In 1782, the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier and his friend Pierre-Simon Laplace locked a guinea pig in a double-walled metal chamber and filled snow between the two outer walls. They were trying to find out how quickly the cooling substance would melt due to the body heat produced by the test animal, and they wanted to link the heat required for this to the carbon dioxide exhaled by the guinea pig.
In this way, the French scientists discovered what is now known as metabolism, and they were also the first to count calories in order to give heat energy a measurable unit. Since then, calories have become a huge topic that drives many health-conscious people today and brings a growing number of diet guides to the bookstores. While the authors of such books seem to have everything figured out when it comes to the body's metabolism, evolutionary anthropologists tend to think the opposite and list metabolic myths (New Scientist, February 27, 2021).
For example, it was thought that physical exertion burns a lot of calories, but when precise measurements were taken of the Hazda ethnic group in northern Tanzania, whose physical activity is five times higher than that of European people, it was found that their calorie consumption was hardly any different. And this was also true in many other manageable communities. This leads to the conclusion that bodies are able to regulate calorie consumption within a narrow range, regardless of lifestyle. This is why no one can lose weight by exercising, even if the opposite is expected.
To lose weight, we need to eat less, which is what many diet guides have in mind, with some recommending a return to Stone Age eating habits, which is then promoted as a Paleo diet with nuts and berries. In fact, evolutionary arguments are used to promote this, as humans are supposed to be adapted to it. This sounds well-founded, but overlooks the fact that even in the Stone Age there was no one-size-fits-all diet and ignores the findings of archaeologists that even in the Paleolithic a mixture of meat and vegetables was the preferred diet for humans. It's the mixture that counts - in life as well as in cooking.
