2013 & The Urge to Explore

“Ernest Henry Shackleton, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson on the British National Antarctic Expedition (a.k.a. Discovery-Expedition), 2 Nov 1902.” Image: Wikimedia. PD-US – published in the US before 1923 and public domain in the US.

Tomorrow, The National Geographic Society begins celebrating their 125th anniversary. In a special issue of National Geographic magazine titled Why We Explore, the Society  is “kicking off a year of stories about the new age of exploration.” In the article Restless Genes, David Dobbs discusses with Svante Pääbo our Paleolithic ancestor's urge to explore:

No other mammal moves around like we do,” says Svante Pääbo, a director of the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where he uses genetics to study human origins. “We jump borders. We push into new territory even when we have resources where we are. Other animals don’t do this. Other humans either. Neanderthals were around hundreds of thousands of years, but the never spread around the world. In just 50,000 years we covered everything. There’s a kind of madness to it. Sailing out into the ocean, you have no idea on what’s on the other side. And now we go to Mars. We never stop. Why?”

Why indeed? Pääbo and other scientists pondering this question are themselves explorers, walking new ground. They know that they may have to backtrack and regroup at any time. They know that any notion of why we explore might soon face revision as their young disciplines – anthropology, genetics, developmental neuropsychology – turn up new fundamentals. Yet for those trying to figure out what makes humans tick, our urge to explore is irresistible terrain. What gives rise to this madness to explore? What drove us out from Africa and onto the moon and beyond?

Dobb’s goes on to discuss genes that may allow us explore by giving us “great mobility, extraordinary dexterity” and “brains that can think imaginatively.” These three factors form a feedback loop: imagination acted upon by our mobility and ability further fires imagination of what is possible. Our long childhoods also play a role: “we have an unmatched period of protected 'play' in which to learn exploration’s rewards.”

Migratory waves of courageous and exploratory people carry these genes forward, which in a new environment can be further favored. As Dobbs notes, migration “would have selected for multiple genes that favor curiosity, restlessness, innovation, and risk taking” and created another “self-reinforcing loop, amplifying and spreading the genes and trait’s that drive it.”

Finally, we have our tools – such as the ship, compass, sextant, sleds, protective clothing and many other tools that allowed Ernest Shackleton (above) and his team to explore unknown lands.

This New Year, follow your urge to explore. It is our heritage.

Review Part 2: In Search of the Perfect Human Diet

In the April 15 SUNDAY PALEO, I reviewed the first half of a new documentary, In Search of the Perfect Human Diet, by CJ Hunt. We left off with Hunt visiting Dr. Cordain and learning about the evolution of the human diet over the past two million years while they both walked down the football field at CSU in Fort Collins, CO.

Continuing his search, Hunt then travels to New York to interview physical anthropologist Gary J. Sawyer of The American Museum of Natural History. From Sawyer, Hunt learns about our Paleolithic ancestors and how they lived. When comparing the modern diet to that of our ancestors, Sawyer observes:

We do not know how to eat properly. We feed ourselves, but we fail to give ourselves proper nutrition.

While in New York, Hunt also interviews Leslie Aiello, PhD, of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Dr. Aiello reminds us that our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors, in contrast to our limited palate today, ate “a huge diversity of foods.” The reduced diversity of our diet following the agricultural revolution led to nutritional deficiencies that caused a reduction in our stature: modern humans are much smaller than the Paleolithic ancestors.

Later in his travels, Hunt visits the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany to meet Professor Mike Richards, a specialist in prehistoric bone chemistry. This remarkable segment reveals what state-of-the-art techniques are telling us about the evolution of the human diet. We now have direct evidence of the components our ancestors' diet and the important role of meat, fish, and plants in human nutrition. Interestingly, no vegetarians have been identified in the bone analysis of thousands of human ancestors studied from all over the world.

According to Dr. Richards, our current age, the Neolithic, “is a new experiment,” one that we are not adapted to. Is the Paleolithic diet the “most optimum” for humans?

It has to be, it’s what evolutionary pressures got us towards and we were successful in that kind of diet. It’s got to be the best diet for humans.

The video ends with a section on the clinical application of this newly developing knowledge. In Wimberley, Texas, Hunt interviews Dr. Lane Sebring, a physician who is clearly knowledgeable on role of the ancestral diet in medicine. Dr. Seabring discusses how he advises his patients and then takes Hunt to a nearby grocery store to show how easily we are marketed “foods” that undermine our health.

In Search of the Perfect Human Diet is an excellent “crash course” on the ancestral diet. Available on DVD, I recommend it to anyone wanting to take control of his or her nutrition from the surrounding culture. The movie is enlightening for those new to this nutritional approach as well as for those with years of experience.

For health care providers, it provides a new approach to helping people suffering from many chronic disorders. As the CDC reminds us, ¾ of U.S. health care spending is directed at preventable modern diseases and these costs continue to increase. The ancestral diet may prove to be a powerful tool to reverse this trend.