Like many high school students I completely misunderstood the philosopher Herbert Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest.” I interpreted it to mean that those animals of a species that were the most physically fit were most likely to survive and reproduce. What Spencer was actually proposing when he first coined the phrase in 1864 to explain Darwin’s theory of natural selection was that those organisms that best “fit” their environment are the most likely to survive and reproduce.
Yet recent developments in human health science now suggest that misinterpretations like mine might not have been so wide of the mark. It turns out that being physically fit almost certainly improves our longevity after all.
Breaking tread! Shutterstock*
