Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy

Pontzer, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke, pulls together years of field and lab research to cast an “evolutionary perspective” on diet, metabolism, and health in his eye-opening debut. Metabolism, or “daily energy expenditure,” isn’t a simple equation, Pontzer suggests, but rather a complex formula determined by genetics and evolution. Pontzer upends several health myths and misconceptions, including claims around keto, Paleo, and raw food diets: people have evolutionarily been “opportunistic omnivores,” eating whatever is available, including plants and animals, he concludes. He also argues that human metabolism hasn’t yet adapted to the innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the modern diet, resulting in overconsumption and ailments such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cognitive decline. As a model for living well and staying healthy, Pontzer urges readers to avoid any diet that targets one specific nutrient as “hero or villain,” and shares stories of his time with the Hadza of northern Tanzania, whose lifestyle he champions because it resembles the hunter-gatherer culture that was “the norm worldwide for over two million years.” Pontzer impressively combines well-documented conclusions, practical advice, and accessible explanations. Readers looking for a fresh take on diet, exercise, and health should take note. (Mar.)