FORMAT: 80 minute LECTURES
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READING: One BROAD REVIEW OR BOOK CHAPTER per session, posted on website and sent to each student by e-mail.
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DAY: Tuesdays and Thursdays
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TIME: 5:00 pm to 6:20 pm
LOCATION: CENTR 115
EXAMS: Exams have to be taken in person.
1) October 30 5 pm to 6:00 pm,1 hour, multiple choice,
2) December 11 7 pm to 9:59 pm, 2 hours 59 minutes, simple sentence replies to questions
EVALUATION: Grades will be based on reading questions submitted (25%), and Midterm (25%) and Final exam (50%)
performances.
WEB PAGE: https://www.pascalgagneux.com/copy-of-anbi-141-evo-diet
Recordings of lecture, PDF of slides, key concepts, and practice questions will be posted after each lecture.
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HONESTY: This course does not tolerate academic dishonesty and follows UCSD policy on this matter. For more information
see below.
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OFFICE
HOURS: Friday 1pm to 3pm at my CARTA office :
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LECTURES:
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Thursday, September 25
1. What is Food?
"You are what you eat". Autotrophy versus heterotrophy, Plants as the basis of food, the molecular nature of food
Reading 1: none
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Tuesday, September 30
2. Culture and Food
"You eat what you are". Norms about local food, purity and health, cooking and eating habits
Reading 2: Food, Self and Identity. Claude Fischler. 1988. Anthropology of Food, Social Science Information
Thursday, October 2
3. Eating Landscapes
Ecology provides the menu, the eaters need to distinguish and choose.
Reading 3: The Sensory Ecology of Primate Food Perception Dominy N. et al. , 2001. Evolutionary Anthropology
Tuesday, October 7
4. Dietary Adaptation
Poisonous landscapes and chemical tricks, with help from little friends, the gut microbiome.
Reading 4: Anti-nutritional factors in plant foods: Potential health benefits and adverse effects. Habtamu Fekadu Gemede, Negussie Ratta 2014 International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences
Thursday, October 9
5. Broad versus Narrow
Generalist versus specialist, biochemical and behavioral demands of narrow or general diets.
Reading 5: The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: meat-based, yet non-atherogenic L Cordain et al. 2002 European Journal of Clinical Nutrition Suppl 1, S42–S52
Tuesday, October 14
6. Leaves, Fruit, Seeds, or Animals?
How many hours a day do you want to be chewing? Easy to find low energy food versus difficult to find rich food?
Reading 6: The gourmet ape: evolution and human food preferences. John R Krebs. 2009. Am J Clin Nutr.
Thursday, October 16
7. Extractive Foraging
When food forces you to work: hard shells, underground food, defended seeds etc: chimpanzee nut-cracking, acorn leaching, yams treatments, nixtamalization.
Reading 7: Life history, cognition and the evolution of complex foraging niches. Schuppli C. et al.. 2016. J. of Human Evolution
Tuesday, October 21
8. Hunting/Scavenging
The rewards and risks of meat. Humans as top carnivores.
Reading 8: Origins of the Human Predatory Pattern - The Transition to Large-Animal Exploitation by Early Hominins by Jessica C. Thompson, Carvalho, S. et al. 2009.Current Anthropology.
Thursday, October 23
9. Vitamins, things your body cannot make
A little bit of many things.
Reading 9: The Historical Evolution of Thought Regarding Multiple Micronutrient Nutrition. Richard D. Semba. 2012. The Journal of Nutrition
Tuesday, October 28
10. Minerals and Water
Salt and water, no life without them!
Reading 10: The ancestral human diet: what was it and should it be a paradigm for contemporary nutrition? S. Boyd Eaton. 2006. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society
Thursday, October 30
MIDTERM (100 multiple choice questions)
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Tuesday, November 4
11. The Immunological Paradox of Food
food is foreign, but we need it to get into our bodies. How do we avoid immune responses against every food?
Reading 11: Johnston, L.K. , Chien, K.B., and Bryce, P.J. The Immunology of Food Allergy, J Immunol 2014; 192:2529-2534
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Thursday, November 6
12. The Invention of Cuisine
mash, ferment and cook
Reading 12: Humans as Cucinivores. Furness & Bravo. 2015 J. Comp Physiology B
Tuesday, November 11
No Class, Veteran's Day
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Thursday, November 13
13. Fire on Demand
Fire technology: using occasional fire versus fire on demand
Reading 13: The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. David M. J. S. et al. Journal of Biogeography (2011) 38, 2223–2236
Tuesday, November 18
14. Farming, its Promise and its Price
The last interglacial and the independent invention of farming around the world.
Reading 14: The agricultural revolution as environmental catastrophe: Implications for health and lifestyle in the Holocene Clark Spencer Larsen. 2006 .Quaternary International 150: 12–20
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Thursday, November 20
15. The Story of Sugar
Primates are destined to love sugar.
Reading 15: Gagneux, P. Sweetness in Human Evolution. 2015. Oxford Companion to Sweets. Oxford University Press. Darra Goldstein Editor.
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Tuesday, November 25
16. Industrial Food Production
From small farm gardens and fields to global agribusiness and industry
Reading 16: The Industrial Food Stream and its Alternatives in the United States: An Introduction Mark A. Grey. 2000. Human organization
Thursday, November 27
No Class Thanksgiving
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Tuesday, December 2
17. Let Them Eat Cake!
Feeding the masses, making profit and the global health crisis.
Reading 17: Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults. Phelps, Nowell H et al. 2024. The Lancet.
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Thursday, December 4
18. The Future of Food
The Future of Food. Chris M. Galanakis, 2024 Foods https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13040506
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Monday, December 12. 7pm- 9:59pm
FINAL EXAM (cumulative):
50 short answer questions, 50 multiple choice questions.
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Statement on Academic Integrity:
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“Academic Integrity is expected of everyone at UC San Diego. This means that you must be honest, fair, responsible, respectful, and trustworthy in all of your actions. Lying, cheating or any other forms of dishonesty will not be tolerated because they undermine learning and the University’s ability to certify students’ knowledge and abilities. Thus, any attempt to get, or help another get, a grade by cheating, lying or dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Integrity Office and will result sanctions. Sanctions can include an F in this class and suspension or dismissal from the University. So, think carefully before you act. Before you act ask yourself the following questions: a) is my action honest, fair, respectful, responsible & trustworthy and, b) is my action authorized by the instructor? If you are unsure, don’t ask a friend—ask your instructor, instructional assistant, or the Academic Integrity Office. You can learn more about academic integrity at academicintegrity.ucsd.edu” (Source: Tricia Bertram Gallant, Ph.D., UCSD Academic Integrity Office, 2017)
