Human diets in transition: evolutionary legacies, cultural change and modern food environments

This conference paper synthesizes selected perspectives from the interdisciplinary lecture series “Il Cibo Siamo Noi: biologia, società, evoluzione” (“Food Is Who We Are: Biology, Society, Evolution”; April–May 2025), organized by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia. Its aim is to examine human diet as a biocultural phenomenon, shaped by the long-term interaction between biological evolution, cultural practices, subsistence strategies, and changing food environments. Adopting a diachronic perspective, the paper considers how major dietary transitions have influenced human physiology, genetic adaptation, and the gut microbiota, while also contributing to contemporary forms of biological and cultural mismatch. It then discusses the Mediterranean diet as a historically rooted dietary model in which health, cultural heritage, and environmental sustainability remain closely connected, despite growing pressures from urbanization, convenience foods, and industrialized dietary patterns. Selected contemporary dietary models, including therapeutic and popular diets, are considered to illustrate how scientific evidence, adherence, cultural appeal, and sustainability interact in current nutrition debates. Finally, the paper addresses the circulation of nutrition misinformation and the role of open access and the “third mission” of academia in improving public engagement with nutrition science. By integrating evolutionary, cultural, biomedical, and environmental perspectives, the paper argues for dietary approaches that reconnect health promotion with biological history, cultural meaning, and sustainability.