Can we beat human evolution at its own game?

1. Does human evolution shape our habits?

I was reading the bestseller Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it introduced some interesting concepts about human evolution to explain why we are resistant to changing our habits. The book isn’t about human evolution, but refers to the theory to get some of its points across.

In the book, there were at least two stubborn habits that Clear attributes to human evolution. They involve 1) our modern diet, and 2) delayed gratification.

One of our most common habits is to eat junk food instead of a nutritious meal. In the current obesity epidemic, we tend to crave calorie-rich food that is high in sugar, salt and fat. An explanation for this is that our ancestors needed to store energy and fuel up on food in order to survive. Since it was uncertain when they could find their next meal, it would be evolutionarily advantageous to hang onto the fat storage in their bodies. That’s why we crave calorie-rich food.

In the present day however, food sources are plentiful, and this is when our evolutionary history doesn’t serve us well, as modern humans.

Evolution is doing us a disservice by not catching up to our current way of life.

2. How can we beat human evolution at its own game?

Most likely you have heard of the paleo diet. This diet is high in fruit, vegetables, and nuts. The diet cuts back on dairy, carbohydrates and meat in order to lose weight. This might seem like a good plan. However, critics who say that the paleo diet is just a fad also say that if you eat less calories than you burn, you would lose weight. It doesn’t matter whether you follow a certain diet or not.

The second bad habit is favouring instant gratification rather than delayed gratification. Early humans were focused on survival. They hunted or scavenged food for today, and protected themselves from predators and immediate threat. Because our brain has evolved to favour living for the present rather than the future, we don’t act unless it’s to do something that will satisfy our cravings immediately.

For example, you want that burger right now. You’re not motivated to exercise because you won’t see immediate weight loss right away. The way around this habit is to build a reward system each time so that you are more motivated to exercise.

Both habits, that we crave calorie-rich foods, and opt for instant instead of delayed gratification, are examples of how evolution is doing modern humans a disservice.

3. The “mismatch” between life as a modern human and our evolutionary history

These are interesting concepts that I felt warrant further research and investigation. So I found the book Unfit for Purpose by Adam Hart at the local library. An interesting read, Hart termed it a “mismatch” between our evolutionary history and our present way of life in modern societies.

It should be noted that the book pokes several holes in the theory about how obesity evolved. For instance, it would make more sense that evolution would favor a lean body type so that humans would be faster at running away from predators. Also, obesity should be selected for if famine were to act as a selective pressure. Yet, famine does not occur at a high enough frequency, and the ones who are more likely to die from famine (children and the elderly) would have no effect on selection since they are not in the reproductive age.

Hart also gives several other examples of how evolution made us “unfit for purpose.” Celiac disease is linked to mutations in the HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8 genes. These mutations cause inflammation in the small intestine, symptoms of gluten intolerance. The mutations are thought to be positively selected for because it protects against dental cavities. There is no cure for celiac disease, rather it is only possible to prevent rather than treat the diseases by avoiding gluten in the diet.

4. The evolutionary response to stress is misaligned with modern living

Our response to stress is another way that evolution is misaligned with modern living. The flight or fight response has allowed early humans to run away from predators. However, it is now causing us to have extreme reactions such as heart attacks. We no longer consider predators such as lions and leopards to be a constant threat, but our fight or flight response still kicks in when we are faced with stressful situations. We have learned that stress, both acute and chronic, can have debilitating effects on our well-being. Whole industries supply solutions on coping with stress, such as meditation, yoga, and exercise.

Another major stressor that has emerged in today’s society is our tendency to be plugged into large social networks. We constantly have our computers, laptops, phones, and televisions switched on. Humans were not evolved to have large social networks. Our ancestors lived in tribes for protection, but the magic number is 150 individuals, which is the optimal group size derived from statistics.

It’s true, people have an unhealthy preoccupation with social media. The speed at which technology is changing the modern world also makes it too fast for evolution to catch up and cope with it. The solution is to unplug and stop stressing out about Facebook posts, Instagram followers, and tweets.

5. We must use strategy to win the game

Experts love to refer to evolution to explain our faults as modern humans. It’s useful for understanding our compulsions and why we act the way we do, and possibly, what we can do about our bad habits. We can study human evolution and try to mitigate the effects of millenia of conditioning by finding ingenious ways to hack our way out of any problem. If only it can be as easy as changing the trajectory of our own evolution!