Part three: Fava bean consumption and biocultural evolution

Abstract

A biocultural evolutionary approach to dietary behavior provides a basis for examination of fava bean consumption in the circum‐Mediterranean region. Favism, an hemolytic response to fava ingestion associated with the X‐linked trait for G6PD^Med deficiency, has been extensively reported from this area. G6PD deficiency, in turn, is associated with resistance to serious malaria infection. This paper explores the various links between malarial resistance, G6PD deficiency, and fava consumption, in an effort to develop a biocultural model to examine and explain the evolutionary significance of the interrelationships between these variables.