Dept of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
J Phys Act Health. 2010 Nov;7 Suppl 3:S284-98. doi: 10.1123/jpah.7.s3.s284.
This paper examines the evolutionary origins of human dietary and activity patterns, and their implications for understanding modern health problems. Humans have evolved distinctive nutritional characteristics associated the high metabolic costs of our large brains. The evolution of larger hominid brain size necessitated the adoption of foraging strategies that both provided high quality foods, and required larger ranges and activity budgets. Over time, human subsistence strategies have become ever more efficient in obtaining energy with minimal time and effort. Today, populations of the industrialized world live in environments characterized by low levels of energy expenditure and abundant food supplies contributing to growing rates of obesity. Analyses of trends in dietary intake and body weight in the US over the last 50 years indicate that the dramatic rise in obesity cannot be explained solely by increased energy consumption. Rather, declines in activity are also important. Further, we find that recent recommendations on physical activity have the potential to bring daily energy expenditure levels of industrialized societies surprisingly close to those observed among subsistence-level populations. These findings highlight the importance of physical activity in promoting nutritional health and show the utility of evolutionary approaches for developing public health recommendations.
本文探讨了人类饮食和活动模式的进化起源，以及它们对理解现代健康问题的意义。人类具有独特的营养特征，与我们大脑的高代谢成本有关。大型灵长类动物大脑的进化需要采用觅食策略，这些策略既要提供高质量的食物，又要扩大活动范围和活动预算。随着时间的推移，人类的生存策略在以最小的时间和精力获取能量方面变得越来越高效。如今，工业化世界的人口生活在能量消耗水平低、食物供应充足的环境中，导致肥胖率不断上升。对过去 50 年美国饮食摄入和体重趋势的分析表明，肥胖率的急剧上升不能仅仅归因于能量摄入的增加。相反，活动量的减少也很重要。此外，我们发现，最近关于身体活动的建议有可能使工业化社会的日常能量消耗水平惊人地接近生存水平人群的水平。这些发现强调了身体活动在促进营养健康方面的重要性，并展示了进化方法在制定公共卫生建议方面的实用性。
