Fat of the land: What ancient bones tell us about the origin of the human diet

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #1

The study/paper. Unfortunately, only the Abstract is available. The full study is behind a subscription and pay wall.

Jessica_Thompson
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(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2
(Sama Hoole) #3

Love any chat on human evolution. This recent paper was a great deep dive.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.24247

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #4

@GenesisOfSama Thanks for that link. A very informative study. It confirms, amoung much else, the problems associated with using modern, ie Holocene and 20th century specifically, hunter gathers as representative of our Pleistocene ancestors.

#5

and going off a tad here but ‘real’ Fat of the Land’ as in living in extreme cold climate, little veg ever available and food source is meat/fat or perish and YOU NEED alot of meat for survival in all that crazy environment :slight_smile:

OLD ways show ‘real truths’ ya know.

only when humans hunted more and got more fat/meat protein did we ‘ramp up’ into current life thru increased brain size.

not one carb ever required for survival for a human body to exist and thrive. SAYS it all!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #6

Did you watch Thompson’s video? It’s quite informative. The first evidence of hominins (us and our ancestors) eating fat occurs in Ethiopia and dates to circa 3.9 million years ago. That evidence is large mammal bones which have characteristic marks and damage caused by breaking them open with rocks to get at the marrow. This was Australopithecus afarensis - aka ‘Lucy’. We’ve been eating meat and fat since long before the extremes of the Pleistocene, long before our ancestors first left Africa.

#7

it was life
eat or be eaten LOL
all life had to eat and our initial life force was ‘what are you’ and do you have a ‘backup’ system.

horses won’t eat meat. deer won’t eat meat for survival long term. a deer might visit a ‘gut pile’ of another animal and ‘suck some salt from blood’ which it might need etc but GUTS such as ones like ruminants to process into life energy can’t happen for long term species survival.

Life gave us ketone and glucose burn. Ketone burn is first. Glucose burn is secondary for long term survival…I firmly believe this so without what the body says as 'not one carb is ever needed for life and evolution and thriving situation in the human body…gluclose burn is our back for survival. Not alot of ‘critters on the early planet’ got to not choose ya know with options on long term survival.

ok, just rambling a bit LOL I always find this SO interesting that our back to basics on how we should eat now thru the crazy life food on this planet is killing us, the most simple back to basics of how humans required to eat for evolution and increased brain size to truly become modern day, vs. the ‘extra glucose’ burn from plant matter to give us that edge.

In a small way it is never rocket science on any of this :slight_smile: People just need to look back and read truths and acknowledge but ‘in this day’ I guess the truth of it all is WHO CARES! That becomes personal to all us in a way :slight_smile:

again a ramble, just chatting out :sunny:

(Bob M) #8

Marrow, which is quite high in MUFA. (Or at least modern marrow is.)

#9

sure I get that, but put marrow in modern day menu?

won’t ever give apples to apples ever so?

marrow old ancient times vs our diet today? marrow by far is life, marrow now on ‘this life’ for us and throw processing like you mention if we get down to brass tacks on ‘what is marrow nutrients’ from ancient times…again no compare truly—just monster what ifs and guesses in the end of it all I think

(KCKO, KCFO) #10

Chrome extention Unpaywall took me to a free download site for the full 26 page report

I plan on reading it all during my next fasting period. .

(Sama Hoole) #11

Absolutely, modern day HGs have to be happy with baboons and other small, lean prey. I’d imagine that would force them to eat more fibrous tubers and fruits to make up for the lack of fat.

They basically fall back to Australopithecine foods.

(Bob M) #12

I’ve bought marrow bones, but let them get freezer burn. Forgot about them.

But a lot of carnivores rave about marrow. And brain. But it’s hard to get brain.

Do plan on getting some marrow bones again, though.

It’s just that I’m more concerned lately about PUFAs and even MUFAs, yet our ancestors prized MUFAs too. But I think we’re overwhelmed today with PUFAs. Almost anything that’s prepared has them in it. To a lesser extent, I think MUFAs could be an issue, in the modern food environment.

(Edith) #13

Even sheep will eat animal foods if they are missing something in their diet.

(Edith) #14

My favorite podcast just did an episode about the Hadza. It doesn’t sound like they eat that many plants.

#15

marrow is delish but I don’t buy it much cause for me ‘now in my journey’ I don’t require fat to take the protein factor form me as in eating dense meat and less fat ya know. I think alot of people sway thru their personal requirements kinda when marrow is a life saver and when it can easily be dropped. (common with what life is now vs. older times and thru ‘how we heal’ on plan etc to be taken into play here)

(Vic) #16

I eat marrow and brain regularly.

By far one of the most satiating food on earth.
Maybe cod liver gets close.

(Bob M) #17

I think if you’re not carnivore but keto, it’s pretty easy to still get too much MUFA and PUFA. (It might even be easy to get too much PUFA, as chicken and pork contain a lot, if you’re carnivore.) If you eat salads with olive oil or eat a lot of mayo you make yourself, I think you’re drowning in MUFA relative to what you’d get if you just ate say Buffalo.

This for instance says that marrow is about 45% MUFAs:

But olive oil is well above that, 70+ % MUFAs. I wonder what that difference does for us?

And then when you realize that PUFAs take a while to get out of your fat cells, it makes you wonder. I’ve seen estimates as high as a half life of 2 years for PUFAs in your fat cells. That means if you stop eating PUFAs completely (not possible to do), you’d have half the PUFAs in your fat cells after 2 years. Yikes!

(Sama Hoole) #18

And I’m fairly sure most of our carnivory competition couldn’t get to the brain either. Considering brain has plenty of DHA, that puts a wrench in the shoreline hypothesis, where we increased our own brain size by targetting shellfish and oysters.

Almost every angle here points to the megafauna being the mainstay of the human diet.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #19
(Chris) #20

Full text is definitely found on a certain hub for science.