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Our Ancestors probably ate whatever they could get their hands on. Lots of fruit/berries included. The fact is that the average 'early farmer' skeleton is sho
by ardit33 4y ago
Our Ancestors probably ate whatever they could get their hands on. Lots of fruit/berries included.
The fact is that the average 'early farmer' skeleton is shorter and looks less healthy from the hunter gatherers.
That can means that grains (the bulk of the carbs back then), while reliable and a necessity at the time (due to population density), are not necessary better.
If you want to look like a caveman, meat and fruits and other simple veggies should be your diet.
- adrian_b 4y agoThe health problems of the early farmers are not surprising because they lacked the modern knowledge about nutrients, e.g. that cereals do not have enough lysine, legumes do not have enough methionine, both of them do not contain adequate quantities of some vitamins and minerals, and so on. So the first farmers probably had very unbalanced diets in comparison with their ancestors, or with the much later farmers. Even if during a relatively short time of maybe a few centuries at most, the cultivation of at least 6 different plant species has begun (3 cereals, 2 legumes and flax), it is likely that in the beginning there was no group of humans who cultivated all of them. It is more likely that each group has started to cultivate just one crop, but later they exchanged experiences and the crops whose cultivation was successful spread all over the area. It is likely that many years or even centuries were necessary until the early farmers developed an empirical knowledge about how to cook and mix multiple cultivated plants to make a healthy diet, including details like that the legumes must be soaked for some time and washed before cooking, for reducing the amount of phytic acid and other harmful substances, and so on.