow enough to feed everyone on the planet, that isn’t precisely
accurate. We cannot simply redistribute crops.
●● Advocates claim that one way to ensure that vertical farms are,
indeed, more energy efficient is to have them run on renewable
energy, using solar panels or wind turbines.
●● Many people in the United States eat fortified foods every day.
All that most of us have to do is walk to our pantry and pull out
a breakfast cereal box. If you turn it over, the label will tell you
that it’s fortified with all kinds of micronutrients. Vitamin D milk and
iodized salt are 2 additional examples.
●● Many say that this might be the beginning of a sea change and
that many more states will start requiring foods containing GMOs
to be labeled. One of the reasons that there is so much opposition
to transgenic foods is that we don’t know what long-term effects
this process might have on the genetic diversity of our current
non-GMO plants.
Suggested Reading
Despommier, The Vertical Farm.
Pollan, In Defense of Food.
Reiley, “Farm to Fable.”
Questions
1. What is the so-called food gap, and how does the United Nations
suggest that we address it?
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Page No.
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