| “Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” Charles Darwin. |
Nutrition and health is the “cornerstone” of wellbeing and longevity. Since our humble beginnings as a species our genes have been shaped by subsistence strategies that have played a critical role in our evolution. For example, improvements in the quality of diets were critical for the development of a larger brain in Homo sapiens. However, profound changes in our diet and lifestyle that began with the introduction of the agricultural revolution, and more recently, the availability of energy-dense processed foods are thought to be too recent to facilitate adaptive changes in our genes to compensate for these new dietary practices. Accordingly, it is suggested that the discordance between our ancestral legacy and contemporary lifestyles may be contributing to several “lifestyle” diseases such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, autoimmunity, type 2 diabetes, and many others.
Furthermore, in our industrialised and technologically sophisticated lives humans are losing touch with the realities of the natural world. Many of us don’t understand where our food comes from; we spend large amounts of money on things we don’t need; we are stressed, confused, and frustrated. The benefits of embracing nature on our mental and physical health have been thoroughly demonstrated and evidence conclusively indicates that knowing and experiencing nature makes us generally happier and healthier people. Accordingly, understanding where we “fit” in nature will help us appreciate where we have come from and where we might be heading as a species.
Accordingly, this Module will introduce participants to the concept of vitalism and the human body’s innate intelligence. It will “set the scene” for all other corresponding Modules and provides the core principles that support the overall Functional Nutrition Course. We will also take an excursion through time to investigate food and nutrition and develop our understanding of current food trends and nutritional habits in a modern society. This will create a strong foundation for participants to commence their investigative journey into the world of food and nutrition.
Have fun and good luck with your studies!
Richard Wrangham- Anthrologist
Richard Wrangham was a Research Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and founded the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in 1987. He has conducted extensive research on primate ecology, nutrition, and social behavior. He is best known for his work on the evolution of human warfare, described in the book Demonic Males, and on the role of cooking in human evolution, described in the book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.
History of Nutrition Trends
Click THIS LINK to watch Cyndi’s History of Nutrition Trends webinar.
LESSON ONE: What is Vitalism?
Vitalism is a philosophy that respects the structure and function of living organisms while at the same time recognising that organisms have an “innate intelligence” that is self-regulating and self-healing that is designed to maintain the whole living system’s functionality.
Lesson 1 will introduce the participant to the concept of vitalism and the study of complex biological systems. The lesson aims to challenge your thinking about opposing views that question the vitalistic approach to life.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this LESSON it is anticipated that participants will have a familiarity with the concept of vitalism and be able to apply some general reasoning behind a vitalistic approach to understanding life.
To achieve the learning objectives you will need to:
1. Have a basic understanding of the two concepts: vitalism and reductionism.
2. Understand that complex systems are not just the sum of their components but require all of their parts working together in harmony to achieve a specific outcome or function.
3. Apply some reasoning that in order to address problems associated with the biological sciences that the two philosophies: vitalism and reductionism, must find some common ground and work together in an interdisciplinary and harmonious manner.
Viewing Activity:
To begin this LESSON, please click HERE to watch the following short video on vitalism. It is just over a minute long but sums up vitalism perfectly.
We will now explore the concept of vitalism in more detail.
Reading Activity:
Please read the following LESSON by clicking on Module1, Lesson 1, Vitalism. This reading briefly explores the historical perspective of vitalism in the context of the human sciences. Following this reading you will start to gain an appreciation and understanding of the complex nature of life and the fact that there are two competing philosophies: vitalism and reductionism.
Let us explore these two concepts of vitalism and reductionism in a little more detail. A great place to start your journey to understand these two concepts is through the idea of Systems Thinking(that is, understanding that a system works as a whole rather than the sum of its parts). Also, you are probably aware that vitalism is not just the innate intelligence of the body to be self-aware and self-healing, but it is also grounded in holism; the idea that natural systems and their properties should be viewed as a whole system and not just a collection of their parts.
Accordingly, the following video highlights how all of a system’s components are needed to interact effectively in order for the system to function.
Viewing Activity:
Please watch the following video on Complex Systems and Reductionism. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Watch it HERE.
Reading Activity:
An interesting Overview of Systems Thinking, as written by Daniel Aronson, can be accessed HERE.
To finish off this LESSON, please read Module 1, Reading 1.0. This short reading summarises the understanding of complex systems. Greek R (2013) Evolved Complex Systems. Biol Syst Open Access 2:e107. doi: 10.4172/2329-6577.1000e107. Copyright:© 2013 Greek R. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
For those that would like to be challenged further on the concept of vitalism, please read Module 1, Reading 1.1. “From substantival to functional vitalism and beyond: animas, organisms and attitudes (2011), Charles T. Wolfe, EIDOS Nº 14:212-235.
Warning: This manuscript by Wolfe is quite complex and jargon-heavy. Don’t be put off by this as the paper provides a nice summary of vitalism and complex systems.
LESSON TWO: Cultural Anthropology and Diet: an Evolution Perspective
In LESSON 1 you explored the concept of vitalism and the importance of understanding the human body as a whole system; one that has an “innate” intelligence. Now we will explore the mechanisms that have shaped our existence from an anthropological and nutritional perspective.
Lesson 2- aims to introduce participants to the evolution of our dietary requirements. It builds on the concept of understanding how our bodies respond to current dietary demands and the role that nutrients may play in the development of disease.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this LESSON participants will have a general understanding of how evolution has shaped our dietary requirements and why this may be important for understanding modern disease.
To achieve the learning objectives you will need to:
1. Have a general understanding of the processes of evolution and natural selection.
2. Have an appreciation of the foods/nutrients that have helped shaped human evolution.
3. Be able to apply reasoning about the problems and possible solutions to eating a diet like our ancestors once did.
Viewing Activity
To begin the LESSON, please watch the following short video on human nutrition and evolution.
Let’s now explore anthropology and diet in a little more detail.
Reading Activity
Click to read Module 1, Lesson 2 in the following section, Anthropology and diet: an evolutionary perspective.
This LESSON will briefly introduce participants to:
- the concept of evolution,
- the rise of Homo sapiens, and
- what our Paleolithic diet might have looked like.
You might also want to read, Meat-eating by early humans, Reading 1.2.
Internet Activity
For those who want to understand evolution in more detail, participants are directed to the following website, http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
Viewing Activity
Also, an interesting video on the differences between evolution and natural selection can be found HERE.
Lesson Three: Food Trends in the 21st century
Food Trends and Cultural Influences on Food
So far in LESSON 1 and LESSON 2 we have “touched” on two important concepts: Vitalism and Dietary Evolution.
- Vitalism supports the notion that an organism is an emergent, dynamic, and complex system that has an innate ability to be self-aware and self-regulating.
- Dietary Evolution supports the idea that our genes have been shaped by our nutrition during the Paleolithic period and therefore our genome is “ill-suited” for modern diets.
Lesson 3: we will now explore that “all important question.”
What makes us eat what we eat?
Here we will look at food trends and cultural influences on food including:
- The modernisation of food, and
- The various forms of influences that shape our personal food behaviours.
This LESSON builds on LESSON 2 to provide the participant with an understanding of how modern lifestyles and “confusing” food trends contribute to override our evolutionary inherent requirements for food.
Learning Objectives
On completing this LESSON participants will be able to apply their understanding and critically evaluate food trends and factors associated with food choice.
To achieve the learning objectives you will need to:
1. Appreciate that food plays a major role in our society as a social, cultural, religious, and identity/personal construct.
2. Understand how food choices are made.
3. Critically evaluate food fatigue and the “swamped” food market.
4. Have a brief familiarity on how food intake, mood and obesity are linked.
Reading Activity:
Please read Module 1 Lesson 3 after this section. Food trends and cultural influences on food.
Viewing Activity:
Please click HERE to watch “Why we eat the way we eat” by Dr. Scott Kahan Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center.
Reading Activity:
Finally, before completing Module 1, Exercise 4 and Module 1, Exercise 5, please read Mood, food, and obesity by Minati Singh, (2014). Frontiers in psychology, Volume 5, Article 925, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00925.This review looks at the interconnection between mood, food and obesity. Please click Reading 1.3. to access this resource.
Copyright © 2014 Singh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.
Nutrition In the 21st Century
Welcome to the final LESSON of Module 1.Congratulations on your achievements thus far.
Nutrition is currently under extreme research efforts to understand the role(s) of nutrients and their impact on the development of various disease. Accordingly, new molecular technologies are starting to appear in research domains in an effort to identify genes that predispose an individual to disease through poor dietary practices and other lifestyle behaviours.
Lesson 4- concludes our journey of our “innate intelligence” and where we have come from in terms of our evolutionary requirements for food, why we eat what we eat, and where nutrition is heading in the 21st century.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this LESSON the participant will have a better understanding and appreciation of where nutrition might be heading in the 21st century.
To achieve the objectives you will need to:
1. Appreciate that the “nutritional landscape” is complex and that many foods come from unnatural beginnings.
2. Have an appreciation for personalised nutrition and the role of nutrigenomics and how this field may be used to improve health and wellbeing.
Reading Activities:
Please read Module 1, Lesson 4 in the next section
You will find the article Reading 1.5 interesting. Dimiter Dimitrov et al. (2006). Nutrigenomics: DNA-based individualized nutrition. Biomedical Reviews, 17:117-122. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
This paper by Dimiter Dimitrov et al. (2006) outlines the field of nutrigenomics and the effect nutrients have on our genes. The article has a bit of scientific jargon. Don’t get too “bogged” down by some of the terms. Skim over these if you like and read the bits that help you consolidate your understanding of this new field of nutrition.
Internet Activity:
A more “digestible” article on genes and nutrition can be found HERE. Dr. Sherrill Sellman, a leading expert on hormones and who wrote “Hormone Heresy,” guides the reader through some introductory nutrigenomics.
This leads us to the end of Module 1.
We hope this Module gave you an insight into nutrition and the human condition and where nutrition might be heading into the future. We will explore these concepts further and in more detail in other Modules.
Next, Module 2 will provide some background information that will help “cement” the key concepts in other Modules.
