Food, Science, and the Human Body

Course Overview

Join an award-winning anthropologist for an exploration of the evolution of the human diet and its relationship to our bodies.

Course No. 1940

This 36-lecture course investigates fundamental questions about human nutrition through multiple scientific lenses:

• What foods did our bodies evolve to eat?
• How does diet affect our genes and cognition?
• What’s the science behind optimal nutrition?
• Can we solve world hunger with modern food science?

Drawing from anthropology, biology, history and sociology, this National Geographic collaboration reveals how food shaped human civilization and continues to impact our health today.

Key Topics Covered:

• Evolutionary origins of human diet
• Neolithic revolution and agriculture
• Global spread of staple foods
• Science of fermentation and cooking
• Gut microbiome and brain nutrition
• Modern food crises (obesity to famine)
• Future of sustainable food systems

Video Lectures

01: Paleo Diets and the Ancestral Appetite (31 min)

Examine how closely modern Paleo diets match our ancestors’ eating patterns and whether humans evolved for one specific diet.

02: Our Hunter-Gatherer Past (31 min)

Learn from Africa’s last foraging societies about how hunter-gatherer nutrition shaped human diversity.

03: Stones, Bones, and Teeth (29 min)

Discover what fossils reveal about early human diets through butchery marks, skull structures and dental patterns.

04: Did Eating Meat Make Us Human? (28 min)

Trace meat’s role in human evolution through bone evidence and analyze its nutritional pros/cons.

05: Insects: The Other White Meat (29 min)

Explore entomophagy (insect eating) practiced by 2 billion people worldwide as a protein source.

06: Was the Stone Age Menu Mostly Vegetarian? (29 min)

Reassess plant food’s importance through microfossils and Tanzanian foragers’ tuber-processing techniques.

07: Cooking and the Control of Fire (29 min)

Follow humanity’s culinary evolution from 1 million-year-old roasting stones to modern kitchens.

08: The Neolithic Revolution (30 min)

Understand how farming permanently altered human nutrition, population growth and disease vectors.

09: The Changing Disease-Scape (29 min)

Examine zoonotic diseases (Lyme, malaria, E. coli) that emerged alongside animal domestication.

10: How Foods Spread around the World (30 min)

Track delocalization through bananas, apples, tomatoes and corn’s global journeys.

11: The History of the Spice Trade (29 min)

Discover how pepper, cloves and ginger fueled empires and changed world history.

12: How Sugar and Salt Shaped World History (29 min)

Analyze sugar extraction methods, salt’s non-dietary uses, and health impacts of overconsumption.

13: A Brief History of Bread (28 min)

Study bread’s civilizational role from ancient leavening to today’s artisanal movement.

14: The Science and Secrets of Chocolate (30 min)

Follow chocolate’s chemical properties and transformation into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

15: Water: The Liquid of Life (30 min)

Examine global water use, fluoridation debates, and conservation strategies.

16: Beer, Mead, and the Fun of Fermentation (30 min)

Trace humanity’s accidental discovery and enduring love affair with alcoholic beverages.

17: Humanity’s Love of Wine (30 min)

Explore viticulture science, cork alternatives, and ancient wines like Greek retsina.

18: Coffee: Love or Addiction? (29 min)

Investigate coffee’s global impact from harvesting methods to caffeine’s neurological effects.

19: The Roots of Tea (28 min)

Compare 1,500 tea varieties and their spread from Asia to European tea bag innovations.

20: The Fizz on Soda (30 min)

Chart soda’s journey from medicinal tonic to obesity contributor in the Coke-Pepsi wars.

21: Food as Ritual (28 min)

Analyze symbolic eating from Ramadan fasting to Day of the Dead sugar skulls.

22: When People Eat Things That Aren’t Food (29 min)

Study unusual consumption practices like placentophagy and anthropophagy (cannibalism).

23: Food as Recreational Drugs (32 min)

Examine psychoactive foods from magic mushrooms to chocolate addictions.

24: Food as Medicine (31 min)

Evaluate medicinal foods like ginger (digestion), cinnamon (Chinese medicine) and pomegranate.

25: The Coevolution of Genes and Diet (30 min)

Discover how genes adapted to metabolize lactase, amylase and omega-3 fatty acids.

26: The Scoop on Poop (31 min)

Learn what coprolites (fossilized feces) and Roman latrines reveal about ancient diets.

27: The Gut Microbiome (30 min)

Understand how 30-50 trillion gut bacteria aid metabolism and defend against pathogens.

28: Brain Food (29 min)

Explore diet-brain connections through insulin, food cravings and the MIND diet’s neuroprotection.

29: You Are What Your Mother Ate (29 min)

See how fetal nutrition affects adult health through Dutch famine studies and gene expression.

30: Civilization: Diets and Diseases (31 min)

Track epidemiological shifts from infectious diseases to modern diabetes and Zika outbreaks.

31: What the World Is Eating (25 min)

Tour UNESCO-protected cuisines from Japanese washoku to French gastronomy.

32: The Overnutrition Epidemic (29 min)

Analyze global obesity drivers: sedentary lifestyles and sugar-heavy diets.

33: World Poverty and Undernutrition (31 min)

Confront hunger affecting 1 in 8 people worldwide and “plump poverty” paradoxes.

34: Should the World Eat Meat? (33 min)

Debate meat production’s environmental costs and sustainable alternatives.

35: Should We Be Powered by Plants? (32 min)

Weigh vegetarianism’s health benefits against GMO and organic food controversies.

36: The Future of Food (36 min)

Envision tomorrow’s food systems with lab-grown meat, vertical farms and agroforestry.