Growth Hormone & IGF Research 1998, 8, 79-86 Review From caveman cuisine to fast food: the evolution of human nutrition B. Bogin Department o1 Behavioral Sciences, The University of Michigan, Dearborn, Michigan, USA During a lifetime, a human being will eat thousands of pounds of food Some of these foods will be enjoyable to eat because they are perceived as looking appetizing and tasting delicious. Other foods may not be enjoyable to eat. but will be consumed anyway because they are 'good lor the body or the spirit'. Biochemically, the body does not distinguish between foods that are liked or disliked, for the human body does not use food, rather the body requires the biological nutrients contained in food. Biology, however, is not the entire story of human nutrition. Cultural variables, such as the type of food eaten, its manner of preparation, and the social context in which it is consumed, often determine the efficacy of that food to meet human needs for health and well-being. This anicle reviews some of what is known about the biological and cultural evolution of human nutrition. Anthropological and nutritional research indicates that there are nine universal features of human food and nutrition systems. 1 · 2 These may be arranged into three categories- biological, technological and social- and are listed in Table I . Evidence from fossil and archaeological remains of human ancestors indicates that these nine universal features of human nutrition and food have been in ex1stence for at least 35 000 years, and possibly for more than I 00 000 years. The most parsimonious way to account for these biological and cultural universals relating to food is to hypothesize that a common evolutionary history for all people shaped human nutritional requirements, food acquisition and processing systems, and eating behaviour. Correspondence ro: B. Bogin. Professor ot Anthropology, Department cf Behav1oral Sciences. CA 29, The University of Michigan. Dearborn, Ml 48128. USA 1 096--{)374/98/080079+08 $18.0010 Table 1 Universal features of human food and nutrition systems Biological 1. All people have the same basic biological requirements for nutrients. 2. Each culture has a unique cuisine that has the potential to satisfy these nutrient requirements. 3. People are extremely omnivorous, eating hundreds of different species of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and even algae. Technological 4. People depend on systems of food transport, from the place where foods are found or acquired to their place of consumption. 5. People make use of systems for food storage that protect the nutntional quality of foods from the time of their acquisition until the time of the1r consumption. That time period may last for months, even in pre-modern societies. 6. People expend great effort at food preparation, such as cooking, mixing, flavouring. and detoxifying natural ingredients, and depend on technology to do th1s preparalion (e.g. the hand axes and fire used by Homo erectus or the food processors and microwave ovens of Homo sapiens) Social 7. People share and exchange food regularly, and have cultural rules that order such sharing and exchanges. 8. People have food taboos, lhat is, social proscriptions against the consumption of certain foods based on age, sex, state of health, religious beliefs and other culturally defined reasons. 9. People use foods for non-nutritional purposes, such as for medicine to cure or cause disease and as offerings in ntual or religious behaviour. In these contexts, food may have some physiological function (plants do contam active pharmaceutical compounds), but the foods also have symbolic meaning for the people using them. NUTRIENTS AND FOOD People require about 50 essential nutrients for growth, maintenance and repair of the body. These essential nutrients are divided into six classes: protein, © 1998 Churchill Livingstone