A Contemporary Message About Evolusiton and Genes

Recently, I came across a best-selling book stating outright that our genes haven't changed in 100,000 years! This is truly an absurd statement, which points up how widespread are one-size-fits-all fallacies and beliefs in our society.
If you already haven't deduced that this statement is incorrect out of simple logic and/or from reading this book thus far, let me help to further clarify the facts of the matter.

Two genetic scientists—Michael Crawford, Ph.D., and Michael Marsh— wrote a book in 1989: The Driving Force—Food, Evolution, and The Future. According to their human genetic and evolutionary research, food is the driving force that has molded the shape of the species as well as the limiting force that has fixed lines of selection. Nowadays food is of such a commonplace nature that it is taken for granted and its qualitative relationship with long term biological considerations is overlooked. The historical changes in disease patterns, the contrast in disease incidence from country to country, and importantly, the socioeconomic contrasts within a country suggest that we are witnessing a signal of the potential power of food as a dominant factor in evolution.

Crawford and Marsh's research findings "pose serious questions as to the impact of present day food and agricultural policies on immediate and future generations," according to Beatrice Trum Hunter from the Townsend Letter in reference to this book. Crawford and Marsh believe that "among other follies, agricultural practices have emphasized yields stressing quantity rather than quality." Nutrition has not been a prime goal. For example, in animal feeding practices, both the protein and nutrient values of animal food products have been diluted by fat. In her analysis of their work, Hunter states that the authors find that food has always been a crucial factor in shaping life's evolutionary process on this planet— from the earliest time when life first emerged, up to the present, and that it will continue into the future i

If only Darwin had been a "nutritional" geneticist! The role of nutrition would have been fully empowered by his support, shaping our conception of phenotypes and perhaps giving metabolic "typing" science a boost to the forefront of our health concerns to this day—rather than the "back seat" it currently occupies.

A good example of how our genes have changed in the last 10,000 years was brought out in an article "Unkind Milk," appearing in the Harvard Health Letter (Vol. 18, No. 12, October 1993). Stephen E. Goldfinger, M.D., et alia, state that "about 10,000 years ago, according to scientists'best guess, a genetic mutation occurred among the populations of northern and central Europe that had learned to herd dairy animals and consume milk products." This historically new genetic development, which leads to the occurrence of blood type B, allowed 80% of these people and their descendants to produce ample lactose into adulthood, making them an exception to the human rule for drinking milk.