Food & History (Part 2)

Early humanoid diet consists the majority of the plant foods (Cordain, 2002). These people sharing similar characteristics to chimpanzees and bonobos connected with a focus on harvesting and eating underground storage organs like tubers rather than hunting and eating meat. They had developed the technologies to dig with sticks in order to find tubers (Ungar & Teaford, 2002). Plant based foods such as fruits, leaves, gums, and stalks probably comprised at least 95% of their dietary intake, with insects, eggs, and small animals making up the remainder. Protein had contributed a greater proportion of total energy, but much more were sourced from vegetable rather than from animal (Popovich et al., 1997). Simple carbohydrate intake would have been less which would be coming mainly from fruit. Little or none came from refined flour and sugar, leading sources for current humans. There would have been relatively more starch and other complex carbohydrates for consumption. The Dietary fiber intake used to be somewhere around 200 grams versus 20 grams a day in these modern days (Milton, 1993).

Colonic fermentation of this fiber, by gut flora, probably made a significant contribution to daily energy intake because the resultant volatile short-chain fatty acids are subsequently metabolized by intestinal epithelium and, especially, in the liver. Daily intake of vitamins and minerals is likely to have been considerably greater than at present, with the likely exception of iodine, consumption of which would have varied with geographic location according to oceanic proximity, volcanic activity, prevailing winds, and rainfall. Consumption of sodium was only a fraction of that currently consumed and had also been substantially less than that of potassium (Denton et al., 1995). Availability and consumption of phytochemicals, like that of vitamins and most minerals, were likely to be greater than for modern Americans and other westerners.

Total fat intake, especially of serum cholesterol raising saturated and trans fatty acids, were greatly below current American and European levels; cholesterol intake would have been minimal. Within the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) category, partition between the omega 6 and omega 3 families would have been reasonably equal or skewed slightly toward the omega 3. Polyunsaturated fatty acids from plant sources like; Linoleic Acid (LA, C18:2, omega 6) and α-Linolenic Acid (ALA, C18:3, omega 3) were predominantly consumed whereas, intake of Arachidonic Acid (AA, C20:4, omega 6) and Docosahexenoic Acid (DHA, C22:6, omega 3), were comparatively low (Eaton, 1998).

As of the meat consumption, the animals killed in wild was found to have a profound effect on the growth and development of early humanoid into modern Homo sapiens. An increasing proportion of meat in the diet have provided more animal protein that played a great role in transition from Australopithecines through Homo habilis to Homo erectus (McHenry, 1992). But, greater availability of animal fat increased caloric density resulting to the concurrent stature soaring and, also provided a source of ready-formed long chain PUFAs, including AA, Docosatetrenoic acid (DTA), and DHA. These three fatty acids together make up more than 90% of the long-chain PUFAs (i.e., the structurally significant and physiologically active fat) found in the brain gray matter of all mammalian species (Sinclair, 1975). Adequate raw materials like; AA, DTA, and DHA provided by animal tissues, substrate to allow formation of brain tissue (Crawford, 1992). Growing brain size has been a key aspect of human evolution. Homo sapiens have cranial capacities that are three times greater than those of Australopithecus afarensis. The complex nature of interpersonal and social interactions together with availability of animal tissues to provide the necessary structural lipid among early hominids were another reason for increment in the size of the brain (Dunbar, 1998). ?

Gradually the population density of early humans increased and reached to the point that nomadic exploitation of wild plant foods and game meat became difficult or impossible. It is then the Mesolithic humans adopted a more settled way of living by starting the dependency in agriculture. Actual crop cultivation followed and, in most areas, cereals became staples. This nutritional departure was unparalleled, as no other free-living primates routinely consume cereal grains (Milton, 1993). Compared to Stone Age, most Paleolithic humans agriculturalists had limited access to meat. While total fiber consumption probably varied as?agriculture generally raised the insoluble: soluble dietary fiber ratio because the fiber available from grains like rice and wheat is predominately insoluble while that from fruits and vegetables is predominately soluble (Eaton, 1990). Additional nutritional modifications that took place over the agricultural millennia included the creation of alcoholic beverages, the commercial production of salt, and the spread of sugar cane farming across time.

to be continued...