BMR 31: Lessons From Human Evolution with Professor Herman Pontzer

This is a chat I have always wanted to have! One that explores how we may begin to bridge the gap between the best of our ancestors and where we are today in order to optimise human health and longevity. Professor Herman Pontzer (PhD Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke) researches how the human body evolved, and how our species’ deep past shapes our health and physiology today.

We explore how our ancestors would have lived and evolved as well as healthy modern hunter gatherer tribes in an attempt understand modern health and human energetics. His findings thus far are fascinating and challenges our ideas around modern energetics – lets say its not as simple as calories in vs calories out!

We talk on what may have been the critical factors that drove our evolution and where diet, movement, social factors and environment may have played their role.

Episode breakdown
• Introducing professor Pontzer
• Herman’s education evolution
• Energy and the meaning of life
• Important points in time that drove our evolution the most
• The human ape
• The fist 5 minion years
• 2-2.5 million years ago – lifestyle changes
• What drove intelligence, brain size and development?
• What we can rule out
• The social component
• When were we at our healthiest as a species?
• Modern hunter gatherer populations
• What can we learn from hunter gatherers?
• Herman’s field work living with hunter gatherer populations.
• Big findings and insights
• Hadza tribes incredible physical output!
• The BIG surprise that challenges modern day energetics!
• Inflammation – unnecessary calorie burning
• Hadza hormonal profile
• We need to re-think exercise and diet
• Movement patterns of hunter gatherer tribes
• What do hunter gatherer people eat?
• Why the Hadza may laugh at the Paleo Diet
• The real Paleo Diet
• What makes us so sick now?
• Move, eat, connect like a hunter gatherer
• Changing how they burn energy vs how much energy is burned
• What problem would Herman love to solve right now?
• Microbiome and what else needs further research
• Herman’s wisdom that he will impart on everyone!

More from professor Pontzer here including awards, publications and more.

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