Human Evolution and Food Adaptation

For most of the last 40,000 years, humans lived as hunter-gatherers and ate foods found in the natural environment. Agriculture emerged approximately 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, which is considered evolutionarily brief. Human DNA has remained virtually unchanged for the last 40,000 years. Natural foods found in the environment are considered compatible with human physiology because the body developed in their presence. 4,000 years is too short a timeframe for meaningful DNA adaptation to radically different foods. The mismatch between ancient human physiology and the modern processed food supply is a major cause of poor health outcomes.