FOOD INTAKE OF ANCIENT HUMANS

Food Intake of Ancient Humans

Food Intake of Ancient Humans

Early human ancestors chowed down on more than fruits and leaves, a new study finds. They also fed on grasses, roots, and grazing animals as early as a million years ago. Using laser to remove small samples from the teeth of four ape-like species—known as Paranthropus robustus—whose remains were found in South Africa, researchers were able to determine what was on their menu. "By analyzing tooth enamel, we found that they ate lots of different things, and what they ate changed during the year," said study co-author Ben Passey, a University of Utah geology doctoral student. “One possibility is that they were migrating seasonally between more forested habitats to more open, savanna habitats."

An Optimal Diet for humans maximizes health, prolongs life, and prevents chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, cancer, and diabetes (Nestle, 1998). An optimal diet may even be used therapeutically to reverse some chronic diseases (Campbell, II & Campbell, 2008). However, the medical healthcare system places little emphasis on an optimal diet in treatment, and has not been able to prevent or reverse the current global epidemic of chronic diseases (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2008). As healthcare costs rise, national rankings in life expectancy at birth are plummeting in advanced countries like the United States (United Nations, 2007). The declining health of the population due to chronic disease indicates that the Western diet is far from optimal for health. How did we get here, and how do we get back on track?

When humans first appeared on earth, what was their original optimal diet? Researchers do not know the answer to this question, but they can infer some ideas. Homo Sapiens first appeared in the historical record about 200,000 years ago. There are two concepts that describe how early humans acquired food around that time. They hunted animals, and they gathered plant substances.

Researchers have estimated that the composition of a hunter-gatherer diet consumed by early humans adequately met the biological needs of the human genome (Cordain et al., 2005). There are several nutritional characteristics of this diet that are strikingly different from our modern diet. In addition to a high amount of soluble fiber, the diet of early humans provided little starch, and no refined sugar, salt, or oil (the ingredients in a donut). However, although humans may have included the consumption of some animal food out of convenience and for survival due to scarcity of plant foods, there is no evidence that the general population of early humans ate very large quantities of animal foods (Nestle, 1998). Among those few people who could afford to include ducks, cattle, geese, and fish in their diet, such as the elite class of ancient Egyptians 3,500 years ago, Allam et al. (2009) found that their mummified remains showed signs of atherosclerosis, arthritis, and dental decay, similar to diseases prevalent in today's population.

Walker (1981) studied tooth and jaw wear patterns in hominids ...