Future Human Evolution?

Question

I was thinking the other day about how much obesity there is in the US and stuff and this random thought occured to me:
If people continue eating so much junk food, would it be possible that someday we could evolve so that our bodies would be better adapted for this kind of food and it would actually be GOOD for us?

I really know pretty much nothing about evolution, could you help me out?

Answer 1

Hypothetically speaking, yes. It is possible but not probable. Evolution generally occurs as an adaptive measure of survival. In order for the entire human race to evolve (which would include drastically changing the entire metabolic processes of the body) the world we live in would also have to change quite drastically. The main staples of the planet would need to change. In other words, sugars and fatty foods would need to overtake other possible food options. As of now our bodies run much more efficiently on other healthy food. To make this short, basically the healthy population of the world would need to die out leaving the unhealthy to survive. That will not happen anytime soon being that unhealthy individuals have a much shorter life expectancy. Simply put, it is survival of the fittest.

Answer 2

The thing about natural selection is that it has to encourage or block genes from being passed on. We eat junk food a lot, but most of the negative effects don't kick in until later in life, probably after the age at which we'd have children, therefore there's no selective pressure.

You could argue that if all (or nearly all) people ate junk food, and it was extremely difficult for overweight people to have kids (which it really isn't), then the local environment (mostly just America) might start to select for people who could eat junk food and stay skinny. This would be disrupted by an influx of people from other environments (immigrants), since gene pools with different selective pressures would be mixed.

Answer 3

In order for evolution to occur, a change must be advantageous to an individual, and it must be hereditary. Evolution does not occur in order to save people from dying - it is a reactive, not proactive, process. Eating junk food is not advantageous. In fact, people who eat a lot of junk food have a higher chance of developing obesity and early onset diabetes, with all the associated health problems, including a reduced fertility rate, than those who don't.
You should also consider that junk food is not available in most countries, and 95% of the world does not eat it. That would also reduce the chances of it having an impact on evolutionary changes.

Answer 4

In theory it would be possible.

But in reality, if EVERYONE really did try to only eat the junk food and live only an unhealthy live style, I have a felling that the human race would go the way of the dinosaurs long before our genetic structure adapted to it.

Answer 5

Our evolution can go many ways but I don't think obesity is in our future. A new human species may already be among us but we do not know it yet. The changes in evolution (i.e. neanderthal, modern man, etc.) appear to occur rapidly. In other words, the new species is dramatically different than the prior and it seems to occur in a short time when it does occur. I am not a religious person but I think that God and his "pixie" dust has more impact on the evolution of man than mother nature.

Answer 6

I would say no, unless there's some kind of mutation in our genes and the obesity is passed down to everyone. and I doubt people will adapt to food... from what I've learned, people and other living organisms adapt to their Environment.
and since humans create their own environment suitable for their needs, there isn't much of need to evolve ... at least not physically but we have been evolving culturally.

Answer 7

What you are saying can be true only when only junk foods are available for human being to eat. That is why, those that can survive are only the fittest for that food. However, if there are other foods, those eating the non-dangerous foods will survive longer and will outlive those eating junk foods. Therefore, those eating junk foods will become extinct while those eating healthy foods will remain.

Answer 8

until eventually something happens to our atmosphere we ought to no longer even replace. purely simply by fact we don't use something does not advise we will not nonetheless have it. Take the rhinoceros case in point. some species of them has 2 horns and a few have one. the 2nd horn does not make the different greater useful then the only with one horn. in actuality, they could the two be waiting to stay to tell the story in a single yet another's atmosphere. we can in all probability stay very such as the way we are until eventually there is reproductive isolation or something that transformations are atmosphere adequate to easily enable those with specific characteristics to stay to tell the story. the bigger the gene pool, the fewer probably we can replace.

Answer 9

I am a cardiac researcher and recently there have been the most surprising findings published. It is true that obesity leads to heart attacks, diabetes, etc. However, in obese patients that do get heart attacks and reach the hospitals in time, they have better survival than your average healthy population....INTERESTING!!!!!!!!!
So, perhaps there is some advantage to obesity, look at the elephants, hippos, etc :)

Answer 10

that sounds feasible but not likely