Human being has genetically not changed that much during last 5-7 million years. However, there has been lot of major changes in our nutrition. Human being started cultivating the land around 6000 years ago. Seafood, poeltry, vegetables and fruits have always been the basic food for human being. Around 1000 years ago obtaining food regularly was very unsecure and we got adapted to energy intake limitations and fat deposits in case of famine.
Our eating habits have changed during past centuries, especially during last 50 years. Our body has adapted to the stone age diet, poeltry, vegetables, sea food and fruit. There are many new food substances in our diet today. Wheet, fruit started to be a part of our diet after agriculture started. We started to drink milk – our ancestors drank water in the stone age. We started to have diseases like lactose intolerancy and celiac disease. It is estimated that it takes about 50 generation for us to get adapted to milk and 100 generations to get adapted to wheet.
Our food culture includes dishes which are regarded as traditional dishes. However, it takes tens, if not hundres of generations for our metabolism and digestion to adapt to new food substances.
Trans fats and food additives are part of our industrial food diet. Trans fats look and taste like natural fats but they don’t act like natural fats in our system. The trans fat products are ofter marketed as “low-fat” products. Year 2006, it will be mandatory in the USA to mark in the product label how much trans fat the product contains.
Many nutrition specialists think today’s life-style illnesses occur because our body has not been able to adapt to current industrial food. Individual genotype has a role in how different nutriens affect individual’s body. In the future, it maybe possible to have individual diets for everyone according to individual genotype.
