THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA The Evolution of the Brain and the Determinants of Food Choice

Abstract

More than 72 million Americans, over a third of the population, are obese. In the past three decades, the rates of obesity in adults have doubled, and rates in children have tripled. Obesity rates have markedly increased among all segments of society, including those defined by age, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education level, and geographic region. Michael Pollan (2006) argues that the obesity crisis is due to the abundance of foods now available to satisfy the omnivore's dilemma, the desire for dietary variety required to meet energy requirements paired with the often fearful and perilous search for new foods. The abundance of food is an important factor in the obesity problem, but the solution to this perplexing riddle is more complex and is buried in our evolutionary history. A biocultural perspective, which highlights coevolutionary processes, is most useful for understanding humans' dietary and nutritional adaptation to changing social and physical environments. In our early evolutio...