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Cleveland State Student Fall 2015

ANT 101: Human Biocultural Evolution
Olszowy
28 November 2015
Critical Review Essay
Daniel E Lieberman, Harvard professor, stated in his book, The Story of the Human Body:
Evolution, Health, and Disease, We often say you are what you eat, but evolutionary logic
dictates that sometimes, you are what youd rather not eat. (15) Lieberman is more than
qualified to speak on his knowledge of evolutionary diet because he is a paleoanthropologist and
is very well known for his study of evolution as well as other things. In his book, Lieberman
covers a large amount of information applicable to evolution, health, and disease and how these
evolutionary developments and adaptions apply to who we have become.
Being a professor of human evolutionary biology, it is understandable that Lieberman once
hated the question, What will humans look like in the future? (IX) His profession as a
paleoanthropologist was to study the evolutionary line development and the growth of the
characteristics of humans, not to guess at the phenotypes of future human advancement.
Following the ways of his colleagues, Lieberman had grown accustomed to answering that
question with, Human beings aren't evolving very much because of culture. Later on,
Lieberman came to understand this question as one of the most important issues that we could
think about.
The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease is about the factors that
have changed our evolution and how the developments that were once necessary are now causing
problems. After reading the book, I agree with Liebermans theories that evolution is the cause

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for many preventable diseases because humans are adapt to living in a reproduction and survival
based society rather than the comfort that we are now living. Lieberman argues that illnesses,
such as type-two diabetes are conditions that results from living in ill-suited environment as well
as other scientifically proved factors. He states that natural selection and evolutionary
development for the purpose of reproduction, has guided humans through their evolutionary
history to be hunter-gatherers. Major developments in technology and accessibility have left our
bodies no longer having the proper adaptations to survive comfortably in these environments.
These major changes have caused humans to have increasing amounts of the diseases, have led
to increasing percentages of developed populations being obese, and type-two diabetes, to pain
in the lower back and foot. Lieberman not only states his beliefs on our generations rising
amount of diseases but also points out that some of the modern diseases could be caused by
shifting levels of sugar metabolism, energy balance, hormones, sleep patterns, environmental
shift, and the evolutionary change of the necessity of body fat. Lieberman suggests that our
society needs to be cautious with regard to the selective pressures that shaped our past
generations in order to live in a comfortable in an environment that no longer fits with our
evolutionary design. After reading his writings, I very much agree that humans are not adapt to
selective pressures due to our evolution being based on survival and reproduction.
Throughout his book, Lieberman guides the reader with informal headings and humorous
interjections, and he relates to the reader on a common ground such as when he states, I cant
even outrun a squirrel (26). The way in which he organized his book allows readers that are not
Harvard educated to easily understand his point. His main argument is that human evolution is
based on reproduction, and in todays developed nations, we have not adapted to be based off of
comfort which is causing disease and other illnesses as he states in the beginning,

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We didnt evolve to be healthy, but instead we were selected to have as many offspring
as possible under diverse, challenging conditions. As a consequence, we never
evolved

to make rational choices about what we eat or how to exercise in conditions of

abundance

and comfort (xii).

Being a Harvard professor, he intended his work to be read by a variety of readers from those
who practice medicine, to those suffering from the preventable illnesses. He also writes to all of
society about our comfortable lifestyles and warns us that, If we wish to halt this vicious circle
then we need to figure out how to respectfully and sensibly nudge, push, and sometime oblige
ourselves to eat foods that promote health and to be more physically active. That, too, is what we
evolved to do (xii).
Lieberman teaches and studies how and why the human body is the way that it is. He
studies fossils, studies people from around the world, and experiments on how human and animal
bodies work through human evolutionary science. As a quote from The Wall Street Journal
states, [Lieberman] is a true expert in a system where agriculture and history intersect: the
human foot. He ably describes how behavior and anatomy can lead to foot injuries in longdistance runners. Christopher Mcdougall, author of Born to Run, states, No one understands
the human body like Daniel Lieberman or tells its story more eloquently. Using the research of
Charles Darwin, R. W. Wrangham, and D. Schmitt are just three of the hundreds of sources
Lieberman used listed in his notes section containing around 700 references. By using his seven
hundred sources, Lieberman is able to back up his hypothesis that the increase of illness in
developed societies is due to life expectancies increasing and our evolutionary development
contradicting the comfortable society we are living in. The factors behind type-two diabetes is
one of the main arguments Lieberman brings up and that the illness, once uncommon, is now

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seen abundantly in developed nations where it is easily preventable, but it has the number one
cause of death become in many countries. He agrees that humans have no control over their
prenatal environment and their genes but he argues that one does have control of their diet and
activity that more greatly influence ones energy balance. His support that diet and activity have
a larger effect on diabetes than genes and prenatal environment comes from a study where lowcalorie diets and vigorous physical activity had successful reversal effects and created average
levels of insulin sensitivity. Lieberman goes on to argue that type 2 diabetes is a dysevolution, in
that this preventable disease is increasing generation to generation due to advancements in
technology. Elevators, escalators, and cars are technological advancements that have taken the
place of some of our evolutionary advancements like distance running. Lieberman uses the
sources such as Robert Lustig and his colleagues and their research on how sugary snacks
increase the chances of diabetes by 1.1 percent to back up his claim that poor dietary choices are
causing diabetes.
By separating his book into three parts, thirteen sections, and multiple subsections based on
different key topics, Lieberman was able to comprehensively express his view points about a
variety of data. In this book, he does express an openness for different theories but since some of
his beliefs, such as his hypotheses on the major effects of bipedalism and our last common
ancestor, are based on evolution and cannot be proven, he only speaks on his education theories.
Lieberman organizes his writing by stating the facts, discoveries, and scientific research behind
his works and he then expresses his views such as when he talks about the climate, Are you
worried about rapid global climate change today? If not, you should be, because rising
temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and the ecological shifts they cause imperil our food
supply (67). Such as in this quote, Lieberman brings up a question or topic and then displays his

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views along with multiple facts to support it.
Before reading, Liebermans The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and
Disease, I was not aware of the major role that our evolutionary development played in the rising
number of diseases. I assumed that past generations ate better and had to work harder to provide
food, which was not too off of Liebermans argument. I had viewed type two diabetes with a
sense of disgust because I believed that it was solely based off of a poor diet choice and lack of
physical exercise, but Lieberman points out that the comfortable society we have developed
supports illnesses such as this by providing easy access to high calorie and low nutritional
benefit foods. Through dietary courses I have taken in the past, I developed an eat right and
exercise moderately and youll be fine viewpoint and this is not too far from Liebermans
argument. He is by far, the most detailed and interesting author I have read, and has changed my
viewpoint from being focused on what people are doing wrong to what has led people to make
these decisions and how as a society can we change this.