From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Mon Sep 09 2002 - 12:28:04 MDT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2002/leicester_2002/2246450.stm
The abundance of food in affluent societies is presenting the human species
with one of its greatest evolutionary challenges. Professor Andrew Prentice
told the British Association's science festival in Leicester that people were
now undergoing changes similar to those that occurred two centuries ago when
Europeans shot up in height by 30 centimetres or more. But whereas that shift
in shape is generally regarded to have been beneficial, the bulging
waistlines now seen in many countries around the world would bring nothing
but disease and misery, he said. "I'm talking about the remarkable change
that has occurred in man's evolution in just the twinkling of an eyelid," he
told the BBC. Not only has man adopted a more sedentary lifestyle, he has
been given unprecedented ready access to high-energy foods. "It's now quite a
normal biological response for people to become obese and it means a massive
increase in obesity in a way we had a big change in height 200 years ago."
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