I added references to that part of the article so that you can check for your self. In some of these references, you’ll see that the more recent reversal of this decrease in height is attributed to an increase in consumption of meat (which can also be regarded as a decreased reliance on agricultural foods like grain).

In regard to brain size, I agree to an extent. There is convincing support for the theory that brain size isn’t always directly correlated with intelligence.¹ However, most of the anatomical changes observed during the spread agriculture are believed to be a result of inadequate nutrition. From this, it’s logical to suspect that the corresponding decrease in brain size is a result of impaired development, and it would be difficult to justify an incompletely developed brain as something other than a disadvantage.

1. Henneberg M. “Evolution of the Human Brain: Is Bigger Better?” Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology. 1998. 25(9):745-749.

Come on! Everybody knows we are gradually growing taller each generation. Why else would building codes regarding raising door and ceiling height be up for consideration??? Also, who says smaller brain size is a bad thing…..who really knows???

With all due respect, this is a short sighted perspective. There is a major difference between genetic predisposition and and true genetic disorders. Someone who is genetically predisposed to an unfavorable condition is more susceptible to the environmental factors that can cause it. This applies to most of the prevalent health problems of today such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders. In contrast, conditions like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia are caused by genetic mutations and occur regardless of environmental factors.

Your statement implies that we have little control of our health and should therefore give up and not care when in fact the opposite is true. Problems resulting from genetic predisposition are much more common than true genetic disorders, and taking a look at the list of leading causes of death in America confirms this. As such, genetic predisposition should serve as incentive to be even more mindful of our lifestyle habits.

Think of the famous quote: “if I knew I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” Even if you have great genetics that allow you to live a long life despite unhealthy habits, it doesn’t mean that these habits aren’t still impairing your quality of life or promoting premature death.

It’s a personal choice to invest effort into promoting good health, but to say that longevity and quality of life is only based on genetics is simply not true.

Here’s a relevant article that I wrote about blaming genetics for health problems.

I’m sorry to hear about your mother and I wish her the best of luck.

I can appreciate the concerns you have about what you’ve been eating. Here are two articles that I suggest you read in regard to the association between fat, cholesterol, and heart disease.

Busting the Cholesterol Myths
Hey Fat Head, You’ve Been Fed a Load of Bologna

The first article is based primarily on a book called The Cholesterol Myths by Dr. Uffe Ravnskov and includes a thorough review of research.

We each have to decide for ourselves what’s best to eat, and regardless of what you choose, I encourage you to learn more and make an educated decision.

Since your dietary decisions seem to have been based more on weight loss than health, it’s important to realize that there are many other factors to consider such as the source and quality of the food, if and how it’s been processed, and how it’s been prepared. For example, oxidized polyunsaturated fats are believed to increase the risk of heart disease, and this is something that applies to most fried and processed foods. Trans fat should be a concern as well. Regardless of whether a diet is low carb or low fat, it’s still extremely important to choose high quality natural whole foods.

My point is that excessive carbohydrate consumption in general is bad and that Cheerios contributes to it. Furthermore, cheerios is a processed food that is very likely to be much less nutritious than most natural whole foods. I’d agree that there are much worse things to eat for breakfast, but there are also foods that would be much better.

I’m an active athlete and do very well on fewer than 100 grams of carbohydrates per day. So do many others. What’s important to consider here is nutritional individuality and that while some may thrive on 300 grams of carbohydrates per day, it may be far too much for others.

My intent is to help people learn how to take better care of themselves. General Mills’ intent is to sell cereal. In my opinion, these intentions are drastically different and I’m certainly not paying lobbyists to promote mine. However, it doesn’t really matter because everyone should embrace the importance of evaluating the information available to them and making their own informed decisions.

As long as big industry and it’s government friends continue to neglect welfare of the general public, I think we’ll continue to see fraudulent theories like what we see with cholesterol, saturated fat, and heart disease. However, the general public is not free of blame. We need to educate ourselves and start making more informed decisions that will discourage all of this from happening. For the most part, it seems that industry will follow what the consumer wants and government will follow what industry wants. As long as we continue buying low cholesterol and low fat food that’s full of sugar and chemicals, we’ll continue to get it!

How long do you think it will be before the fraudulent theories on fat and cholesterol come to an end once and for all? Sometimes I will feel encouraged and other times, I think we’re just as far away as ever.

The mainstream news media and press, with the help of big pharma just seem to get louder and louder whenever the truth steps in their way. The public just doesn’t understand this stuff as well as we need to.