An Evolutionary Perspective of Nutrition and Inflammation as Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Disease

Table 1

Actual conditions to which humans are not well adapted and disease to which we are at a higher risk of developing due to current environmental conditions.

Condition to which humans are not well adapted	Environmental; conditions to which humans adapted	Risk derived from poor adaptation to conditions	Reference
Low-grade chronic inflammation	Great infectious burden with an active immune system	Low-grade systemic inflammation that leads to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and hypertension	[1, 21]
Abundant diet high in carbohydrates	Famine and necessity to store fat	Increased risk of obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes	[5]
Sedentarism	High physical activity	Insulin resistance, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes	[1]
Diet high in salt	Little salt in the diet	Hypertension	[22]
Bipedalism	Quadruped movement	Orthostatic intolerance and hypertension	[23]
Longevity	Shorter lifespan	Increased exposure to the abovementioned risk factors	[12]