skip to content
Dovepress - Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research
View our mobile site

8852

The western diet and lifestyle and diseases of civilization

Review

(59296) Views  (15790) Full article downloads

Authors: Pedro Carrera-Bastos, Maelan Fontes-Villalba, James H O’Keefe, et al

Published Date March 2011 Volume 2011:2 Pages 15 - 35
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/RRCC.S16919

Pedro Carrera-Bastos1, Maelan Fontes-Villalba1, James H O’Keefe2, Staffan Lindeberg1, Loren Cordain3
1Center for Primary Health Care Research, Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, Malmö, Sweden; 2Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute/University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA; 3Department of Health and Exercise Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that certain fundamental changes in diet and lifestyle that occurred after the Neolithic Revolution, and especially after the Industrial Revolution and the Modern Age, are too recent, on an evolutionary time scale, for the human genome to have completely adapted. This mismatch between our ancient physiology and the western diet and lifestyle underlies many so-called diseases of civilization, including coronary heart disease, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, epithelial cell cancers, autoimmune disease, and osteoporosis, which are rare or virtually absent in hunter–gatherers and other non-westernized populations. It is therefore proposed that the adoption of diet and lifestyle that mimic the beneficial characteristics of the preagricultural environment is an effective strategy to reduce the risk of chronic degenerative diseases.

Keywords: Paleolithic, hunter–gatherers, Agricultural Revolution, modern diet, western lifestyle and diseases






Readers of this article also read:

Ego mechanisms of defense are associated with patients’ preference of treatment modality independent of psychological distress in end-stage renal disease
Can a gentamicin-specific chart reduce neonatal medication errors?
Nephroprotective action of glycosaminoglycans: why the pharmacological properties of sulodexide might be reconsidered
Dashboards in neonatology
Moving beyond LDL-C: incorporating lipoprotein particle numbers and geometric parameters to improve clinical outcomes
High-density lipoproteins: a novel therapeutic target for cardiovascular disease
International advocacy against DDT and other public health insecticides for malaria control
Everolimus-eluting stents: update on current clinical studies
An eight-week yoga intervention is associated with improvements in pain, psychological functioning and mindfulness, and changes in cortisol levels in women with fibromyalgia
Use of carvedilol in hypertension: an update