“ It's like Alton Brown and Good Eats on crack.” -Albany Eats Review

1. “It's like Alton Brown and Good Eats on crack.” -Albany Eats Review Plants: 11 Feb, Dr. George Robinson (Univ Albany) and Chef Tim Warnock (US Food Service) Inverts: 18 Feb, Dr. Jason Cryan (NYSM) and Chef David Britton (Springwater Bistro, Food Network) Fungus and Yeast: 25 Feb, Dr. George Hulder (Cornell) and Chef Paul Parker (Chez Sophie)

2. The Evolution of Eating Culinary adaptations in humans Dr. Roland Kays NY State Museum rkays@mail.nysed.gov

3. Eat or Die Not a difficult concept

4. Evolution Recap Individuals vary & Variations are passed on to offspring Some variations have more offspring survive than others 4,500,000,000 years The earth is very old

5. Traits that help you eat something better are selected by evolution • “Feeding Adaptations”

6. Morphological Digestive Behavioral

7. Feeding Ecology – Behavioral Adaptations • 52 different fruits in diet • Favorites: • Big trees with lots of fruits • Fruits with high pulp/seed ratio • Fruits with high percentage digestible carbohydrates • Fruits with high phenolic compounds • Leighton 1993

8. Eating adaptations in humans? www.cakespy.com

9. Physical Adaptations - Teeth Human Teeth of different monkeys Bobcat Teeth

10. Digestion – a little help from our friends Bacteria are your friends • Human large intestine has complex microbe community composed largely of anaerobic bacteria • Number of bacteria in our gut ~ 100 Trillion from ~1000 species • Cell densities in Colon can exceed 1011 per gram, highest recorded for any microbial habitat • We are born germ free so the microbes that populate our intestinal tract must come from the outside • Evolutionary principals decide who survives in your gut, and therefore what your farts smell like! • Human Gut Microbiome Initiative

11. Behavioral Adaptations - Cooking Why Cooking is Important - More Nutrition from Food More Types of Food:Cooking detoxifies many plants More Benefit from Food: Cooking increases digestibility of plants markedly, typically 100% or more

12. Behavioral Adaptations - Cooking • Why Cooking is Important - More Nutrition from Food • German 100% raw foodist suffered from: • 31% diagnosed with chronic Energy Deficiency • Worse reproductive performance (50% of woman amenorrheic, other irregular or incompetent). VS.

13. Behavioral Adaptations - Cooking • Why Cooking is Important – Easier to Eat Meat • It took an adult male chimp 9hrs to eat a young 3.8kg baboon • He didn’t even finish it, leftovers eaten by others. • Two chimpanzees eating a newborn bushbuck for 5hrs (~10 chimp hrs) • Group of chimps eating a 4kg monkey for 11.5 chimp-hrs.

14. Homo erectus Homo humongohamburgerensis Behavioral Adaptations - Cooking • Chimps eating raw meat < 400 cal/h. • Homo erectus female needed 2269-2487 cal/day • Therefore, would need to chew raw meat for 5.7-6.2 hr/day. • Similar to time spent feeding by chimpanzees (46.9-55.7%)

15. New Controversy How important was cooking to human evolution? Richard Wrangham Wrangham: Cooking explains the increase in hominid brain sizes, smaller teeth and jaws and decrease in sexual dimorphism that occurred roughly 1.8 million years ago Archeological Evidence: cooking fires began in only 250,000-500,000 years ago, when ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and flint appear across Europe and the middle East.

16. Adaptation in our cuisine? • New concept – evolutionary adaptation?

17. Food Spices and Temperature Survey of Recipes 93 traditional cookbooks (>100 years of use) Sherman and Billings 1999

18. Adaptive function of spices?

19. Spice Hypothesis: Predicts more important for meat dishes

20. Adaptation in our cuisine? • How Local? • Genetic isolation • Different food-related selective pressures • Time

21. Example from the wildLocal adaptation to habitat in Cali coyotes Habitats Highways Genetic sample population assignment San Fran Sacks et al 2004

22. Example from the WildWolf population genetics map to diet and climate in Europe Moose Boar Deer Pilot et al 2006

23. Human population genetics structure – obvious genetics groups

24. 3000 people 500,000 genetic markers Novembre et al 2008, nature

25. Genes mirror geography within Europe Novembre et al 2008, Nature

27. Are there any Gene/Race/Food correlations?

28. Lactose Tolerance in Europe In most mammals, the gene for lactose tolerance switches off once an animal matures beyond the weaning years. A mutation in the DNA of an isolated population of Northern Europeans around 10,000 years ago introduced an adaptive tolerance for nutrient-rich milk.

29. Alcohol Tolerance in Europe

30. Other examples Many active research projects • The response of Sardinian males to fava beans and malaria • Ability of Cretans to live on a diet rich in greens and high in fat • The changes wrought upon the physique of aboriginal peoples by processed carbohydrates

31. The second wave of personalized medicine to come rolling out of the Human Genome Project (after pharmacogenomics, or designer drugs). NYT - What Your Genes Want You to Eat 2003 Think there’s any money to be made here?

32. “Nutrigenomics” • Common dietary chemicals can act on the human genome to alter gene expression or structure. • These interactions vary depending on personal genetic makeup. • Some diet-regulated genes are likely to play a role in the onset, incidence, progression, and/or severity of chronic diseases. • Dietary intervention based on knowledge of nutritional requirement, nutritional status, and genotype (i.e., "personalized nutrition") can be used to prevent, mitigate or cure chronic disease.

33. What does this mean for you? No one-size fits all diet (despite what the book shelf says) respond disastrously to conventional diets basic fruit/vegetable heavy diet don't have to worry much about what they eat How Much Diet Matters to a Person NYT - What Your Genes Want You to Eat 2003

34. Now – Think evolutionarily. What worked for your ancestors? What does this mean for you? Future – Personalized Gene Scan and Diet Recommendations (Think there’s any money to be made here?)

35. Hopefully your not Scottish like me!

36. Tell me what you eat. I’ll tell you who you are.— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin Tell me who you are. I’ll tell you what you should eat. - Nutritional Genomics