Science & technology | Human diet

The “palaeo” diet bears little resemblance to the real thing

But refined food is bad for your waistline

Serengeti National Park. Zebra surrounded with black and white stripes. Tanzania. (Photo by: Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Herman Pontzer is eating a muffin. Over Zoom it looks delicious. A warm, brown, undulous exterior gives way to fluffy but squidgy, pale innards. It is a perfect example of all that modern capitalism has to offer in ways of processing food to sate primeval appetites.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Ham fisted”

The world China wants

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