Perspective: Darwinian Applications to Nutrition-The Value of Evolutionary Insights to Teachers and Students
Artikkelen setter ernæringsfaget i evolusjonsbiologisk lys. Den fremhever det vitenskapelige arbeidet som foreligger innen evolusjonsmedisin og presenterer eksempler på nytteverdi for undervisere og studenter.
Forfatter
Eirik Garnås
Navn på tidsskrift
Advances in Nutrition
Hovedbudskapet er at utviklingslæren gir dyp og grunnleggende forståelse om kroppslige funksjoner og behov som i dag mangler i pensum. Med støtte fra Darwin kan ernæringsfaget forankres i et solid og bærende fundament.
Abstract
Evolutionary biology informs us that the living world is a product of evolution, guided by the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection. This recognition has been fruitfully employed in a number of issues in health and nutrition sciences; however, it has not been incorporated into education. Nutrition and dietetics students generally learn very little or nothing on the subject of evolution, despite the fact that evolution is the process by which our genetically determined physiological traits and needs were shaped. In the present Perspective article, 3 examples of topics (inflammatory diseases, nutrition transition, and food intolerance) that can benefit from evolutionary information and reasoning are given, with relevant lines of research and inquiry provided throughout. It is argued that the application of evolutionary science to these and other areas of nutrition education can facilitate a deeper and more coherent teaching and learning experience. By recognizing and reframing nutrition as an aspect and discipline of biology, grounded in the fundamental principle of adaptation, revelatory light is shed on physiological states and responses, contentious and unresolved issues, genomic, epigenomic, and microbiomic features, and optimal nutrient status and intakes.