How evolution has shaped everything you do

Please. Evolution?

Evolution is the idea that the most advantageous characteristics remain or become more prevalent in a species over time because it increases the survival and reproduction rate of that species.

And it has shaped everything you do, feel, and crave.

Much like me, you've likely given much thought to your body. Social media, magazines, advertisements, clothing, food products and so much more remind us daily about what the 'healthy' size, shape and texture our bodies should be. I certainly must admit I don't think of my body - my two legs, dexterous hands, my brain - as being some evolutionary marvel when faced with the toxic demands of our society.

Like many, I've been led to believe that there is only one way to be healthy and ultimately happy: eat your vegetables, go on 3 runs a day, have a family, read 5 books a week, and obviously look good, smell good and feel good whilst doing all of it.

Evolution has made us susceptible to believing people's - and social media’s - views.

Think about it. Ancient humans used to live in small tribes, each of them usually spending at least half a day scavenging and hunting for food. They were entirely dependent on what they learnt from trial and error, and the knowledge of others. Hunter-gatherers would share their wisdom with one another, and wouldn't lie or deceive -- there was no profit or personal gain from it.

This has informed a broader phenomenon called ‘truth bias’, which implies we tend to believe what others say is true. Today, in an era of misinformation and fake news, we still think people tell the truth most of the time, even when we may have a good reason not to (that is, even our own senses). Truth bias is compounded when many people believe the same lie, and is called ‘meta-cognitive myopia’.

In the 1950s, Solomon Asch conducted an experiment which aimed to discern to what extent a person's own opinion is influenced by those of a group. Each participant was put in a room of pretend participants, and the actual participant was unaware that everyone else was an actor. They were asked to complete a vision test, in which they had to choose which line out of the three matched the line segment shown. For 12 out of 18 trials, the actors were told to choose the incorrect line. The results indicated that participants conformed to the incorrect group answer on average ⅓ of the time.

What caused us to work this way? You guessed it -- evolution.

No matter what social media or the masses tell you, there is no 'one size fits all' when it comes to the diet we should eat, how much and what type of exercise is best and - most importantly - what a healthy body looks like.

Undoubtedly however, communicable and especially noncommunicable diseases have never been so ubiquitous: from Type 2 diabetes to osteoporosis (the weakening of bone tissue), humankind suffers from more diseases than it has ever before. Shouldn't modern medicine be reducing these problems?

The issue (or rather, issues) is not the fault of overworked doctors or lazy scientists, it's in our innate instincts, cravings and literally how our bodies function - a product of millions of years of evolution - and how all these reasons have sculpted modern lifestyles.

Why does an apple a day keep the doctor away?

As Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Homo Deus (meaning 'man god' in Latin), had well put, "sugar is now more dangerous than gunpowder." According to the World Health Organisation, 1.5 million deaths per year are directly attributed to diabetes worldwide. By contrast, war causes around 100,000 deaths per year worldwide.

Biologically speaking, almost every feature - down to a subcellular level - of the human body (and of any organism) has a specific, integral function which it evolved to do. When this function is compromised or when the stimulus which it responds to is different, the body's counter system kicks in or it overcompensates. Pain, for example, is your body's message to you to be tender with that area while it is being repaired. Pus from a wound is fluid containing dead tissue and bacteria, an attempt to flush the harmful bacteria out of your system.

So when your body has evolved to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, get lots of exercise and socialise, that is precisely what’s best for it.

Then why do we live in a society abundant with highly sugary and starchy foods, escalators and cars and so many social divisions, if it’s so bad for our well-being?

We can blame our brains, really.

Harari has a controversial perspective on our consciousness, which is what makes decisions for us -- whether we eat an apple or a banana or those crisps, play The Last of Us or Hitman 3. Harari says that our ‘consciousness’ is actually just a series of incredibly complicated and synchronised ebbs and flows of electrons and information. Practically, this means that each of us don’t actually make any conscious decisions. Urges and electrical impulses do this for us. Did you eat the apple because you chose to, or because genes and electrical impulses program you to like apples more than bananas, and above all, crisps and chocolate?

So, then, our brains force us to stay in bed, scroll on social media, and eat a ton of fast food.

Like stated previously, every feature - including behaviours - of an organism is beneficial to it in some way.

Staying in bed means we don’t exercise and spend precious energy on moving, and so we have more energy to develop our big brains, fight off infections and repair tissues better. We’ve evolved to crave salty, starchy and sweet foods because each (and all combined) is so energy-dense, and provide us with energy for our body to do much of the same. Social media keeps us entertained all day long, so we don’t seek in-person experiences as greatly as we needed to in hunter-gatherer societies. Each activity (or lack thereof) also provides us with psychological rest, which means we don’t release cortisol (the stress hormone) or adrenaline that make us feel anxious and jumpy and drained afterwards.

That’s great then! Evolution has built in these urges, making me happy and stress-free when I lazy around and eat stereotypically unhealthy foods. What’s the catch?

Evolution is a blind and a really, really long process, and it doesn’t protect against times of overabundance. For example, we evolved to eat low-calorie, fibrous and low-sugar foods - because that's what the environment provided us with thousands of years ago - but we also evolved to crave sugary foods, such as honey, to motivate us to obtain them. Fibre slows dows sugar absorption in the intestine, so that the release of insulin the pancreas produces is more slow and precise (which is why the body becomes desensitised to insulin in Type 2 diabetes; it's caused by a consistently high sugar intake).

That is especially important when this one really smart species - which natural selection inspired - experienced the Agricultural Revolution and then later the Industrial Revolution.

After the Cognitive Revolution, when well-connected and big brains in Homo sapiens became favoured, our cultures and behaviours changed more rapidly than natural selection could change our bodies and brains. This means, basically, evolution in modern humans became a more and more irrelevant process as cultures, knowledge and languages bloomed. Our combined wisdom and our ability to communicate and coordinate (along with our really good stamina), made us an apex predator.

Starting around 12,000 years ago, farming and cattle ranching became more prevalent than hunting and foraging as humans realised they needed easier ways to gather food for an increasing population.

This, however, had a multitude of drawbacks. In fact, many scientists believe the rise of farming was a massive mistake for humankind.

The most important downside of agriculture was providing the perfect conditions for the spread of disease. Moist and warm environments, lack of sanitation, high population density and close contact with animals caused an influx of communicable diseases Homo sapiens had little immunity against. Furthermore, creating monocultures of only a few crops (such as lentils) meant we put all our eggs in one basket; one blight or one new pest took down entire communities.

Thousands of years of famine and disease later, humans finally jogged their brains a little harder. The spark of the Industrial and Scientific Revolution improved sanitation, medicine, agriculture and living conditions (though rather disproportionately).

Today, it means that people don’t use science to only improve the basic state of affairs. Everything can be made more convenient, more cheap, more accessible. In fact, we need lower costs and more accessibility. We’re wired to do so.

We made escalators, lifts, cars and public transport, all to reduce physical activity. We genetically modified plants and selectively bred animals to get tastier, more nutritious food. Then we automated a lot of the farming process and produced pesticides to increase crop yields and reduce manual labour.

Mostly at the expense of nature and human exploitation.

Where has it gotten us?

To be cynical, health-wise, not in a very good position.

People are more likely to die from Type 2 diabetes than from anything else due to the overconsumption of McDonald’s cheeseburgers and sugar.

Osteoporosis has never been so common in this epidemic of inactivity.

Covid-19, a single disease, debilitated the world.

Body dysmorphia and mental illness is stigmatised. Men in the US are as likely to commit suicide as to die of Alzheimer’s.

What do we do about it?

I could tell you, “exercise everyday”, or “reduce your Snicker intake” and “become a scientist and find the cure for insanity”. While all of these would certainly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and mental disorders, these expectations are idealistic and boring. You’ve heard it all before.

I can only supply you with knowledge that, personally, blew my mind. This information may prompt a tiny change in your lifestyle, alter your views, or do entirely nothing.

It hasn't revolutionised my routine either. But it has changed my perspective on some things.

I cycle to Sixth Form often, mainly due to the convenience - it's a faster mode of transport. When my legs burn with exhaustion, I think, as cliche as it is, “My body was built for this.” It has made me realise that the behests of society (tanned muscles, luscious hair, no stretch marks) are petty.

So, you tell me. What will you do about what you've read?

SOURCES (and recommendations!)

The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Why humans believe most people are telling the truth - even when we’re told they’re lying by Cass R. Sunstein https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-humans-believe-most-people-are-telling-truth-even-when-ncna1259456

Asch Conformity Experiment Explained by modern therapy https://moderntherapy.online/blog-2/asch-conformity-experiment-explained#:~:text=The%20experiment%20concluded%20that%20people,they%20are%20(informational%20influence).

Why humans are optimised for endurance running, not speed by Laurence O’Dwyer https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/mar/14/why-humans-are-optimised-for-endurance-running-not-speed

What was the Neolithic Revolution? by Erin Blakemore https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/neolithic-agricultural-revolution

Leading Causes of Death - Males - All races and origins - United States 2016 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/lcod/men/2016/all-races-origins/index.htm