Arthur De Vany's Evolutionary Fitness Art's Blog on Fitness, Health, Aging, Nutrition and Exercise

Called "Superman's slightly fitter grandad" by the London Times and a "patriarch of the Paleo Movement" in the New York Times, 73 year old Arthur De Vany is a scientist/athlete and the creator of Evolutionary Fitness, the first integrated model of Paleo diet, intermittent fasting, and exercise. A former professional athlete and life-long student of exercise and metabolism, he is a living example of what he teaches: at the age of 72 he is 6'1", 205 pounds and has less than 8% body fat. He has lived as a Paleo/Athlete for more than 25 years.

Dr. De Vany is Professor Emeritus of the University of California in economics and mathematical behavioral sciences who is best known for his research in decentralized, complex economic systems and is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and books. He is the author of the most acclaimed book on the movie industry, Hollywood Economics: How Extreme Uncertainty Shapes the Film Industry, and of the forthcoming book on the EF diet, The New Evolution Diet (Rodale in the US and Vermillion in the UK). His biography is published in Who's Who in the World.

His beautiful, 72 year old wife is the creator of the New Evolution Cuisine (a Paleolithic/Mediterranean Cuisine) and you will find many pictures and recipes of her meals inside the private site.

Evolutionary Fitness is the superior technology for attaining health, a lean body, and a more peaceful mind. EF, as we call it, uses methods that are true to our genes to express the health and longevity that are our rightful genetic heritage. Most of the chronic diseases humans suffer from today --- diabetes, heart disease, obesity, inflammatory diseases, cancer, depression, aging --- are novel to modern humans and were not part of our evolutionary heritage. These diseases are primarily diseases of metabolism and can often be reversed or avoided by attaining a healthful metabolism with a strong, lean body.

Please read the testimonials, which can be see by clicking in the sidebar, to learn more about the results our members have attained in following Evolutionary Fitness. You are more than welcome to join our active and very intelligent and helpful community of EFers.

Don't forget the Ancestral Health Symposium. I will be there.

Recent articles

Terry Sejnowski on our Bayesian Genes (in: Genes) Jan 23, 2012: Behavior and Our Brain - Mysteries of the Brain - Terry Sejnowski>I say often that our genes and brains are Bayesian learners: they experience something and then forecast rewards over a horizon based on the experience. Dr. Sejnowski explains this concept brilliantly and simply. I sat in a talk he gave while I was at the UC Irvine, which is just up the road from The Salk Institute at UC San Diego. He is a theoretician who is deeply embedded in the experimental evidence, as you will see from this talk.

Dr. Sejnowski explains this concept brilliantly and simply. He also points to the evolutionary basis not only of this, but of our quick decision modules that give us smarter "gut instincts" than we could ever bring to a complex decision using all its dimensions.
New brain cells are created continuously in the hippocampus where long-term learning is centered and exercise in a rich environment or even just walking in a forest is enough to prevent those newly-born brain cells from dying. Dopamine is the reward signal, but it unleashed a forecasting system that extends that reward into future behavior as the brain evaluates the stimulus to forecast future rewards. BDNF may be one of the hormones, released in exercise, that helps to keep these newly borne neurons alive. His point about the horizon is one economists are familiar with; it turns out some people have shorter horizons than others, so they forecast only a brief period forward and fail to consider long-term implications of their actions. Rather like a politician looking to the next election rather than considering the longer term. Or, the way humans behave during war, when the future is in doubt.
Every precept of the New Evolution Diet gains support from this discussion with a great thinker and scientist.

"Participating" in Marathons may not increase risk of cardiac arrest (in: Death in Sport) Jan 21, 2012: This study has been getting much play. I have not bothered to comment because there is an inherent flaw in the premise.

There is a selection problem isn't there? It all comes from the term "participating". Of course, those who do not participate will have a higher risk of cardiac arrest. Those capable of participating would have a lower risk. And, those who do not participate in marathons do many forms of exercise, including couch surfing. I see no point to the study. Why read a study that is flawed from the beginning.

But, the long-training marathoners will have a higher risk of damage in other tissues and in the ventricles of the heart. Moreover, the hardest trainers have shorter telomeres.

Art's Interview with Dr. Z (in: Interviews/Press) Jan 20, 2012: I found the link at last to my interview with Dr. Z. Here it is Dr. Z and Art.

More on "Muscle is Medicine" (in: Muscle) Jan 18, 2012: A chapter of The New Evolution Diet shows why and how muscle is medicine. I used this phrase in the book as a short hand way to describe the important hormones and metabolic changes that using muscle and having muscle bring. I cover many of the hormones and cytokines that are produced by muscle and muscle activity in that chapter and the ability of muscle to produce fuel for the heart and brain.

A "new" (evolutionarily old, but recently discovered) has now been discovered. It was there all the time doing its duties, but the wide-ranging effects of it are impressive. It is called irisin and the discovery is described in this POST on the American Council on Exercise.

Dan Buettner at TEDMED (in: Why We Get Fat) Jan 14, 2012: I like this talk and largely agree with it.

ADHD and Diet (in: Inflammation/Oxidation) Jan 11, 2012: Finally, a review of studies on this subject. Here is the LINK.

My Daughter's Progress (in: About Us) Jan 7, 2012: This is heart-warming for me to hear as a father. It does show there is a way, but it may take some while for you to find it.

Marathons, "Fat-blockers", and Testosterone-boosters (in: Uncertainty) Jan 4, 2012: I am up a little early today and looking over a marathon training manual that will get you to sub 3.5 times. I would like to also comment on those "fat blockers" and T-boosters that are so heavily advertised lately.

Intermittent training and muscle mass (in: High Intensity Exercise) Dec 26, 2011: Here is one from the Archives that was outside the norm at the time, but is now more or less accepted wisdom.

A question that is on many minds is how can you build muscle size training intermittently? We have many prime examples of those who can. I put myself in this category, but nothing like Mike Menzter and Dorian Yates.

Leptin: a growing understanding (in: Metabolism) Dec 26, 2011: In my book, I argue that leptin was used to signal "not empty" with regard to fuel supplies. It loses its signal when the tank is full and when there is glucose aplenty in the blood supply, which is why insulin screens out the leptin signal. I think this went unnoticed by readers. People seem to think that it focuses almost entirely on insulin. A nice discussion of the inceasing understanding of leptin is in the following. It completely supports the view I take in the book. Leptin's multi-system effects also fit the "expendable system" view I argue for; when you are starving, only the truly essential systems get resources. Reproduction and immunity crash. They are systems to move the genes into the future or to maintain. When there is no tommorrow, they must be sacrificed.

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"At 72, Art looks like a Greek God would like to look at 42." Nassim Taleb in his second edition of The Black Swan.

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"Dr. De Vany’s book is unique in its…elegance. His writing on the topic is elegant because he has the rare ability to see and communicate self-evident truths. There are a handful of authors that seem to have this ability. Examples I can recall include William James, Maria Montessori, Ayn Rand and Ludwig Von Mises." Dr. Doug McGuff

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"I have been following the EF way for 2 years now and everyday I get someone saying how well I look, I have lost a lot of fat and built a lean muscle frame, I don't bother about weighing myself. However it's the clarity in my head that I thank you most for, I was diagnosed as a coeliac 3years ago and although taking gluten from my diet helped it was the new EF lifestyle that changed me for good." Pearce

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