InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Future of Food > Student Materials > Module 3: Diet and Nutrition > Module 3.1: Diet and Nutrition Basics for Global Food Systems > Nutritional Evolution of Domesticated Plants and Animals
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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Initial Publication Date: January 11, 2018

Nutritional Evolution of Domesticated Plants and Animals

With agriculture, it became possible to select varieties of crops that conformed to our tastes. Table 10.1 gives the result. A primary focus was on increasing yields, with the general result of increasing starch and sometimes sugar, but not protein. Protein often remains the same in absolute terms but decreases percentage-wise because of increase in overall size of the grain which is filled up with carbohydrates. We also have selected for increased palatability, which is to say, less fiber, usually fewer antioxidants, less bitter taste, and more sugar. Vitamins and minerals seem to have decreased in crop plants, on the whole, in part because of the emphasis on yields; but there are striking exceptions such as carrots. While the trends shown in Table 10.1 are valid for staples, traditional diets also typically included bitter herbs, high in anti-oxidants, as seasonings or medicinal teas, little altered from their wild state.

Table 10.1.1. Yield and Palatability Related Evolutionary Changes in Domesticated Plants
Calories (yield)increase
Proteindecrease
Starchincrease
Sugarincrease
Fiberdecrease
Anti-oxidantsdecrease
Bitternessdecrease
Vitamin and mineral contentgenerally decrease, but not always
Fat?

Animals lack starch, sugar, fiber, anti-oxidants, and bitterness. But they do contain fat, and our domesticated animals today are much fattier than their wild ancestors, both genetically and due to how we raise them. For instance, stockyard, grain-fed beef is much fattier than free range cattle, and also less nutritious. Range-fed beef is higher in omega-3 and lower in omega-6 fatty acids than stockyard beef, and the fat typically is yellow from the accumulation of Vitamin A. Domesticated plants apparently were tightly constrained in terms of fat evolution. Some species such as corn do have more fat than primitive varieties or the wild ancestor, but most of our oilseeds and nuts were domesticated from already fatty wild species. The availability of fat in our diet certainly has increased, at least in developed countries, but primarily because of increased fat in animals, and the very large number of oilseeds/nuts that we are able to cultivate on large acreages.

Thus, we now find ourselves in an evolutionary mismatch, but one that we created. By altering our food plants and animals so as to satisfy our formerly adaptive cravings, we have created an environment in which we can indulge said cravings to a degree that is extremely unhealthy.


These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »