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ECOSYSTEM
Contemporary Period Solomon Katz, Ph.D.
BIOLOGY
Director
W.M. Krogman Center for
Childhood Growth and
Development
Evolutionary
Period INFORMATION
TRANS.
STORAGE CULTURE
BEHAVIOR
DEMOGRAPHIC
The First Fossil Skull of a Child Nutritional & Diet
Genetic & Epigenetic
Exercise
Childhood Obesity Physiology & Psychology
Economic
CT scan.revealed the 3 to 4-year-old
Taungs skull had no persistent metopic suture and open
anterior fontanelle, that facilitate post-natal brain growth in
human infants when their disappearance is delayed.
Social & Cultural
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Climate Change is Severe:
One Week Ago at the AAAS Meetings
World Population Growth (Billions) 1750‐2150
2050
9.6 billion
2011
7.0 billion
Cumulative Histograms Comparing the Duration, Timing and Expression
of the Phases of the Human Life Cycle with Other Primates. Note the Long
Period of Growth & Development Until Sexual Maturation and the
Significant Period of Post Reproductive Longevity.
We need to look beyond the
Green Revolution water for
new solutions and refocus
our attention on a “food
chain revolution,” examining:
(1) the overall sustainability,
security, and safety of food
production; (2) its relations
to the health of children and
and (3) the dietary significance and opportunities of food processing to (3) the dietary significance
enhance and rebalance nutrients removed or harmed by depleted and and opportunities of food
contaminated soils. We also need to reexamine the cultural factors that lead to processing to
enhance and rebalance nutrients removed or harmed by depleted and
food waste, over‐consumption and spoilage. By focusing on the entire human contaminated
soils. We also need to reexamine the cultural factors that lead to food
food chain, anthropologists can make enormous contributions to the waste, over-consumption
and spoilage. Focusing on the entire human food chain will help
understanding and amelioration of current and future food crises at both local the understanding
and amelioration of current and future food crises at both local and
and global levels.
global levels.
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Homo sapiens has always practiced Exodigestion
EVOLUTION OF HOMO BRAIN
Brain Evolution and Exodigestion
Salivary enzyme gene copy increase
Obesity
Controlled use of
cooking fire
Gene deletion for facial
Myosin leading to a dramatic
decrease in chewing strength
and an increase need for
tools to process food
Food and Human Origins Tools, Food Processing & Procurement Fire for Food Processing and Metabolic Efficiency
• Tools, faces, jaws and teeth co‐evolved in the origins of Homo
• Myosin muscle gene deletion selects for necessary tool use.
• Cerebral cortical functions co‐evolves with tool use.
• The cerebral cortex depends upon high levels of dietary glucose.
• Controlled use of fire provides a new food breakthrough. • Fire provides a way to detoxify foods and hydrolyzes starch for salivary enzyme conversion to glucose.
• Genetic and cultural evolution of the food system & early success of Homo. Humans use a variety of techniques to begin digestion outside of our body – AKA “Exodigestion”. • Earliest evolution ‐ tools instead of teeth to physically digest crush, grind and cut foods before they entered our ancestor's mouth. • Later Paleolithic times the controlled use of fire softened, decomposed, and detoxified animal and plant foods for consumption. • A major effect of cooking plants was chemically to predigest starches into a gelatinized form ‐ highly amenable to the digestive effects of salivary enzyme (amylase). In the mouth it rapidly converts starch to sugar (maltose); upon conversion to glucose selectively absorbed and needed by the rapidly expanding cerebral cortex as its primary source of energy for neural function. The cerebral cortex became the hallmark of human function of Homo sapiens.
• During the post Paleolithic or Neolithic times, the exodigestive processes became further elaborated to include the evolution of cuisine. This period continues to the present and includes many processes such as heating and freezing, fermentation (yeasts, molds, bacteria), soaking, sprouting, peeling, mashing, drying, spicing, chemical treatment and combinations with other plant foods. Higher Brain Function Depends on Glucose:
Cooked Starch in the Paleolithic Is the Source
The most common storage polysaccharide in plants is starch. One large polymer has a much lower osmotic pressure than a bunch of monomeric molecules. Glucose is therefore stored as a polymer. Before use, the starch (amylose, and amylopectin) must be broken down into individual D‐glucose units by starch phosphorylase: Yeast and bacteria make dextran as a storage polysaccharide. It is composed of a‐1‐6 linkages of D‐glucose, with branched chains (1‐2, 1‐3 or 1‐4 linkages between glucose units). Important component of dental plaque (from bacteria).
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“Blobby Mice” have a genetic mutation causing them to overeat their way to obesity!
Kate Whiting , From AAAS Science News 10 February 2015 7:30 am
Their obesity stresses the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where proteins are made and shuttled throughout the cell. This process, known as ER stress, can cause the cell to self‐destruct and can occur in cells throughout the body, including the liver, pancreas, and brain. ER Stress was also found in the mitochondria of their developing eggs causing them to transfer fewer active mitochondria to the next generation. Robker et al 2015 also demonstrated evidence that this effect could be reversed pharmacologically, by providing a ER Stress inhibitor (BGP‐
15). These treated next generation eggs survived transplant and no longer had mitochondrial abnormalities in the following generation. Upper Paleolithic Figurines ~30,000‐20,000
Years Ago: Obesity Is Not New! It Was Expressed Long Before Agriculture and Contemporary Food Processing These results also indicate that BGP‐15 and other ER Stress inhibitors like Celestrol that have low toxicity, may provide a new way to treat the health of obese patients and even their unborn offspring in the following generation.
Evolutionary Roots of Food Sharing
• Longest period of child growth & development among the primates
• Extreme helplessness from birth through toddler ages
• Limits on distances for hunting and gathering requires return to home
• Food sharing required for survival
• Food sharing co‐evolved with increased Oxytocin caused by CCK8 during eating increases trust and social connections
• Food sharing universal among all religions
Venus of Willendorf
~25,000 to 28,000 BP
Fetal Growth Curves for Growth in Body Mass during Fetal Development. Note that body mass is highly and often permanently affected by various “causes” of intra‐uterine growth retardation producing “small” or “large” “for gestational age” babies. Full term babies are between 38 and 42 weeks of gestational age. 4
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Scammon’s Curves for Growth in Four Organ Systems. Note that although
these curves all show growth, they also show substantial differences in
developmental timing and expression in each organ system.
Longitudinal Changes in Height “Distance” and “Velocity” Curves
for Growth in Height for a Historic Case. (Shows the relations
between a distance and velocity curve.)
Average Sex Differences in Height Velocity CM/YR by
Chronological Age and by “Tanner” Pubertal Sex Staging (I-IV) in
Girls and Boys
(left) Longitudinal Changes in Height “Distance” and “Velocity”
Curves for Growth in Height for a Historic Case. Comparison
(right) of 3 groups of girls by age of menarche showing differences
in peak height velocity (PHV) and duration of subsequent growth –
early maturers tend to be overweight at prepubertal ages.
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A Significant Risk of Adult Obesity Begins in Early Infancy in African‐ American Children •
•
•
A group of investigators at the Krogman Growth Center and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia conducted the first longitudinal study of childhood obesity beginning in early infancy. The results demonstrated that early infancy constitutes a critical period for the development of obesity in African American young adults born at full term. One‐third of the obesity at age 20 y could be attributed to rapid weight gain in the first 4 mo of life. Children with rapid weight gain during early infancy were more likely to become obese at age 20 y (odds ratio = 5.22). The results were confirmed by using a combination of body mass index and skinfold thickness (odds ratio = 6.72).
This study suggests new hypotheses about the long‐term consequences of early growth patterns on adult obesity and related health complications in the context of the life‐course approach to chronic disease. This is in distinction from cross sectional approaches that are not able to show the life course relations that this study was able to demonstrate. The Secular Growth Trend in Iowan Boys from 1960 and 1880. Note in the
1960 group the earlier increased growth before age 2, the earlier growth spurt
(seen as an inflection in the distance growth curve at about age 12), and the
smaller adult differences in height after the completion of all growth (see
histogram for the height differences at various ages). “Secular” refers to a non
genetic origin of the differences and implies “environmental” sources such as
nutrition and health are the primary differences.
Ref: Stettler N, Kumanyika SK, Katz SH, Zemel BS, Stallings VA. 2003 Rapid weight gain during infancy and obesity in young adulthood in a cohort of African Americans. Am J Clin Nutr. Jun;77(6):1374‐8.
“Obesity is now a critical global issue, requiring a comprehensive intervention
strategy rolled out at scale. More than 2.1 billion people—nearly 30 percent of the
global population—are overweight or obese. That’s nearly two and a half times the
number who are undernourished. Obesity, which should be preventable, is now
responsible for about 5 percent of all deaths worldwide. If its prevalence
continues on its current trajectory, almost half of the world’s adult population will
be overweight or obese by 2030.”
- McKinsey Global Institute Report 2014
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OVERALL COSTS OF OBESITY IN THE US
“Excess weight harms health in many ways. It increases the risk of developing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis, and some cancers, to name just a few, and reduces the life span. Treating obesity and obesity‐related conditions costs billions of dollars a year. By one estimate, the U.S. spent $190 billion on obesity‐
related health care expenses in 2005—double previous estimates. The enormity of this economic burden and the huge toll that excess weight takes on health and well‐
being are beginning to raise global political awareness that individuals, communities, states, nations, and international organizations must do more to stem the rising tide of obesity.”
COSTS/PERSON
…”Several investigators have evaluated the cost of obesity on an individual level…in 2006, per capita medical spending for obese individuals was an additional $1,429 (42 percent higher) compared to individuals of normal weight. [Another study]…found that per capita medical spending was $2,741 higher for obese individuals than for individuals who were not obese—a 150 percent increase. … Over the course of a lifetime, per‐person costs for obesity were similar to those for smoking. In middle‐age men, treatment of five common obesity‐related conditions (stroke, coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, and elevated cholesterol) resulted in roughly $9,000 to $17,000 higher costs compared to normal‐weight adults.” TH Chan Harvard Sch Pub Health http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity‐prevention‐source/obesity‐consequences/economic/
We need to look beyond
the Green Revolution for
solutions and refocus our
attention on a “food chain
revolution,” examining:
(1) the sustainability and
diversity of food
production; (2) the
efficiency of food storage
and transportation
and (3) the dietary significance and opportunities of food processing to enhance and rebalance nutrients removed or harmed by depleted and contaminated soils. We also need to reexamine the cultural factors that lead to food waste, over‐consumption and spoilage. By focusing on the entire human food chain, anthropologists can make enormous contributions to the understanding and amelioration of current and future food crises at both local and global levels.
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Early Pre‐agricultural Technologies
ECOSYSTEM
• Tool Making/Use
• Simple stones ‐ food procuring & processing
• Replacement of teeth
• Eye hand coordination, planning, & using • Defense and offense • Skill and knowledge transportable
• Controlled Use of Fire
• Heat induced detox & digestibility of starches & proteins, aroma of fat
• Vastly improved calories and glucose for CNS • Defense and offense • Skill and knowledge transportable
The expensive-tissue hypothesis: Brain and the
digestive system in human and primate evolution.
Presumably the higher
glycemic index and the
more efficient digestion
afforded by extrasomatic
processing provides the
means to assure the
needs of the very large
neocortex of Homo
sapiens.
This is also assured by the
high quantities of Omega
3 fatty acids in the Homo
sapiens diet.
vide AIELLO, L. C., AND P. WHEELER. 1995. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 36:199 221.
BIOLOGY
INFORMATION
TRANS.
STORAGE CULTURE
BEHAVIOR
DEMOGRAPHIC
In humans digestion and metabolism of food routinely begins outside of our body. This “extra somatic" digestion of food is governed, conditioned, shaped and accumulated by a cultural evolutionary process which in the case of food is held by a reasonably short biological leash. I have called this the biocultural evolution of cuisine.
“Lock and Key Hypothesis”
Every human society creates, perpetuates,
and participates in an information
system that evolves through time to
maintain a dynamic equilibrium among
ecological, sociocultural, biological, and
demographic variables within the human
ecosystem. The cultural information pool
related to food grows rapidly to
compliment and supplement the genetic
information pool. The combined system
becomes independent from biological
limitations and underlies much of the
success of our species.
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KEY DIETARY SHIFT IN THE NEOLITHIC
RECIPE
VARIETY
Wide diversity of plants in Paleolithic diets.
With the enormous productivity of Neolithic agriculture diversity dramatically declines.
Food enhancement and processing provides the adaptation.
Traditional cuisines become established.
Specifically, since the Neolithic era agricultural practices have continuously improved the productivity of crops and this intensification has led to an increased dependence on fewer of them. However, this dependence, in turn produces a nutritional problem. Since no single plant can satisfy human “nutritional universals”, nor can any small group of them supply these nutritional needs. When a small number of plants are depended upon, this tends to enhance the naturally occurring toxic and anti‐nutritional secondary compounds that the plants carry as part of their natural defenses against predation. Thus, a high dependence on a few plants produces a classic evolutionary bottleneck in which the increased dependence on fewer crops increases the nutritional and agricultural liabilities that each crop retains and limits the success of the agricultural strategy.
BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL
ADAPTATIONS
“RAW”
“COOKED”
PLANT
HEATING, FREEZING
RECIPE
VARIETY
FERMENTATION (YEASTS, MOLDS,
VARIETY
BACTERIA), SOAKING, SPROUTING, PEELING,
DRYING, MASHING, SPICING, CHEMICAL COMBINATIONS
WITH OTHER PLANT FOODS
COMBINATIONS
ORDER
RITUALS
PRESENTATION
TIMING
ETIQUETTE
FEASTS
FASTS
NEOTLITHIC ERA
The success of agriculture for population increase led to the genetic adaptation and rapid biological evolution of a number of specific dietary factors. These include lactase sufficiency, G6PD deficiency, celiac disease, NIDDM, and others.
The Neolithic Era is associated with new dimensions:
Change in climate and food resources, and domestication of plants and animals. Climate change may have narrowed the environmental carrying capacity; domestication increased it many fold. BUT the majority of the adaptations are cultural and they are remarkable in their complexity and simplicity but the evidence demonstrates their profound significance on the development of civilizations. These include bread and beer, alkali corn, mixture of legumes and cereals, anti trypsin factor, manioc and cyanate, and many other “lock and key” relationships.
Increased carrying capacity provided positive feedback for evolution of new agricultural technologies, cultural traditions and languages to transmit the information necessary to sustain the new and emerging levels of social organization and genetic adaptations that increased the fitness of agricultural populations.
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The Nutriculture Hypothesis
The Nutriculture Hypothesis
The adaptive limits of the carrying capacity of hunting and gathering was the old barrier to large population size and social differentiation.
The adaptive limits of the carrying capacity of hunting and gathering was the old barrier to large population size and social differentiation.
Domestication of plants and animals broke this barrier.
Domestication of plants and animals broke this barrier.
HOWEVER is was NOT ONLY domestication that was responsible for breaking the old barrier. HOWEVER is was NOT ONLY domestication that was responsible for breaking the old barrier. Food processing also had to evolve simultaneously to overcome the nutrient, anti‐nutrient and genetic limitations imposed by the newly domesticated dietary foods.
Food processing also had to evolve simultaneously to overcome the nutrient, anti‐nutrient and genetic limitations imposed by the newly domesticated dietary foods.
The Nutriculture Hypothesis
The principal conclusion of this presentation is that the evolution of food processing technologies were a necessary evolutionary concomitant to the development of agriculture.
In essence Nutriculture is the “Flip Side of the Coin” of Agriculture!
WORLD POPULATION GROWTH 2,030 YEARS
Vaccination
Urbanization
Sanitation
Mechanization
WORLD POPULATION
SIZE JUNE 13,
>6,300,000,000 2003
>6,800,000,000 2010
>7,800,000,000 2025
(UN MEDIUM PROJ.)
>8,300,000,000 2030
(FAO Prediction 2003)
Columbus
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Chinese Symbols for Population
person
+
EFFECTS OF THE GREEN
REVOLUTION: 10 LARGEST CROPS
AREAS VRS. YIELDS 1971-1991
an open mouth
together = population
IRRIGATION TRENDS AND CASH CROPS (FAO, 2000)
HECTARES (millions) UNDER WATER
IRRIGATION
PERCENT OF FOOD CROPS
IRRIGATED BY CASH VALUE
300
80
70
60
PERCENT
50
FOOD CROPS 40
IRRIGATED 30
20
10
0
HECTARES (10**7)
250
200
150
100
50
0
1750
AS
1800
1850
1900
DATE
1950
2000
2050
IA
L N A IA IA ST A A A
AL TA IN D S A IC IC IC
R I S CH I N N E E F R E R F R
E A
VE K
DO L H AM A
O PA
I N ID DRT IN A N
M O AT AR
N L H
BS
REGION S U
PERCENT OF VALUE
OF CROPS
IRRIGATED
WATER USE PER DAY: HUMANS DAILY NEED
FOR WATER IS ABOUT 1/500 TO 1/1250 OF THE
WATER USED
FOR CROP IRRIGATION
Crop/Day
High
5000
Crop/Day
Low
2000
LITERS/DAY
4
Human/Day
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
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WORLD WATER CONSUMPTION
1900-2000
World Food Trends I
•
8.3 Billion People by 2030. But rate of increase will drop from
1.7% to 1.1% /year over the next 30 years. LDC’s will drop from
3.7% to 2.0% /year over the same period. (FAO data 2003)
•
By 2030 at the current rates will have 3050 kcal/person
compared with 2360 in the mid ’60’s and 2800 kcal/person now.
•
Prospects are for obesity to be a greater problem than
starvation. Increased calories and decreased activity with
world-wide urbanization.
•
Sub-Saharan Africa has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS and by
lower productivity of crops. Even by 2030 the region will still
have the worst overall hunger problems in the world. Special
effort ought to be invested in a more cohesive and integrated
plan to increase food production in this region.
2500
2000
RESERVOIRS
1500
MUNICIPAL
CUBIC KM/YR
INDUSTRIAL
1000
AGRICULTURE
500
0
1900
1960
1995
2000
International Research Institute for Climate Prediction - Ximing Cai
World Food Trends II
• However these previous estimates for world food
tend to hide other major problems.
• There are over 770 MILLION people today who go
hungry in a world of plenty. Is this just?
• The FAO goal of cutting in half the number of hungry
by 2010 is failing. The current estimates are for many
more years before this occurs…
World Food Trends III
• In light of the lack of food & potable water for
hundreds millions of people, we need to adopt a
position to assist religious communities of the world
to address this injustice.
• In order to make this work, we need to assist these
communities afford to develop more sophisticated
knowledge about biotechnology, climate change,
water resource management and world food
prospects.
• However this solution involves concerted effort –
needs all of our help!
• … AND WATER IS BECOMING MORE & MORE
SCARCE!
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Major Categories of Food Crops
1600
1400
1200
Cereal
1000
Sugars
Grain legumes
800
Tubers
600
400
200
0
Cereal
Sugars
Grain legumes
Tubers
Annual Production in Mega Tons, 1992
LEPTIN PHYSIOLOGY
Most of leptin's effects occur through the hypothalamus, that integrates all basic drives and
regulates food intake, energy expenditure and glucose and fat metabolism. With weight loss, the
body's fat stores shrink and therefore produce less leptin. The hypothalamus responds by shifting
several body systems into starvation mode. It results in urges to eat more and expend less energy,
making it difficult to maintain the weight loss. Other changes, such as increased stress response
and weakened reproductive and immune function, cause their own set of problems.
Fire & Human Evolution 400K
BP
• Provides cooking
• Provides light
• Protection from
animals
• Heat at night
• Insect repellant
• Promotes social
interaction
Source: Friedman Lab
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Evolutionary Time Scale
for Posture & Brain Size for
the Genus Homo
Archeology of Tool Use
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
30th Anniversary (Our future is built in
part on all of our past successes!)
•
Food also involves universal human behaviors that all societies practice
every day of their lives. There are also life history variations according to the
periods of development and aging as well as sex differences that make for
differential survival based upon the outcomes of the quantity and quality of
nutrients consumed.
•
The study of food has a very solid empirical base for purposes of
measurement. There is a whole field of nutritional science from which we
can judge the adaptability of the food practice. We know a great deal about
human nutritional needs and this knowledge can be used as a scientific
data base from which we can test hypotheses about the biocultural
evolutionary significance of the adaptive strategies used by various
populations through time and space.
•
There are long recorded and prehistoric records of what people consumed
which are steadily being developed and improved. Also, there is a
substantial ethnographic literature and cross-cultural literature and
databases concerning folk cooking practices that allow tests of very specific
hypotheses about food processing.
Note Time BP
Tool types
Species
Complexity
Sophistication
Cultural tradition
Advantages
The Nutriculture Hypothesis
The principal hypothesis of this paper is
that the evolution of food processing
technologies were a necessary
evolutionary concomitant to the
development of agriculture.
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Numbering, and α/β distinction of glycosidic bonds
Questions
What do we need to know about human
evolution that impacts our fundamental
understanding about the nature of human
diet?
A β‐1,6 glucan molecule showing how carbons are numbered. The terminal saccharide is linked via a β‐1,6 glycosidic
bond. The remaining linkages are all β‐
1,3.
Starch is the most common source of carbohydrate energy in our diets. LACTASE METABOLISM AND
DEFICIENCY
MILK
DEFICIENCY
Starch is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. Starch is synthesized by most green plants for energy storage and is the most common carbohydrate in human diets. About 2/3rds of our contemporary diet comes from wheat, rice, maize, barley, potatoes, cassava, millet and sweet potatoes that contain large amounts of starch. When cooked in water starches become gelatinized and in this form are rapidly broken down to maltose sugars by salivary amylase in our mouth and in turn, these are broken down again to the glucose form necessary for brain activity. FAVA
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16 Largest World Crops 1990’s
Bean
Rapeseed
Millets
Rye
Sugar beet
Sweet Potato
Cassava
Oat
Potato
Sorghum
Sugar cane
Soybean
Barley
Rice
Maize
Wheat
Million tons 0
Million tons
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
16