Story Of The Human Body

In The Story of the Human Body, Daniel Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, shows how we need to change our world to fit our hunter-gatherer bodies. This ground-breaking book of popular science explores how the way we use our bodies is all wrong. From an evolutionary perspective, if normal is defined as what most people have done for millions of years, then it's normal to walk and run 9-15 kilometres a day to hunt and gather fresh food, which is high in fibre, low in sugar, and barely processed. It's also normal to spend much of your time nursing, napping, making stone tools, and gossiping with a small band of people. Our 21st-century lifestyles, argues Lieberman, are out of sync with our stone-age bodies. The book examines how our bodies got to be the way they are, considering our ancient and recent evolutionary history, and how this can inform our understanding of present health issues and future development.