Show Notes
Why can’t you lose weight, and why do modern diets fail?
Today, Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman explains how evolution shapes hunger, body fat, food cravings, and modern food mistakes. You will learn why eating well can feel so hard in today’s food world.
Using themes from Daniel’s new book, Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals about Food, Diet and Eating Well, we explore how our modern food environment explains weight gain, failed diets, and confusion about what to eat. We discuss calorie counting, ultra-processed food, hunger, and why there may be no single “best” diet for everyone.
By the end of the episode, you’ll have some simple ways to make better food choices and will know how to make healthy choices easier.
If your body evolved for a world where food was scarce, what does that mean for how you eat today?
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Timecodes
Intro
The 3 reasons evolution changes what you eat
Why supermarkets make healthy eating harder
Why sugar and fat are so hard to resist
Are humans really fatter than hippos?
Why your brain burns so much energy
Why humans evolved to hold onto fat
The 3 hidden costs behind body fat
How cooking changed the human body
Why raw food may not be natural for humans
Did farming make humans less healthy?
How processed food transformed what we eat
Why modern food triggers ancient cravings
What the paleo diet gets wrong
Why there is no real paleo diet
Why calorie counting can mislead you
Why hunger beats willpower
Why weight loss often comes back
What you need to know before buying food
Why no diet is truly optimal
What the healthiest diets have in common
Are your genes really making you gain weight?
The simple shopping trick Daniel uses
Why the 8-hour sleep rule is wrong
Why stress makes you crave comfort food
Why simple diet rules fail
📚Books by our ZOE Scientists
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati
The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati
Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector
Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector
Free resources from ZOE
TheSmart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt
The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra
Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint
Howto eat in 2026- Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health
Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition
Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks
Mentioned in today's episode
Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals about Food, Diet and Eating Well by Daniel Lieberman
Comparingdietary variation between tropical hunter-gatherer groups to the Paleo Diet, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2023)
Thecarbohydrate-insulin model: a physiological perspective on the obesity pandemic, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2021)
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Episode transcripts are available here.