Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman thinks we pretty much need “socially acceptable coercion” to deal with our evolutionary preferences for gluttony and sloth:
When you walk into a train station and there is a staircase and an escalator, your brain always tells you to take the escalator. Given a choice between a piece of cake and a carrot, we always go for the cake. It’s not in your best interest, but it’s probably a very deeply rooted evolutionary instinct. …
If we want to practice preventive medicine, that means we have to eat foods that we might not prefer, and exercise when we don’t want to. The only way to do that is through some form of socially acceptable coercion.
Lieberman said in a talk at Harvard’s TED equivalent (Harvard Thinks Big — below) a year or so ago that as we can’t change our biology, we need to change the environment in which we live. Hmmm. Not so sure that the latter is easier!
I’m sure the 300 or so Google Reader subscribers who read this blog don’t need me to remind them that it’s going away on July 1st. But if you haven’t found an alternative yet or are, like me, waiting to see some last minute options, I thought I’d remind you anyways!

Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health, & food policy. And cats!