From Ancient Diets to Modern Minds

Prof. (emeritus) Dr. med. Hans Konrad Biesalski was head of the Institute of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition (1994-2016) as well as Director of the Food Security Center (FSC) at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany (2013-2017).He has over 30 years' experience in research on retinoids and their actions on cellular growth and differentiation, vitamin A and human health, especially lung diseases. First, his research activities have concentrated on antioxidants and vitamins in basic and applied research on reactive oxygen species and their role in human nutrition. Since 2010, his research is related to food quality as an indicator of adequate and healthy nutrition and micronutrients in human health and disease. As the initiator of the international Hidden Hunger conferences, he has brought widespread attention to this issue.As Principle Investigator of nutrition studies in developing countries, he studied the impact of DDT on vitamin A status in refugee camps, nutrition and food quality including RUF (ready-to-usefood) in developing countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Kenia, Samoa), the impact of climate change on food quality (Collaborate Research Center University Hohenheim and Hebrew University) and the characterization of Ethiopian edible oils and its improved use in Ethiopian diets. Furthermore, he has developed IT based programs with specific scoring systems to detect malnutrition and micronutrient intake in different groups (children, pregnant women and elderly, cancer patients); the programs are used in different trials to assess the individual nutrition status and to control intervention trials.Prof. Biesalski is a member of the editorial board of various international journals.He edited 9 textbooks related to nutrition medicine, nutrition physiology, clinical nutrition and aging. He published more than 330 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious scientific journals dealing with nutrition, vitamins and nutrition medicine.Prof. Biesalski is a member of different international societies and vitamin consultative groups, e.g. the WHO/FAO Expert Group Application of Nanotechnologies in the Food and Agriculture Sectors (Potential Food Safety Implications), the FAO/WHO BOND Initiative (Biomarker of Nutritional Deficiencies) and the High-Level Panel of Expert Group of the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition.He has received various international awards, including the highly prestigious Justus von Liebig Award for World Nutrition for his commitment to the issue of hidden hunger.

• ​Chapter 1: Introduction: What is evolution and how can we explain the fact that selection favors a specific phenotype?.- Chapter 2: Nutrition composition.- Chapter 3: Ecological and Nutritive Niches.- Chapter 4: The habitat and diet of our earliest ancestors.- Chapter 5: The development of Homo.- Chapter 6: Two million years ago: Challenges for humans - hunger and foraging in a changing environment.- Chapter 7: Homo erectus – the hunger challenge.- Chapter 8: The Evolution of Taste.- Chapter 9: They Way to Homo sapiens.- Chapter 10: The Growth of the Brain in a Changing Environment.- Chapter 11: The hippocampus and cortical networks.- Chapter 12: Diet and brain development and the importance for modern humans.- Chapter 13: Importance of micronutrients for brain development.- Chapter 14: What happens to the brain when we age?.- Chapter 15: Climate Change and the Brain.- Chapter 16: Epilogue: Sedentary Minds in a Digital Age - The Hidden Costs of Modern Comfort.