Kirjahaku

'Engrossing, richly informative . . . challenges us to rethink universal health benchmarks' New YorkerA new way of thinking about diversity and what really unites us, from the internationally renowned author of BurnReal diversity isn’t skin deep. Over the past 100,000 years, as humans expanded into every biome on the planet, our bodies and our cultures have been fine-tuned to our local environments. Beyond the physical demands of our climate, we live our lives immersed in ideas and norms that affect what we eat, how we move and why we get sick – all of which, in turn, affect how our bodies work.As an evolutionary anthropologist conducting ground-breaking research with human populations around the globe, Herman Pontzer has come to see much more clearly how our genes and environments combine to shape our bodies and our health: for better or worse. In this book, he takes us on a tour of the human body and the surprising ways it can change in response to its environment: from the Andean groups who have developed increased lung capacity to the Sama divers who have larger spleens. He also highlights the critical ways we misinterpret biological adaptations: in healthcare, public policy and individual choices.With so much of our wellbeing and public discourse centred on human biology, a clear understanding of the distinction between socially constructed and genetic differences is more important than ever. This timely reappraisal of an overlooked science is an essential guide to our remarkable bodies.

A new understanding of how our bodies work, how to keep them healthy, and how our biological diversity unites us rather than divides us How does the body work--and why does it seem to work so differently for each of us? Why do we grow tall or short, obese or slim? Why do some of us stay healthy despite our bad habits while others who do all the right things fall ill? When we look around the planet, why do people vary in skin color, facial features, stature, body proportions, and disease risk? The answer is both simple and powerful: We're different because we're adaptable. Over the past 100,000 years, as humans expanded into every biome on the planet, our bodies were fine-tuned to our local environments. Adaptability is at the heart of being human and the engine of our diversity - our species' original superpower. As an evolutionary anthropologist working with human populations around the globe, Herman Pontzer has conducted research that embraces our incredible diversity, documenting the connections among lifestyle, landscape, local adaptations, and health. Adaptable takes us on a tour of the human body. In each chapter, we learn how our bodies navigate an uncertain world: how we grow and mature; how our brains develop and learn; how our hearts, lungs, and digestive systems deliver oxygen and nutrients; how we manage toxins, temperature, and water balance; how we move and reproduce; how our immune system keeps invaders at bay; and how we age and decline. Along the way, we learn how to take care of our remarkable bodies, and that the universe of healthy lifestyles is vast (we don't need the latest fad diet or cleanse ). Crucially, we come to see how understanding our bodies helps us make sense of the big issues we face today, from vaccines to heart disease, IQ to athletic excellence, diets and obesity to sex and gender, and what we can do to live longer and healthier.

Energy is the currency of life; without it, we die. And yet we continue to misunderstand how our metabolism works, and therefore we develop diets, exercise programs and strategies that end up failing in our attempts to lose weight. Drawing on his fieldwork with the Hadza of Tanzania and his study of primate evolution, Herman Pontzer explains how our bodies developed a great capacity to store energy to protect against periods of scarcity and famine. This book dives into how diet and physical activity affect our weight, and how our modern sedentary, overeating lifestyles have had disastrous consequences for our health. You'll never think about food and exercise the same way again.

"I Bränn presenteras mastiga fakta på lättillgängligt sätt, varvat med författarens egna forskningsresor och vedermödor i bush och laboratorium, förmedlat med stor dos självironi och humor."BTJI denna omskakande bok avslöjar Herman Pontzer hur vår ämnesomsättning verkligen fungerar. Träning ökar inte vår ämnesomsättning och gör oss inte smalare. I stället förbränner vi kalorier inom ett mycket snävt intervall. Detta var en framgångsrik strategi för att överleva i tider av hungersnöd. I dag kan det dessvärre leda till fetma.Boken är fylld av anekdoter från verkliga livet och från Pontzers studieresor hos de fåtal befolkningar som lever som människan gjort under lång tid tillbaka, till exempel hadza-folket i Afrika. De rör sig omkring fem timmar om dagen utan att förbränna mer än en person som aldrig motionerar. Å andra sidan kan elitidrottare driva kroppen för långt och bränna kalorier snabbare än deras kroppar kan ta upp. De största idrottsliga prestationerna är därför inte bara resultatet av effektiv träning, utan av ett häpnadsväckande effektivt matsmältningssystem.Pontzers avslöjanden om människans ämnesomsättning kan i förlängningen förklara såväl fetmaepidemin i västerlandet som de verkliga hälsoaspekterna av fysisk aktivitet.