Fed Up by Daniel E. Lieberman

Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well by Daniel E. Lieberman — a brilliant, no-nonsense examination of the two questions we never evolved to ask but now confront several times a day: What should we eat, and why?

From the bestselling author of The Story of the Human Body and Exercised, and the founding chair of Harvard’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, comes a clear-eyed look at the confusion and conflict surrounding modern diets.

Drawing on evolutionary biology, physiology, anthropology, medical science, and history, Lieberman traces the story of human eating from before the invention of cooking to today’s industrially produced food. He shows that humans evolved as flexible omnivores optimized for reproductive success rather than perfect health, and that there is no single “natural” or ideal diet.

Lieberman evaluates popular approaches — Paleo, Mediterranean, intermittent fasting, low-carb, vegetarian, vegan, and more — while examining the real costs of ultra-processed foods, the roots of weight gain, and the links between diet, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. Along the way he highlights the ingenious traditional foodways that many cultures developed over centuries.

Witty, rigorous, and free of dogma, Fed Up cuts through the noise to offer an evidence-based framework for thinking about food, health, and eating well in the modern world.