[alwaysAttending]

The problem with this claim that the western diet is part of our evolution is that we use every trick in the book to combat the negative side effects. I, for instance, have Crohn's Disease, which basically didn't exist 100 years ago. If our Western Diet were influencing our evolution, yeah maybe the population would be healthy because it would be dynamically adapting, but it'd be because people like me would be dead or dying off. But we aren't because of modern medicine. So we're not really evolving that much thanks to our diet. We're handling the negative consequences and getting stuck in a quagmire. Autoimmune diseases are increasing at a crazy rate even now in the East.

[JoeAltmaier]

Its an urban legend that modern humans are not evolving because, medicine. The bone record for the last 50,000 years shows more evolution than the previous 1M. Probably because civilization has selected for a smaller, lower-calorie, less-aggressive social individual who can thrive in a crowded village or town.

There are side effects in any rapidly-evolving creature. Sports and mutations survive because they are helpful. But they can be hurtful in other, non-fatal ways. I think modern illnesses (need glasses? have a food allergy?) are unfortunate side effects of a rapidly-changing genome.

[alwaysAttending]

Well there's a difference between evolution and natural selection. What I was implying was that our diet may not influence our evolution through natural selection because modern medicine may prevent us ridding ourselves of the bad mutations or may keep good mutations that will adapt to western diet from rising to the top. So it makes sense that we are more diverse because the best genes are less competitive. But genetic mutations occur no matter what we eat, so, yes, we'll continue to evolve.

[soylentcola]

If the genetics of the species are changing over time due to environmental factors (diet, medicine, etc) then is that literally evolution though? Evolution doesn't need to be "positive" nor does it have any goal in mind. It's just how we describe changes over time due to what is or isn't being selected for.

edit: sorry to nitpick but it's just one of those things that always gets me

[alwaysAttending]

I agree with your claim, but the post I was replying to seemed to imply a positive evolution, which is what I was responding to.