The Driving Force: Food, Evolution and the Future

Public Lecture | Updated 1 decade ago

Underwater scene
Stock image from iStock

A public lecture by Professor Michael A Crawford - Imperial College, London

This lecture is a part of the 2013 ‘Celebrating Oceans Initiatives’ co-sponsored by the UWA Oceans Institute and the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies, the WA Museum and the Maritime Museum. 

This lecture will look at how food, particularly marine lipids, have played a determining role in the way that creatures developed on earth, and will discuss how nutrition is shaping life in the future. It points to the links between poor nutrition and modern degenerative diseases. 

The brain evolved in the sea 500-600 million years ago and still is using the same marine chemistry of the brain specific nutrient cluster which includes DHA, iodine and other trace elements essential to peroxidative neuro-protection. The expansion of the human brain could not have occurred without a rich source of DHA and other nutrients that would have been provided by a coastal habitat. In recent times, the emphasis in food production is on the use of land products, which are a poor source of brain specific lipids and other nutrients. Without much preformed DHA in the land food web, land based mammals lost relative brain size as they evolved larger bodies. The present loss of brain specific nutrients in the contemporary food production system, combined with increasing use of other land based dietary fats, which compete with the marine DHA, is a likely explanation for the rise in brain disorders. The nutrition paradigm to date has been focussed on protein and calories, which is counterproductive for the brain. The solution to the rise in brain disorders lies in a radical reappraisal of the food system to attend to the requirements of the brain. 

There is not enough fish caught today to meet the current FAO-WHO (2010) recommendations for DHA worldwide. Moreover, the world catch of fish reached a limit 20 years ago. 

Exponential population growth to 9 billion in a short time ultimately threatens extinction unless we address the supply of brain specific food. With increasing population density and the escalation of health, social and political ramifications the need is for expanding intelligence with its continued evolution. For the first time in evolutionary history we are in a position to choose and drive the direction of our intelligence. This direction will determine our future. 

About Michael Crawford 

Professor Michael Crawford has been the Director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition since 1990. 

He has published over 300 peer reviewed papers and 3 books. Amongst his several honours and prizes, he was elected by his peers to the Hall of Fame at the Royal Society of Medicine in 2010. 

Professor Crawford will be introduced by Winthrop Professor Carlos Duarte, Director of the UWA Oceans Institute. 

Event Details 

Date: 10 November 2013
Time: 2pm
Venue: Maritime Museum Fremantle
Cost: Free, but RSVP essential.
Enquiries: 6488 8116 

Book online at https://oceans2013.eventbrite.com.au/ 

Presented by the University of Western Australia