Story of the Human Body 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 kilometers 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 Dan Lieberman, are out of synch with
our stone-age bodies. Never have we been so healthy and
long-lived - but never, too, have we been so prone to a
slew of problems that were, until recently, rare or
unknown, from asthma, to diabetes, to - scariest of all
- overpopulation.
Story of the Human
Body asks how our bodies got to be the way they are,
and considers how that evolutionary history - both
ancient and recent - can help us evaluate how we use our
bodies. How is the present-day state of the human body
related to the past? And what is the human body's
future? Daniel Lieberman is the Chair of the
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and
a leader in the field. He has written nearly 100
articles, many appearing in the journals Nature
and Science, and his cover story on barefoot
running in Nature was picked up by major media
the world over. His research and discoveries have been
highlighted in newspapers and magazines, including
The New York Times, The Boston Globe,
Discover, and National
Geographic.
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