Jeff Leach
Founder, Paleobiotics Lab
2401 Burgundy Street #7
New Orleans, Louisiana 70117
Ph (504)715-0277 (mobile)
Fax (504)910-3037 Jeff Leach via
email
AN EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
The Paleobiotics Lab is an independent research group exploring the
evolution of diet and nutrition and it's possible relevance to
understanding modern health and well-being among humans.
Of specific interest: identify economically
important plants that are known to have positive physiological affects
upon the prehistoric consumer - such as selective growth of health
promoting bacteria in the human gut. In modern nutrition, these specific
plants can be collectively grouped as "functional foods." Of further
interest is the impact of traditional preparation and cooking techniques
on the growth of probiotics in fermented foods and the emergence and
evolution of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics.
At present, current projects include
synthesis of existing botanical (excavated) collections of plants in the
American Southwest and sub-Saharan Africa, bacterial analysis of
paleofeces, tracking pathogen evolution in the archaeological record,
identification of synbiotics in fermented foods, current nutrition among
modern foragers, inulin analysis of plants throughout the world, and work
among traditional healers of South Africa.
Public Good:
Working to 'influence' the recommended daily intake of fiber in the US
Food Pyramid by demonstrating that our genome was selected on a fiber-rich
diet that consistently included up to and often more than 100 g/d - from a
diversity of sources. Current recommended intakes are too low from an
evolutionary perspective.
