Kurt G. Harris, M.D.

Dr. Harris graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 1983 and received his M.D. from University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1987. A senior member of the American Society of Neuroradiology, he spent several years in academic positions at Iowa, including Assistant Professor in Radiology, before entering private practice. He has long been interested in science and medicine as culture, and believes all scientific claims should be subject to thoughtful skepticism.

The diseases of civilization - diabetes, obesity, common cancers, alzheimer dementia, etc. -are largely related to abandonment of the metabolic conditions we evolved under - what Dr. Harris terms the "evolutionary metabolic milieu" - the EM2. 

We can make sense of many of the diseases that are prevalent now and relate them to simple but profound changes that have occurred with the introduction of agriculture and the industrialization of our foodways. These changes are related to how our food environment interacts with the metabolic environment in our bodies. The concept of the EM2 is not derived from a single science or field of inquiry, but draws first on medical sciences like biochemistry and endocrinology, and only then looks back with history and paleoanthropology.

Many of the diseases afflicting humanity are not a natural part of the aging process, but are likely side effects of technological and other changes in the way we eat and live that have occurred since the dawn of agriculture roughly 10,000 years ago. These changes seem to center largely on the sequential introduction of what what Dr. Harris calls neolithic agents of disease - agents like wheat, excess fructose and excess linoleic acid (omega 6 fats) that, in modern amounts, are relatively novel on an evolutionary timescale.

This blog will post on elements of Archevore theory and how to emulate or achieve the EM2, and also commentary about relevant scientific studies. There will also be a liberal sprinkling of more wide- ranging commentary on science and culture as well.

Please note that Dr. Harris cannot give specific or individualized medical advice.