The evolutionary biology of human body fatness / Jonathan C.K. Wells.
2010
QP88.15 .W45 2010 (Mapit)
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Details
Title
The evolutionary biology of human body fatness / Jonathan C.K. Wells.
Author
Wells, Jonathan C. K.
ISBN
9780521884204
0521884209
0521884209
Publication Details
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Language
English
Description
xi, 382 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Call Number
QP88.15 .W45 2010
Dewey Decimal Classification
599.9/4
Summary
"This comprehensive synthesis of current medical and evolutionary literature addresses key questions about the role body fat plays in human biology. It explores how body energy stores are regulated, how they develop over the life-course, what biological functions they serve, and how they may have evolved. There is now substantial evidence that human adiposity is not merely a buffer against the threat of starvation, but is also a resource for meeting the energy costs of growth, reproduction and immune function. As such it may be considered as important in our species evolution as other traits such as bipedalism, large brains, and long life spans and developmental periods. Indeed, adiposity is integrally linked with these other traits, and with our capacity to colonise and inhabit diverse ecosystems. It is because human metabolism is so sensitive to environmental cues that manipulative economic forces are now generating the current obesity epidemic"--Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Series
Cambridge studies in biological and evolutionary anthropology ; 58.
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