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Humans, lipids and evolution

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Lipids

Abstract

The genetically ordered physiology of contemporary humans was selected over eons of evolutionary experience for a nutritional pattern affording much less fat, particularly less saturated fat. Current dietary recommendations do not accord exactly with those generated by an understanding of prior hominoid/hominid evolution. Similarly, widely advocated standards for serum cholesterol values fail to match those observed in recently studied hunter-gatherers, whose experience represents the closest living approximation of “natural” human lipid metabolism. The evolutionary paradigm suggests that fats should comprise 20–25% of total energy intake, that the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat should exceed 1.0, and that total serum cholesterol levels should be below 150 mg/dL (∼4 mM/L).

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Abbreviations

P/S:

polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, West Paces Ferry Hospital, University School of Medicine, 3200 Howell Mill Road, N.W., 30327, Atlanta, Georgia

    S. Boyd Eaton

  2. Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 30327, Atlanta, Georgia

    S. Boyd Eaton

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Eaton, S.B. Humans, lipids and evolution. Lipids 27, 814–820 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02535856

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02535856

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