What do you think?
Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well
As we face today’s excess of confusing and often contradictory advice on diet and wellness, Daniel E. Lieberman—bestselling author of The Story of the Human Body and Exercised, and founding chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University—gives us a brilliant, no-nonsense book, at once fresh, entertaining, informative, and compassionate, to help us answer a question we never evolved to ask but now must consider several times a what should we eat, and why?
Contrary to widespread claims, Lieberman argues, there can be no simple, definitive answer. Using lines of evidence from evolutionary biology, physiology, anthropology, anatomy, medical science, and history, Lieberman examines, with brio and wit, the history and health effects of food from before the invention of cooking up to today’s industrially produced diets. He shows how we evolved to eat almost anything, and by evaluating and trying many of these diets (raw food, Paleo, Mediterranean, Blue Zone, intermittent fasting, Atkins, DASH), he helps you understand why none is definitive, and some are better than others.
Lieberman explores the costs and benefits of cheap, energy-rich, tempting, and often unhealthy ultra-processed foods; the tangled roots of weight gain; how diet influences obesity, heart disease, and cancer; and the claims of benefits offered by high- and low-fat diets, meal replacements, intermittent fasting, carnivorism, vegetarianism, and veganism—while showing how over centuries most cultures evolved ingenious ways to grow and cook healthy, delicious food.
This fascinating and entertaining science-based book on nutrition, digestion, and health will teach you how to be well fed instead of fed up with dietary hucksterism.
Contrary to widespread claims, Lieberman argues, there can be no simple, definitive answer. Using lines of evidence from evolutionary biology, physiology, anthropology, anatomy, medical science, and history, Lieberman examines, with brio and wit, the history and health effects of food from before the invention of cooking up to today’s industrially produced diets. He shows how we evolved to eat almost anything, and by evaluating and trying many of these diets (raw food, Paleo, Mediterranean, Blue Zone, intermittent fasting, Atkins, DASH), he helps you understand why none is definitive, and some are better than others.
Lieberman explores the costs and benefits of cheap, energy-rich, tempting, and often unhealthy ultra-processed foods; the tangled roots of weight gain; how diet influences obesity, heart disease, and cancer; and the claims of benefits offered by high- and low-fat diets, meal replacements, intermittent fasting, carnivorism, vegetarianism, and veganism—while showing how over centuries most cultures evolved ingenious ways to grow and cook healthy, delicious food.
This fascinating and entertaining science-based book on nutrition, digestion, and health will teach you how to be well fed instead of fed up with dietary hucksterism.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 11, 2026
About the author
Daniel E. Lieberman
10 books635 followersDaniel E. Lieberman is a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, where he is the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences, and chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. He is best known for his research on the evolution of the human head and the evolution of the human body.
Lieberman was educated at Harvard University, where he obtained his A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He also received a M. Phil from Cambridge University. He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and taught at Rutgers University and the George Washington University before becoming a professor at Harvard University in 2001. He is on the curatorial board of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, a member of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, and the Scientific Executive Committee of the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. He is the director of the Skeletal Biology Laboratory at Harvard University.
Lieberman studies how and why the human body is the way it is. His research combines paleontology, anatomy, physiology and experimental biomechanics in the lab and in the field. He has focused to a large extent on why and how humans have such unusual heads. He is also well known for his research on the evolution of human locomotion including whether the first hominins were bipeds, why bipedalism evolved, the biomechanical challenges of pregnancy in females, how locomotion affects skeletal function and, most especially, the evolution of running. His 2004 paper with Dennis Bramble, “Endurance Running and the Evolution of the Genus Homo” proposed that humans evolved to run long distances to scavenge and hunt. His research on running in general, especially barefoot running was popularized in Chris McDougall’s best-selling book Born to Run. Lieberman is an avid marathon runner, often barefoot, which has earned him the nickname, The Barefoot Professor.
Lieberman was educated at Harvard University, where he obtained his A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He also received a M. Phil from Cambridge University. He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and taught at Rutgers University and the George Washington University before becoming a professor at Harvard University in 2001. He is on the curatorial board of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, a member of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, and the Scientific Executive Committee of the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. He is the director of the Skeletal Biology Laboratory at Harvard University.
Lieberman studies how and why the human body is the way it is. His research combines paleontology, anatomy, physiology and experimental biomechanics in the lab and in the field. He has focused to a large extent on why and how humans have such unusual heads. He is also well known for his research on the evolution of human locomotion including whether the first hominins were bipeds, why bipedalism evolved, the biomechanical challenges of pregnancy in females, how locomotion affects skeletal function and, most especially, the evolution of running. His 2004 paper with Dennis Bramble, “Endurance Running and the Evolution of the Genus Homo” proposed that humans evolved to run long distances to scavenge and hunt. His research on running in general, especially barefoot running was popularized in Chris McDougall’s best-selling book Born to Run. Lieberman is an avid marathon runner, often barefoot, which has earned him the nickname, The Barefoot Professor.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 21, 2026
Fascinating! Armed with the facts - I ran to husband after each chapter and screamed, GUESS WHAT?!
Read
July 23, 2026Fed Up does something almost no other diet book manages: it gives readers their evolutionary inheritance back. Instead of handing us another set of rules, Lieberman shows why the rules keep changing — and why no single diet can ever be universal.
With The Story of the Human Body, Lieberman explained how evolution shaped us; with Exercised, he dismantled the fitness industry's mythology. Fed Up completes the project, turning the same evolutionary lens on the most confused and commercialized topic in all of health. And rather than judging from the armchair, he actually tests the diets himself — Paleo, raw food, intermittent fasting, and more — which turns what could have been a dry survey into something closer to a scientific adventure story. The Hadza material makes the science feel lived and human.
Some readers might complain that Lieberman never delivers "The Answer." They will have missed the point. His refusal to pick a winning dietary team is not a hedge — it is the book's central act of intellectual honesty, and it brings clarity without condescension. I invest in healthcare and write about longevity for a living, and I still found myself surprised chapter after chapter. He is also, it should be said, very funny.
Lieberman did not write another diet book. He wrote the antidote to diet books. Buy it for the friend who has tried every diet — and read it yourself before the next one finds them.
With The Story of the Human Body, Lieberman explained how evolution shaped us; with Exercised, he dismantled the fitness industry's mythology. Fed Up completes the project, turning the same evolutionary lens on the most confused and commercialized topic in all of health. And rather than judging from the armchair, he actually tests the diets himself — Paleo, raw food, intermittent fasting, and more — which turns what could have been a dry survey into something closer to a scientific adventure story. The Hadza material makes the science feel lived and human.
Some readers might complain that Lieberman never delivers "The Answer." They will have missed the point. His refusal to pick a winning dietary team is not a hedge — it is the book's central act of intellectual honesty, and it brings clarity without condescension. I invest in healthcare and write about longevity for a living, and I still found myself surprised chapter after chapter. He is also, it should be said, very funny.
Lieberman did not write another diet book. He wrote the antidote to diet books. Buy it for the friend who has tried every diet — and read it yourself before the next one finds them.
August 22, 2026
This book is pretty much all stuff that you already knew, brought to you by an evolutionary biologist, which is a better qualification for writing an accurate food book than someone who is a self-help guru or a physicist, but still, he's not exactly a dietician. His prescription is that no diet is exactly right for everyone. Fad diets like paleo and raw foods are definitely wrong. Others like Atkinson or Pritikin may work some and not hurt, but still not for everyone and not necessarily the road to health or long term weight loss. (Best fun fact in the book is that Nathan Pritikin died relatively young at 69, but at least his autopsy showed that he had super low cholesterol.) Of all of the ways of eating, Mediterranean seems to score best, but Mr. Lieberman is generally against any specific formula diet. Low fat is generally better than high fat; a vegetarian diet is fine and probably better than eating meat as long as you are careful to get all needed nutrients. All calories are not created equal. Transfats are definitely bad. Most "foods" that we would all agree are "ultraprocesssed" are more bad than good, but you don't have to ban them completely from your diet. GLP1s seem to work for meaningful but moderate weight loss, but we don't yet know long term effects.
It's engagingly written, but I learned almost nothing new, and I don't think that it is going to send me down the road to healthier eating. It mostly validated how I eat already. I suppose that there is some comfort in that, and I wasn't really looking for an eating book that would change my life.
It's engagingly written, but I learned almost nothing new, and I don't think that it is going to send me down the road to healthier eating. It mostly validated how I eat already. I suppose that there is some comfort in that, and I wasn't really looking for an eating book that would change my life.
August 12, 2026
Probably the most sensible nutrition book I've read in a long time.
What I appreciated most about Fed Up is that Daniel E. Lieberman doesn't begin with a diet and then search for evidence to justify it. He starts much further back, with human evolution.
That distinction makes the book surprisingly refreshing. Instead of telling us that humans were "designed" to be vegan, carnivore, keto, Paleo, low-fat, fasting, or anything else, Lieberman makes a much more interesting case: humans became extraordinarily adaptable eaters.
There was never one universal ancestral menu. Different human populations survived in radically different environments with radically different foods available to them, and our ability to obtain energy and nutrients from many sources was itself part of our evolutionary success.
That perspective changes the way you look at modern nutrition.
One of the most interesting ideas running through the book is the mismatch between the environment in which our bodies evolved and the one in which we now live.
For most of human history, calories were valuable. Sweetness was valuable. Fat was valuable. Finding energy-dense food could literally help you survive.
Now many of us live in an environment where food is available almost constantly, extremely calorie-dense products are inexpensive, portions can be enormous, and highly palatable foods are engineered to be very easy to consume.
The biology did not suddenly disappear just because the environment changed.
I found that framework much more useful than the usual argument that people simply need more "willpower."
Lieberman is also very good at turning the same evolutionary lens toward fashionable diets. Paleo, low-carb, keto, carnivore, vegetarian and vegan approaches, fasting, Mediterranean-style eating and other dietary philosophies all become much more interesting when you stop asking "Which tribe is correct?" and start asking what human biology can actually tell us.
The recurring lesson isn't that every diet is equally good.
It's that nutrition is considerably more complicated than people selling universal solutions would like us to believe.
I especially enjoyed the discussion around plants, fiber, digestion and the gut microbiome. It reinforces something that gets lost in online nutrition debates: food doesn't affect us through a single nutrient in isolation. There are interactions between the food itself, how it is prepared, how quickly we eat it, what else we eat, our activity levels, our gut, our metabolism and our overall dietary pattern.
Another point I took away from the book is that the word "processed" isn't nearly as informative as we sometimes pretend it is.
Cooking is processing.
Grinding is processing.
Fermenting is processing.
Drying is processing.
That doesn't make all processed foods nutritionally equivalent.
The more useful questions are: What is the food actually made from? What was done to it? What was added? What was removed? How easy is it to overconsume? And how does it fit into the rest of someone's diet?
Funny enough, I was reading part of Fed Up over coffee with a PROTABAR beside me, made from egg whites, dates, hazelnuts and cocoa, and it became a surprisingly good real-life example of that way of thinking.
Rather than looking at the front of a package and deciding whether something belongs to the "healthy" or "unhealthy" team, the book had me thinking about the actual ingredients and what had happened to them before they became the food in front of me.
Dates are processed. Egg whites can be cooked, dehydrated and ground. Hazelnuts can be chopped. Cocoa can be added. Those processes don't suddenly tell you everything you need to know about the resulting food.
You still have to look at the food itself.
If I have one criticism, it is that this isn't a short "tell me exactly what to eat tomorrow morning" nutrition manual.
Lieberman spends a lot of time building the evolutionary, biological and historical foundations behind his conclusions. Personally, I think that is what makes the book valuable, but readers looking for a simple meal plan or ten rules to follow may occasionally wish he would get to the practical answer faster.
But perhaps that is precisely the point.
Human nutrition cannot be reduced honestly to ten commandments.
There is no miracle protocol at the end. No single forbidden nutrient responsible for every modern disease. No perfect ancestral menu waiting to be rediscovered. No claim that one dietary ideology finally solved human nutrition.
Instead, I came away with something much more useful: understand the biology, respect the complexity, eat a varied diet built around nutritious foods, pay attention to what foods are actually made from, be skeptical of extremes, and stop expecting one dietary philosophy to work perfectly for everyone.
In an era where nutrition content increasingly sounds like:
"This food is killing you."
"Never eat this."
"Humans were not designed to eat that."
"Our ancestors only ate this."
...a book willing to say "it's more complicated than that" is genuinely refreshing.
For anyone exhausted by nutrition tribalism and the endless cycle of miracle diets, Fed Up is an excellent antidote.
10/10.
One I'll probably come back to.
What I appreciated most about Fed Up is that Daniel E. Lieberman doesn't begin with a diet and then search for evidence to justify it. He starts much further back, with human evolution.
That distinction makes the book surprisingly refreshing. Instead of telling us that humans were "designed" to be vegan, carnivore, keto, Paleo, low-fat, fasting, or anything else, Lieberman makes a much more interesting case: humans became extraordinarily adaptable eaters.
There was never one universal ancestral menu. Different human populations survived in radically different environments with radically different foods available to them, and our ability to obtain energy and nutrients from many sources was itself part of our evolutionary success.
That perspective changes the way you look at modern nutrition.
One of the most interesting ideas running through the book is the mismatch between the environment in which our bodies evolved and the one in which we now live.
For most of human history, calories were valuable. Sweetness was valuable. Fat was valuable. Finding energy-dense food could literally help you survive.
Now many of us live in an environment where food is available almost constantly, extremely calorie-dense products are inexpensive, portions can be enormous, and highly palatable foods are engineered to be very easy to consume.
The biology did not suddenly disappear just because the environment changed.
I found that framework much more useful than the usual argument that people simply need more "willpower."
Lieberman is also very good at turning the same evolutionary lens toward fashionable diets. Paleo, low-carb, keto, carnivore, vegetarian and vegan approaches, fasting, Mediterranean-style eating and other dietary philosophies all become much more interesting when you stop asking "Which tribe is correct?" and start asking what human biology can actually tell us.
The recurring lesson isn't that every diet is equally good.
It's that nutrition is considerably more complicated than people selling universal solutions would like us to believe.
I especially enjoyed the discussion around plants, fiber, digestion and the gut microbiome. It reinforces something that gets lost in online nutrition debates: food doesn't affect us through a single nutrient in isolation. There are interactions between the food itself, how it is prepared, how quickly we eat it, what else we eat, our activity levels, our gut, our metabolism and our overall dietary pattern.
Another point I took away from the book is that the word "processed" isn't nearly as informative as we sometimes pretend it is.
Cooking is processing.
Grinding is processing.
Fermenting is processing.
Drying is processing.
That doesn't make all processed foods nutritionally equivalent.
The more useful questions are: What is the food actually made from? What was done to it? What was added? What was removed? How easy is it to overconsume? And how does it fit into the rest of someone's diet?
Funny enough, I was reading part of Fed Up over coffee with a PROTABAR beside me, made from egg whites, dates, hazelnuts and cocoa, and it became a surprisingly good real-life example of that way of thinking.
Rather than looking at the front of a package and deciding whether something belongs to the "healthy" or "unhealthy" team, the book had me thinking about the actual ingredients and what had happened to them before they became the food in front of me.
Dates are processed. Egg whites can be cooked, dehydrated and ground. Hazelnuts can be chopped. Cocoa can be added. Those processes don't suddenly tell you everything you need to know about the resulting food.
You still have to look at the food itself.
If I have one criticism, it is that this isn't a short "tell me exactly what to eat tomorrow morning" nutrition manual.
Lieberman spends a lot of time building the evolutionary, biological and historical foundations behind his conclusions. Personally, I think that is what makes the book valuable, but readers looking for a simple meal plan or ten rules to follow may occasionally wish he would get to the practical answer faster.
But perhaps that is precisely the point.
Human nutrition cannot be reduced honestly to ten commandments.
There is no miracle protocol at the end. No single forbidden nutrient responsible for every modern disease. No perfect ancestral menu waiting to be rediscovered. No claim that one dietary ideology finally solved human nutrition.
Instead, I came away with something much more useful: understand the biology, respect the complexity, eat a varied diet built around nutritious foods, pay attention to what foods are actually made from, be skeptical of extremes, and stop expecting one dietary philosophy to work perfectly for everyone.
In an era where nutrition content increasingly sounds like:
"This food is killing you."
"Never eat this."
"Humans were not designed to eat that."
"Our ancestors only ate this."
...a book willing to say "it's more complicated than that" is genuinely refreshing.
For anyone exhausted by nutrition tribalism and the endless cycle of miracle diets, Fed Up is an excellent antidote.
10/10.
One I'll probably come back to.
August 25, 2026
eat right for your your type
The idea of following different diet trends made this a bit more engaging than an overview of the real meat of the book, which is to opine on the relative merits of what and how much we put in our mouths each day. Though not as extreme as Supersize Me, the diets were enough to get a taste of what adherents go thought and it seems that the author gives a fair assessment of each one. While he downplays Michael Pollan's oft quoted quip about eating, at the end he doesn't' really divert too far from it either. But I feel more informed about my own eating habits and patterns after finishing this.
The idea of following different diet trends made this a bit more engaging than an overview of the real meat of the book, which is to opine on the relative merits of what and how much we put in our mouths each day. Though not as extreme as Supersize Me, the diets were enough to get a taste of what adherents go thought and it seems that the author gives a fair assessment of each one. While he downplays Michael Pollan's oft quoted quip about eating, at the end he doesn't' really divert too far from it either. But I feel more informed about my own eating habits and patterns after finishing this.
August 21, 2026
Lo que aprendí: come de manera sabia y no obligues a tu mujer a seguir dietas deprimentes contigo.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This highly informative book about human diets and dietary needs is written in an engaging style, and I felt as though I was reading a novel. At first, I thought Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, would be writing at a level beyond my comprehension and that this book would be too much like a textbook. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I found I couldn't put it down at times, since he interspersed humor, anecdotes, and human-interest stories with bona fide scientific information and research.
I enjoyed the way the author described how food is digested from the moment it enters the mouth to all aspects of processing and excretion. There were easy-to-understand diagrams and explanations, summarized scientific research, and plenty of footnotes that did not interfere with fluent reading. These descriptions laid the foundation for well-known dietary advice, both for living a healthy lifestyle and for maintaining, gaining, or losing weight.
The discussion of fats, carbohydrates, protein, and other food components was instructional and easy to understand. I was amazed at how much I learned, even though I have heard and read about all of these umpteen times. I was glad to read about insulin, glucose, and how glycogen affects the body. Although clear descriptions are given of how the body's organs and systems respond to various foods, I believe I will have to reread many times to change some of my own assumptions and make better food choices. The author also includes GLP-1 drugs in the general discussion of modern and up-to-date dietary guidance.
One of the topics included that I found fascinating was whether it would be prudent to return to the hunter-gatherer ways of our ancestors and adopt diets such as the paleo, which mimics the diet of early humans. He debunks much of what is often included in social media posts and advertising campaigns about diets that supposedly promote the survival of the human species. He provides more accurate information about modern-day humans' actual ancestry and how eating habits were affected by adaptations, evolution, and climate change. Additionally, he gives examples of how early civilizations used "processing" methods and cooking to prepare their food.
Lieberman is clear that humans have spent much of their history finding enough food, and that the body is not necessarily designed to lose weight; it has evolved to survive and procreate. Although obesity was referenced in Shakespeare and other classic writings, it is mostly a modern phenomenon among those who have plenty. He attributes much of the obesity problem to modern technology and foods that have been manufactured to have a long shelf life, appeal to supermarket shoppers, and create addictions, resulting in large profits for food sellers.
Since so much of modern dietary information is published as weight-loss programs, Lieberman devotes chapters to well-known diets, such as Atkins, Mediterranean, DASH, intermittent fasting, and more. In each chapter, he describes the common understandings and the science behind how the diets work, as well as research on the effectiveness of each diet and the long-term results of following them. In effect, he covers the pros and cons of each as well as driving home important precepts about all diets, which include:
1. There is no such thing as an optimal diet.
2. All foods have costs and benefits.
3. Because people vary, and genetics and environment influence how bodies process food, understanding this can foster better dietary choices.
4. Almost all weight-loss diets can be classified as low-calorie, low-fat, or low-carb.
In summary, the book's gist is that food choices are varied and complex. There is no single diet that will work for everyone. Lieberman quotes a philosopher at the beginning of the book and refers to it many times. It has to do with the hedgehog and the fox. The hedgehog looks for one guiding principle and tries to confirm its own biases, whereas the fox checks a lot of data and is more self-critical. This comparison will stay with me as I reflect on the many aspects of nutrition and eating as they pertain to good health and reasonable eating.
I enjoyed the way the author described how food is digested from the moment it enters the mouth to all aspects of processing and excretion. There were easy-to-understand diagrams and explanations, summarized scientific research, and plenty of footnotes that did not interfere with fluent reading. These descriptions laid the foundation for well-known dietary advice, both for living a healthy lifestyle and for maintaining, gaining, or losing weight.
The discussion of fats, carbohydrates, protein, and other food components was instructional and easy to understand. I was amazed at how much I learned, even though I have heard and read about all of these umpteen times. I was glad to read about insulin, glucose, and how glycogen affects the body. Although clear descriptions are given of how the body's organs and systems respond to various foods, I believe I will have to reread many times to change some of my own assumptions and make better food choices. The author also includes GLP-1 drugs in the general discussion of modern and up-to-date dietary guidance.
One of the topics included that I found fascinating was whether it would be prudent to return to the hunter-gatherer ways of our ancestors and adopt diets such as the paleo, which mimics the diet of early humans. He debunks much of what is often included in social media posts and advertising campaigns about diets that supposedly promote the survival of the human species. He provides more accurate information about modern-day humans' actual ancestry and how eating habits were affected by adaptations, evolution, and climate change. Additionally, he gives examples of how early civilizations used "processing" methods and cooking to prepare their food.
Lieberman is clear that humans have spent much of their history finding enough food, and that the body is not necessarily designed to lose weight; it has evolved to survive and procreate. Although obesity was referenced in Shakespeare and other classic writings, it is mostly a modern phenomenon among those who have plenty. He attributes much of the obesity problem to modern technology and foods that have been manufactured to have a long shelf life, appeal to supermarket shoppers, and create addictions, resulting in large profits for food sellers.
Since so much of modern dietary information is published as weight-loss programs, Lieberman devotes chapters to well-known diets, such as Atkins, Mediterranean, DASH, intermittent fasting, and more. In each chapter, he describes the common understandings and the science behind how the diets work, as well as research on the effectiveness of each diet and the long-term results of following them. In effect, he covers the pros and cons of each as well as driving home important precepts about all diets, which include:
1. There is no such thing as an optimal diet.
2. All foods have costs and benefits.
3. Because people vary, and genetics and environment influence how bodies process food, understanding this can foster better dietary choices.
4. Almost all weight-loss diets can be classified as low-calorie, low-fat, or low-carb.
In summary, the book's gist is that food choices are varied and complex. There is no single diet that will work for everyone. Lieberman quotes a philosopher at the beginning of the book and refers to it many times. It has to do with the hedgehog and the fox. The hedgehog looks for one guiding principle and tries to confirm its own biases, whereas the fox checks a lot of data and is more self-critical. This comparison will stay with me as I reflect on the many aspects of nutrition and eating as they pertain to good health and reasonable eating.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I really enjoyed this one! It is definitely a VERY science heavy read but for me, that is a bonus! I LOVE to read all about the science behind something and it gives me that much more faith and belief in the author. Fed Up goes deep into the history of food, dieting, evolution, anatomy, and the physiological side of how our bodies process what we eat, and I appreciated just how detailed and well researched it all was. You can tell Daniel E. Lieberman truly knows this subject inside and out, and I actually loved the depth instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.
The discussion surrounding how dramatically our food supply has changed over the years and the role “big food” has played in the rise of weight gain and chronic health issues was the most fascinating to me. The evolutionary and anthropological lens made this feel much more nuanced and interesting than your typical diet or nutrition book. It does not just throw random advice out; it explains why our bodies react the way they do and how modern food environments are often working against us.
I also appreciated that the book was willing to challenge certain narratives surrounding vegan and vegetarian diets and discuss what can potentially be missing nutritionally. The advocacy for a more meat-heavy diet personally aligned with a lot of my own beliefs and experiences regarding health, so that aspect really resonated with me as well. As someone with debilitating chronic illnesses, the ONLY way I could see progress was switching to a meat-centered diet, and I was so happy with each and every chapter and line that supported this.
I will say, this is not a light or quick read. It is dense, detailed, and extremely focused on science and research, so I think your enjoyment will really depend on how interested you are in the actual mechanics and evolution of food, nutrition, and dieting. But if you are interested in those things, this is genuinely fascinating and incredibly informative and a book I very much enjoyed as someone who is a food science freak.
Thank you to NetGalley, Daniel E. Lieberman, and Knopf for the eARC of this book.
The discussion surrounding how dramatically our food supply has changed over the years and the role “big food” has played in the rise of weight gain and chronic health issues was the most fascinating to me. The evolutionary and anthropological lens made this feel much more nuanced and interesting than your typical diet or nutrition book. It does not just throw random advice out; it explains why our bodies react the way they do and how modern food environments are often working against us.
I also appreciated that the book was willing to challenge certain narratives surrounding vegan and vegetarian diets and discuss what can potentially be missing nutritionally. The advocacy for a more meat-heavy diet personally aligned with a lot of my own beliefs and experiences regarding health, so that aspect really resonated with me as well. As someone with debilitating chronic illnesses, the ONLY way I could see progress was switching to a meat-centered diet, and I was so happy with each and every chapter and line that supported this.
I will say, this is not a light or quick read. It is dense, detailed, and extremely focused on science and research, so I think your enjoyment will really depend on how interested you are in the actual mechanics and evolution of food, nutrition, and dieting. But if you are interested in those things, this is genuinely fascinating and incredibly informative and a book I very much enjoyed as someone who is a food science freak.
Thank you to NetGalley, Daniel E. Lieberman, and Knopf for the eARC of this book.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
E ARC provided by Netgalley
Netgalley is a dangerous platform, because I often find books there that look appealing but don't fall within the purview of my blog. Dr. Lieberman had posted a charming video describing his book on social media, and when I found out it was available on Netgalley, I read it right away.
This had a fantastic balance of science and anecdote. The author and his wife gamely tried a lot of fad diets, and the book was arranged in historical order of some of these. Major trends (Weight Watchers, Atkins, High Carb, etc.) were discussed at length with humor and professionalism. I didn't know that evolutionary biology was a field of study, but this expertise shed some light on why some diets are adopted, and how they do or don't support human health.
My favorite part of the book was the discussion of African chimpanzees' diets-- Lieberman followed them around and ate the plants that they ate, even ingesting some ants! This personal approach and willingness to be his own guinea pig was quite interesting and endearing. Reading about his mother's adherence to diets of her era was interesting; she was roughly the age of my own mother, but more "successful" in adhering to them. Sadly, this meant that she was very underweight in her old age and not as strong as she could have been. Since I have an aunt who is 88 and currently weighs 92 pounds, this hit close to home!
There aren't any earthshaking conclusions at the end of the book; he quotes Michael Pollan's "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." a couple of times. Eat a variety of whole foods, but don't put foods off limits; just eat some sparingly. I love reading food writing, though, so didn't really expect a prescriptive diet from this book. Knowing the history of diets, and knowing that I'm fairly on track with current research and science when deciding what to eat (yes, getting enough protein and fiber is a full time job as one ages!) made this book worth reading. I would think all public library would want to invest in this title.
Netgalley is a dangerous platform, because I often find books there that look appealing but don't fall within the purview of my blog. Dr. Lieberman had posted a charming video describing his book on social media, and when I found out it was available on Netgalley, I read it right away.
This had a fantastic balance of science and anecdote. The author and his wife gamely tried a lot of fad diets, and the book was arranged in historical order of some of these. Major trends (Weight Watchers, Atkins, High Carb, etc.) were discussed at length with humor and professionalism. I didn't know that evolutionary biology was a field of study, but this expertise shed some light on why some diets are adopted, and how they do or don't support human health.
My favorite part of the book was the discussion of African chimpanzees' diets-- Lieberman followed them around and ate the plants that they ate, even ingesting some ants! This personal approach and willingness to be his own guinea pig was quite interesting and endearing. Reading about his mother's adherence to diets of her era was interesting; she was roughly the age of my own mother, but more "successful" in adhering to them. Sadly, this meant that she was very underweight in her old age and not as strong as she could have been. Since I have an aunt who is 88 and currently weighs 92 pounds, this hit close to home!
There aren't any earthshaking conclusions at the end of the book; he quotes Michael Pollan's "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." a couple of times. Eat a variety of whole foods, but don't put foods off limits; just eat some sparingly. I love reading food writing, though, so didn't really expect a prescriptive diet from this book. Knowing the history of diets, and knowing that I'm fairly on track with current research and science when deciding what to eat (yes, getting enough protein and fiber is a full time job as one ages!) made this book worth reading. I would think all public library would want to invest in this title.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What we eat greatly influences our health. For some outcomes like weight loss etc, it is far more impactful than exercise or anything else. This is a very informative and practical book.
Daniel Lieberman points out that ‘What should we eat?' is a complex question but one we can reason. There is a lot of confusing and conflicting advice out there. There are a wide variety of diets, each claiming to offer the best chance of robust health. Lieberman makes the point that each have their pros and cons. The popular diets are all discussed in detail. Lieberman starts with the Paleo diet which advocates eating raw food, much like how our forefathers eat. While there are some veggies such as garlic and kale which deliver more nutrients raw, cooking largely does not deprive food of nutrients and keeps us safe, other than making food tastier. Some of Lieberman’s experiences with the Hazda in Tanzania (among the last of the hunter gatherers) makes for interesting reading. He goes to analyse other diets including Mediterranean, Keto, Carnivore, Plant-based, Blue Zone, DASH, Low-Carb and Low-Fat. Some are better than others and Lieberman brings out these aspects well.
Lieberman advocates being knowledgeable of the pros and cons of various diets to form an individual best approach based on the person’s circumstances. This is sensible advice. I have seen people end up worse than before with some fad diets. The book is based on good research and evidence. The ethical considerations of eating is referred only in passing, while discussing the Vegan diet (food & eating always receive a pass ignoring the misery we inflict on animals). I would have also liked to see more information on supplements and a better explanation of the impact of various oils, and the contrast between different types of fruits and nuts.
A very informative book I much recommend.
My rating: 4.5 / 5.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor & the author for a free electronic review copy.
Daniel Lieberman points out that ‘What should we eat?' is a complex question but one we can reason. There is a lot of confusing and conflicting advice out there. There are a wide variety of diets, each claiming to offer the best chance of robust health. Lieberman makes the point that each have their pros and cons. The popular diets are all discussed in detail. Lieberman starts with the Paleo diet which advocates eating raw food, much like how our forefathers eat. While there are some veggies such as garlic and kale which deliver more nutrients raw, cooking largely does not deprive food of nutrients and keeps us safe, other than making food tastier. Some of Lieberman’s experiences with the Hazda in Tanzania (among the last of the hunter gatherers) makes for interesting reading. He goes to analyse other diets including Mediterranean, Keto, Carnivore, Plant-based, Blue Zone, DASH, Low-Carb and Low-Fat. Some are better than others and Lieberman brings out these aspects well.
Lieberman advocates being knowledgeable of the pros and cons of various diets to form an individual best approach based on the person’s circumstances. This is sensible advice. I have seen people end up worse than before with some fad diets. The book is based on good research and evidence. The ethical considerations of eating is referred only in passing, while discussing the Vegan diet (food & eating always receive a pass ignoring the misery we inflict on animals). I would have also liked to see more information on supplements and a better explanation of the impact of various oils, and the contrast between different types of fruits and nuts.
A very informative book I much recommend.
My rating: 4.5 / 5.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor & the author for a free electronic review copy.
August 27, 2026
Book Review: Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well by Daniel E. Lieberman
✧ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰʀᴇᴇ ʙᴏᴏᴋ, @AAKnopf
➊ 𝚂𝚈𝙽𝙾𝙿𝚂𝙸𝚂
Daniel E. Lieberman approaches food and nutrition through the lens of human evolution, asking why we eat the way we do and whether there really is an ideal diet for modern humans. Drawing from evolutionary biology and anthropology, he examines popular diets, changing food environments, and the enormous amount of often conflicting advice surrounding nutrition. Rather than offering another simple prescription for what everyone should eat, Lieberman explores how our evolutionary history continues to influence our relationship with food and health.
➋ 𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝚂
Fed Up was an interesting and informative look at nutrition from a perspective I haven't encountered very often. Instead of simply telling readers what they should or shouldn't eat, Daniel E. Lieberman looks at how human evolution shaped our relationship with food and how dramatically our diets and food environment have changed. I particularly appreciated that the book doesn't pretend there is one magical diet that will solve everyone's problems. There is a lot of information here, and I ended up reading this one in pieces rather than straight through. That actually worked well for me. I could read a section, think about it for a while, and return later without feeling like I had lost the thread of the book. Some portions interested me more than others, but overall I came away with a better understanding of why nutrition is considerably more complicated than most diet advice makes it sound. Informative, accessible, and worth reading for anyone interested in the relationship between evolution, food, and health.
✧ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰʀᴇᴇ ʙᴏᴏᴋ, @AAKnopf
➊ 𝚂𝚈𝙽𝙾𝙿𝚂𝙸𝚂
Daniel E. Lieberman approaches food and nutrition through the lens of human evolution, asking why we eat the way we do and whether there really is an ideal diet for modern humans. Drawing from evolutionary biology and anthropology, he examines popular diets, changing food environments, and the enormous amount of often conflicting advice surrounding nutrition. Rather than offering another simple prescription for what everyone should eat, Lieberman explores how our evolutionary history continues to influence our relationship with food and health.
➋ 𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝚂
Fed Up was an interesting and informative look at nutrition from a perspective I haven't encountered very often. Instead of simply telling readers what they should or shouldn't eat, Daniel E. Lieberman looks at how human evolution shaped our relationship with food and how dramatically our diets and food environment have changed. I particularly appreciated that the book doesn't pretend there is one magical diet that will solve everyone's problems. There is a lot of information here, and I ended up reading this one in pieces rather than straight through. That actually worked well for me. I could read a section, think about it for a while, and return later without feeling like I had lost the thread of the book. Some portions interested me more than others, but overall I came away with a better understanding of why nutrition is considerably more complicated than most diet advice makes it sound. Informative, accessible, and worth reading for anyone interested in the relationship between evolution, food, and health.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Fed Up by Daniel E. Lieberman is an entertaining and thought-provoking exploration of food, diets, and why nutrition is so much more complicated than the latest trend would have us believe. Blending evolutionary biology, physiology, anthropology, anatomy, medical science, history, and even his own short-term dietary experiments, Lieberman takes readers on a fascinating journey through the many “optimal” diets we’re constantly being sold.
One of my favorite aspects of the book was the author’s wit. He has a way of making complex topics approachable and genuinely funny. While I occasionally found myself getting a little lost in the more scientific sections, I always came back to the central message: there simply isn’t one perfect way for humans to eat.
I found it especially interesting to learn that there was never a single “Paleo diet” that all humans followed throughout evolution. Another insight that stuck with me was that we never evolved to lose weight, and that genes associated with obesity don’t determine our destiny—they simply increase our vulnerability in certain environments. That distinction felt both important and surprisingly hopeful.
Rather than ending with rigid rules, Lieberman closes the book by answering the question, “What should I eat?” with ten practical, balanced recommendations. They weren’t flashy or extreme, just thoughtful, evidence-based, and refreshingly reasonable.
If you’re curious about nutrition and want a book that challenges simplistic answers with science, humor, and plenty of fascinating history, Fed Up is well worth the read.
Special thanks to the author, Knopf, and NetGalley for the gifted copy.
One of my favorite aspects of the book was the author’s wit. He has a way of making complex topics approachable and genuinely funny. While I occasionally found myself getting a little lost in the more scientific sections, I always came back to the central message: there simply isn’t one perfect way for humans to eat.
I found it especially interesting to learn that there was never a single “Paleo diet” that all humans followed throughout evolution. Another insight that stuck with me was that we never evolved to lose weight, and that genes associated with obesity don’t determine our destiny—they simply increase our vulnerability in certain environments. That distinction felt both important and surprisingly hopeful.
Rather than ending with rigid rules, Lieberman closes the book by answering the question, “What should I eat?” with ten practical, balanced recommendations. They weren’t flashy or extreme, just thoughtful, evidence-based, and refreshingly reasonable.
If you’re curious about nutrition and want a book that challenges simplistic answers with science, humor, and plenty of fascinating history, Fed Up is well worth the read.
Special thanks to the author, Knopf, and NetGalley for the gifted copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book is a mouthful!
Despite its title, I was never “fed up” with Daniel Lieberman’s new book. Although I have a longstanding interest in food, nutrition, and cooking, I learned a LOT. The book explores just about every aspect of food I could imagine. I learned about the history of what our ancestors ate from before the Stone Age up to modern times. There is a good discussion of nutrition and how our bodies digest the food we eat as well as how industrialization has changed what we eat today and the effects of modern eating habits on our weight and our health.
I was impressed by the extremely broad research the author did for this book and also admired the fact that he and his wife tried some of the (sometimes odd) diets described in the book for research purposes.
The book was certainly informative, but it was also very enjoyable. There were a number of quotes from people I would not have associated with food, like Albert Einstein. I also had many smiles and even chuckles from sentences like “Back in my salad days, I briefly dated a vegetarian” .
I should warn readers that the discussion can get rather heavy on the science. If you encounter some discussion that gets too heavy for you, do not give up; just skim until he gets back to talking to ordinary folks.
I have one caveat about the book. Reading about food for an extended time tended to make me hungry. I highly recommend Fed Up, but be prepared for the danger to your appetite!
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and Knopf.
Despite its title, I was never “fed up” with Daniel Lieberman’s new book. Although I have a longstanding interest in food, nutrition, and cooking, I learned a LOT. The book explores just about every aspect of food I could imagine. I learned about the history of what our ancestors ate from before the Stone Age up to modern times. There is a good discussion of nutrition and how our bodies digest the food we eat as well as how industrialization has changed what we eat today and the effects of modern eating habits on our weight and our health.
I was impressed by the extremely broad research the author did for this book and also admired the fact that he and his wife tried some of the (sometimes odd) diets described in the book for research purposes.
The book was certainly informative, but it was also very enjoyable. There were a number of quotes from people I would not have associated with food, like Albert Einstein. I also had many smiles and even chuckles from sentences like “Back in my salad days, I briefly dated a vegetarian” .
I should warn readers that the discussion can get rather heavy on the science. If you encounter some discussion that gets too heavy for you, do not give up; just skim until he gets back to talking to ordinary folks.
I have one caveat about the book. Reading about food for an extended time tended to make me hungry. I highly recommend Fed Up, but be prepared for the danger to your appetite!
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and Knopf.
August 16, 2026
Thank you Knopf for my free ARC. These opinions are my own:
I found this to be an engaging book with an intriguing premise: looking at human food consumption from the perspective of what our bodies have evolved to require. Lieberman doesn't present one big idea or solution about what to eat, but instead shows through his own experience as well as the body of research a good variety of ways that eating habits interact with our human bodies. For the bulk of human history (and still, in many places in the world), humans ate what and when they had access to edible food. Now, much of the world (especially the industrialized world) has access to an almost unattainable range and abundance of food, but our bodies didn’t evolve to be prepared for that. Lieberman posits that humans finding themselves in this situation need to be flexible, critical thinkers, who are ready to try and adapt different strategies in search of health (not only as humans but as an individual human with an individual body). I was pleased to learn from page one that Lieberman's writing is funny, relatable, and that he provides well-thought-out information in response to extremely relevant questions. Food is more than fuel, and there is no single thing that we want to eat to optimize all things for every body. All foods have costs and benefits and are context dependent. This was a pragmatic, informative, and thought-inspiring look at food consumption for the modern body.
I found this to be an engaging book with an intriguing premise: looking at human food consumption from the perspective of what our bodies have evolved to require. Lieberman doesn't present one big idea or solution about what to eat, but instead shows through his own experience as well as the body of research a good variety of ways that eating habits interact with our human bodies. For the bulk of human history (and still, in many places in the world), humans ate what and when they had access to edible food. Now, much of the world (especially the industrialized world) has access to an almost unattainable range and abundance of food, but our bodies didn’t evolve to be prepared for that. Lieberman posits that humans finding themselves in this situation need to be flexible, critical thinkers, who are ready to try and adapt different strategies in search of health (not only as humans but as an individual human with an individual body). I was pleased to learn from page one that Lieberman's writing is funny, relatable, and that he provides well-thought-out information in response to extremely relevant questions. Food is more than fuel, and there is no single thing that we want to eat to optimize all things for every body. All foods have costs and benefits and are context dependent. This was a pragmatic, informative, and thought-inspiring look at food consumption for the modern body.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A fascinating exploration of the body’s digestive system, the foods we eat, their impact on our bodies. Lieberman, a doctor, explains how our digestive system works, the nutrients we need and the causes of weight gain. He reviews numerous diet plans from a scientific and personal perspective – experimenting with the diets he discusses (at least for as long as he can tolerate them). The book is intellectually rigorous and sprinkled with a degree of lighthearted humor, making the concepts accessible. Those looking for a “quick fix” won’t find it here but will gain a deeper understanding of why we eat the foods we do and how to navigate contradictory dieting advice, including more cautionary advice, backed by strong evidence, of the dangers of consuming highly processed foods. Overall, an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating read.
September 9, 2026
There's nothing revolutionary here, but that's kind of the point. All the same things we have been told over and over again about show up here (less saturated fat, less sugar, yadda yadda yadda). I will admit there's a bit more nuance to that statement, which is appreciated. What Lieberman really excels at is answering the question "but is this a diet humans evolved to eat?" He starts by pointing out how ridiculous the framing is considering that evolution acts on whether or not you can reproduce, not whether or not you live to be 100/have perfect skin/weigh a specific amount. Secondly, Lieberman is happy to explain how humans evolved to eat almost anything. Thus, any diet that deliberately restricts any single food group is not "natural". That's a lot of pages to get to that conclusion, but it is still satisfying.
August 22, 2026
This book disappointed me. It lacks the depth found in "Exercised" and "The Human Story." It's unbecoming of an academic like Lieberman to treat the carbohydrate-insulin model—one of the most controversial and repeatedly disproven hypotheses in nutrition—as the absolute truth. His thesis on sugar and cancer is equally flawed. For me, Lieberman now belongs to the same group of nutritionists as Taubes, Ludwig, and Lustig. HIS STATEMENT THAT SUGAR AND SIMPLE CARBOHYDRATES ARE THE BIGGEST CAUSE OF OBESITY IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE HEDGEHOG METAPHOR HE USED IN THE BOOK.
August 30, 2026
This book was informative and interesting. I particularly enjoyed the parts where the author discredited most of the popular diets I have tried. And I’ve tried them all! The fact that the author was willing to try them too added to the relatability of the book. The book is academically sound and based on research, not conjecture. It did get a little repetitive in places, but that is typical of books in this genre.
September 18, 2026
One of the best books I have read about nutrition and diet in years. It contains a comprehensive review and criticism of all the scientific work. The author did not start with a viewpoint. He is not pitching a product or diet. He is open to consider all the evidence wherever it may lead. That’s not what sells books in this field, but it’s the right thing to do. I do wish it contained a chapter related to food contamination.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Fed Up, “A Hungry person’s guide to the story and science of food and diets is an interesting read. I am always eager to learn about how to eat well and eat healthily. I lost interest in this book because it focused on evolution. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.
August 18, 2026
Wow! This is not a diet book. Instead it exposes every crazy idea we have had about food. I would stop every few pages and just have to pause and think about what he wrote. If you want to learn about better eating but not the latest fad diet --- this is the book for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor press for an the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor press for an the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Wow packed full of facts and figures. If you ever wanted to understand food and different diets, this is the book. Lots of science content. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
September 3, 2026
Very fascinating book! As a scientist, I really liked how he included evolution in this book, it was so interesting to compare the diet back then to now. I also liked how he did some of the diets, and how he put his own two cents on it.
August 13, 2026
Books by Daniel Lieberman are on auto-buy for me because they never disappoint. This was another fantastic book I’m happy to add to my collection.
August 17, 2026
smart and validating… and fully admits it’s sort of a “no duh, use your common sense” explainer at the end. great stuff!
September 3, 2026
Good book, the hero is the author’s wife who joins him on many of the diets. Some of the science went over my head.
September 4, 2026
Kind of obsessed with Daniel Lieberman after reading Exercised and Fed Up. Clear, (not always) concise, and informative science with real applications for life.
September 4, 2026
Very dense read but I am a big fan of this kind of stuff.
September 7, 2026
1. Eat and think like a fox(diversity), not a hedgehog (over simplification)
2. Evolution means calorie in, babies out. Unless that’s your goal, don’t follow the evolutionary path
2. Evolution means calorie in, babies out. Unless that’s your goal, don’t follow the evolutionary path
September 16, 2026
nicely written, but more historical information than I wanted. skimmed a lot, agreed with about 80% of diet recommendations.
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