The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease: Written by Daniel Lieberman, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Penguin [Paperback] Paperback – 17 Oct 2014

In this book Daniel goes through the evolution of the human body, followed by talking about mismatch diseases and effects of sugar, fat, salt and low activity on human body, which I found quite educating read.You will find out such things for example such as how body converts sugar into energy, energy consumption by hunter gatherers versus modern human, brain size relative to primates and what being not active does to our body. These are only few snippets from the book, there is much more.The book covers quite a lot of stuff. In human evolution part he talks about Apes and Humans and our common ancestors, on how we became bipedals, following by culture and rise of farming which caused our population to explode which exposed us to all sorts of diseases and then ending book with looking at whats causing certain mismatch diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and how our body responds to them.By reading this book you will learn more about human evolution, on how environment and history made us who we are today. You will also learn more about the way your body works, health, diet and what can cause certain mismatch diseases. The book is eye opener and I would highly recommend it to read it through.

I think the headline says it all really. This book is probably up there with the best I've ever read. My major passions include evolutionary biology, health and wellbeing and fitness - this book combines them all. The first part of this book is very similar to Sapiens: A look back at our ancestors including how they used to live and their evolutionary past. The second part of the book focuses more on where we are now and describes how the environment we live in and the power of cultural evolution has created a mis-match for our bodies. The book is absolutely packed full of information and if you're anything like me, you will finish it examining your own lifestyle and how you can make small or major changes to improve your health and longevity.I really cannot praise this book enough. It's the type of book which should be read not just by individuals, but governments around the Western world in order to improve our societal approach to health and disease. As the book illustrates - we've created an environment which has done some wonderful but also damaging things which is making us sick. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have not prepared us for a life of inactivity and an abundance of fatty, sugary, salty foods.There are changes that need to be made before healthcare systems in the Western world are crippled and collapse.

I believe this is a very important book. Daniel Lieberman takes a methodical, clear-eyed approach as he draws upon the evidence we have to hand to show that human beings evolved to be hunter-gatherers and that our bodies are the bodies of hunter-gatherers. While he does not present this era as a paradise, he shows that for 200,000 years we did not suffer from the diseases and problems that we have now in modern society: there were no epidemics (there were too few of us and we were not crowded together), there was not diabetes, cancer etc. on the scale we have today. We did not harm the environment like we do now. Lieberman shows, more incisively than most similar books, that two massively important cultural changes -- the introduction of farming roughly at 7000 BC in the Middle East, and the mass industrialisation at the end of the 18th century -- have created huge problems for the human body on many levels. This book really nails many of our problems today.

First part of the book establishes Mr Lieberman's credentials - discoveries and research on the evolution of early humans as learned through remains and skeletons discovered across the world.The later parts of the book are absolutely fascinating, reminding us that we evolved to live in a stone-age environment, but since then humans have adopted - too rapidly for evolution to keep up with - diets and lifestyles which are quite different from that time, and we suffer many things as a result. There is a detailed, knowledgeable explanation of how parts of the body work and how these systems struggle with the demands of modern life. It's very, very interesting.

I couldn't put this book down as I find this subject really interesting...understanding the human body through Evolution and learning about health and diet is something that anyone could benefit from . Well written, not full of big scientific words...I would recommend this book..

Possibly my favourite book ever.One criticism is that I have found when lending the book to others that they struggle a bit with the science terminology/approach.This wasn't a factor for me to due to my specialization which definitely played a part in enjoying the book so much. I would be very keen to see updated versions of the book every 10 years to see if the supporting literature changes from its current view point.

This book provided some great insight into current human condition.Wanted to read it whenever I had the chance and still talk to people about it since.If you want to know a little more about why we are the we are from a biological/evolutionary perspective this is full of well written and interesting discoveries.

Some interesting thoughts if you can forgive how repetitive the content is and the poor syntax. Unfortunately some content is simplified to the point of inaccuracy. Perhaps a valuable read if coming from a point of no knowledge of the human body but frustratingly presented for those who do.