Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Human eating behaviour in an evolutionary ecological context.

Stanley J Ulijaszek1

  • 1Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, 51 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PE, UK. stanley.ulijaszek@bioanth.ox.ac.uk

The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society
|April 15, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Modern human eating patterns, high-energy diets, and unstructured feeding, reflect ancestral foraging strategies. Evolutionarily, Homo erectus controlled food availability, while Homo sapiens developed symbolic food use.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Health and medicine cannot solve COVID-19.

Lancet (London, England)·2020
Same author

How does psychosocial stress affect the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and overweight and obesity? Examining Hemmingsson's model with data from a Danish longitudinal study.

BMC public health·2019
Same author

Last Word on Viewpoint: Rejuvenation of the term sarcopenia.

Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)·2019
Same author

Rejuvenation of the term sarcopenia.

Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)·2018
Same author

The 'who' and 'what' of #diabetes on Twitter.

Digital health·2018
Same author

Beware the medicalisation of loneliness.

Lancet (London, England)·2018

Area of Science:

  • Human evolutionary ecology
  • Nutritional science
  • Anthropology

Background:

  • Contemporary human diets in industrialized and emerging economies feature high-energy-density foods and irregular meal timing.
  • These feeding patterns deviate from natural seasonal food availability, contrasting with ancestral hominid foraging strategies focused on maximizing energy intake.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the evolutionary ecological underpinnings of human eating behaviors.
  • To trace the development of key human feeding adaptations, including food availability control and symbolic food use.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of current human dietary patterns with ancestral hominid feeding behaviors.
  • Examination of fossil and archaeological evidence to identify key evolutionary milestones in human eating.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Human feeding adaptations likely evolved under seasonal resource scarcity, favoring energy-dense foods.
  • Homo erectus exhibited control over food availability through increased meat consumption and cooking.
  • Homo sapiens developed complex symbolic uses of food, further structuring eating behaviors socially and culturally.

Conclusions:

  • Modern high-energy diets and unstructured eating align with evolutionary pressures for efficient foraging.
  • The evolution of food control and symbolic food use by Homo erectus and Homo sapiens significantly shaped human dietary practices.