Rethinking the Way We Eat

Back to the Future: Rethinking the Way We Eat

In 1955, with the opening of the first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, post-war America took a quantum leap into the Fast Food Era. I vividly remember my family's first trip to a McDonald's—the gleaming white tile … the bright neon sign … the space age Golden Arches… food served in a bag and consumed in the car. We watched sea gulls glide over Lake Erie and we gobbled our little burgers, bags of fries, and chocolate shakes. As we tossed our burger bags in the trash and sped off in the car, we had no idea that our lives—and the lives of millions of other Americans—would never be the same.

From foraging to farming to fast food, the human diet has evolved over millions of years. The findings reported by Rautiainen et al in this issue of The American Journal of Medicine may prompt some of us to question if our diet is better now … or just different from our ancestors'.

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--Pamela Powers Hannley, MPH (Managing Editor, The American Journal of Medicine)

--This article originally appeared in the October 2012 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.