THE PROJECT
The project of creating this website started on November 2013 as an idea for my Bachelor’s thesis. I wanted to do a review on human being evolution related with nutrition and health status. This idea came to me after reading the report of The State of Food and Agriculture from FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [1]). The report wasn’t a new discovery but it made me aware about the real situation: 870 million people are starving, while 500 million are obese. This statement made me think:
What are the changes that brought us in this situation as specie? Then I thought it would be interesting to disclose this information, as scientific as possible, to most of the population in order to create food behaviour awareness and improve our health.
Through this website I'm going to look close how nutrition, either biologically or sociologically, has influenced the physiological evolution of humans beings. From the changes in the diet and the properties of the food itself, until what are we eating, how we perform and how it is affecting our health. All this linked with social changes that have been crucial for getting us to the point where we are now.
The website as an educational tool
There are two reasons why I chose to make a website as educational tool. First of all because I think is the best way to divulgate knowledge among population. You can fit all your information in the same place and link it with other pages. And the other reason is that a website leads people interact among them using forums creating network, connecting with those who share your interests and so on increase the material (so, the knowledge) on it and even improve it for a better understanding. Moreover this framework allows you to create relationships in order to share tips and ideas or solve problems.
The author and the goal
I´m Maria Borràs and I´m 23. This year I´m finishing my Bachelor in Biology in the UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and in Spain is compulsory to make a final assignment called TFG (Treball de Fi de Grau), similar to a Bachelor’s thesis. I wanted to do something related with health and society and also something to create consciousness about our feeding habits and how do we perform when food is involved. That´s why I chose to create a website: to spread the knowledge among the society and give tools for a better understanding and better performing of our feeding behaviours.
One of the goals is to see if prehistoric eating patterns have anything to do with today´s chronic diseases, i.e. obesity. I´m going to try to focus on the most important changes that had occurred in the history of our specie and how those changes had influenced our actual diet and the corresponding diseases. Lots of research has to be done on that field due to its broadness. Thus, this website focuses on some of the evolutionary patterns that brought us where we are now and attempt to give some clues to a better performing of our attitudes towards food an everything surrounding it.