After the success of May’s Book of the Month here is my Book of the Month {June 2016} albeit just in the nick of time.
This is The Story Of The Human Body, by Daniel Lieberman.
The author is an incredibly intelligent fellow with more qualifications than you could shake a stick at, yet he presents the subject in an almost jovial manner which is accessible and easy to relate to.
It is suited to the scientifically inclined, but does not require a university degree in order to read it, although you may feel like you have one by the time you have finished.
As the title suggests, this is a book about how we got our bodies and why our bodies work the way they do. The sub title is Evolution, Health and Disease, and as the cover of my first edition copy implies, subjects covered include diet and exercise and overall human health.
I use the knowledge gained from my reading this book in my work, but also in making everyday decisions. When you understand more about your body and the way it works you can take on life’s challenges and choices with more confidence and less stress.
Photo Credit: Grimley
Especially at this time when we are being bombarded with constant media noise about our health, diet and exercise. What we should and shouldn’t eat, that exercise is good for us, no wait, exercise is bad for us and fats are giving us heart disease, no wait they help prevent it…flipping heck. It is hard to know who to listen to. This is where this book can give you the power to understand what is good for you and why. If you can understand just a little about why your body works the way it does you can more easily understand what food, activities and life choices are best for you.
The author takes us on a journey from how we got our bodies in the first place. How we developed to thrive in our surroundings and evolved to walk and run which gave us a huge advantage in the ultimate fight for survival and reproduction. How we were able to develop bigger brains than the competition and use them to advance the human race.
Then it gets a little more shocking…
Photo Credit: Grimley
We learn about how and why we started farming and that it wasn’t all good. We find out what this really meant for human health and disease. How we accelerated rapidly towards an industrialised world with all mod cons fast food and medicine.
This is, ultimately, the story of how our body is a wonderful creation capable of incredible things, but how just maybe the world our big brains have created is making us less healthy and less wonderful through convenience, disuse and excess.
There is, as in all great works of this kind, a generous offering of solutions that we can all take comfort in. There are solutions here that anyone can take away with them in order to live a little better, healthier and a longer life. I certainly have and I plan on living as long and healthy a life as possible.
If you are intrigued to buy a copy Click Here.
Daniel Lieberman is Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology
and the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences at Harvard University. He has a good few letters after his name too.
If you’re looking for an even more in depth look at the human evolutionary story, I can highly recommend his earlier book The Evolution of the human Head. Click Here