Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskDr Pontzer is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health. He is an expert on what human beings consumed tens of thousands of years ago when they were hunter-gatherers. He knows they would never have eaten such things. But he knows, too, that there are many myths about what people did eat before agriculture was invented.
Another bias in assessing true palaeo diets is the archaeological record. Stone tools and bones that indicate carnivory persist. Evidence of plant eating is more fragile. But, says Dr Pontzer, you can find it. For example, in the “nooks and crannies” of teeth at fossil sites it is possible to discover starchy grains, along with plaque. This suggests early humans ate plenty of starch-rich plants.
If that is so, perhaps there is no optimal human diet, and all the official guidance about what proportions of meat, vegetables, grains and dairy constitute one matters less than people think. Dr Pontzer certainly believes so. But this does not quite answer the question of why hunter-gatherers are generally thin while a growing fraction of other people are fat?
Dr Pontzer, who has spent time living and eating with the Hadza, describes the ekwa as “really bland”. He has also eaten boiled warthog, which he says is “OK” but is also tasteless. Berries are entirely unlike the plump, watery, sugary things found in supermarkets. Rather, they are dry, with many seeds inside. Most alarming, though, was week-old zebra.
Shit
Palaeoliths are stones. DERP.
Eating zebras is wrong!
Yeah, I love the “paleo” diet that includes….chocolate.
Do stone tools eat anything? 😎 /pedantry
Time for the gatherers to get some credit!
What can a study in people living today reveal about ancient ancestors? No one lives 200000 years ago now...
It was 'invented' a lot longer than a few thousand years ago.