Were there many paleo diets?

Miki Ben-Dor Department of Archaeology Tel Aviv University, Israel

AHS13 August 2013

Conklin-Brittain NL, Wrangham R, Smith CC (2002) A two-stage model of increased dietary quality in early hominid evolution: The role of fiber. In: Ungar PS, Teaford MF, editors. Human diet: Its origin and evolution: Greenwood

% weight (Conklin-Britten 2002)

% calories (Assuming 1.5 cal. fat/1 gr fiber)

Full explanation and references at http://www.paleostyle.com/?p=2001

Anatomy

Smaller

Colon is of a smaller gut, ¼ of Chimp colon, Little B12, max. 8% of energy

Colon is of the gut,Source of fat and B12

Milton, K. (1999). Nutritional characteristics of wild primate foods: do the diets of our closest living relatives have lessons for us? Nutrition 15:488–498

Anatomy

Wrangham proposed that cooking by Homo erectus 1.8 million years ago allowed humans to consume tubers despite their significant fiber content and humans smaller colon and teeth.

However:

◦ Archaeological evidence shows habitual control of fire only begin 1.4 million years later

◦ Genes that promote significant starch metabolism appear at the earliest only 1.6 million years later.

◦ Genes to cope with tubers’ low folic acid content and detoxification of tuber glycosides appear only recently and only among agricultural populations that consume domesticated tubers.

◦ Starch dependent bacteria found in human teeth plaque only after the Agriculture Revolution indicating low starch diet pre-agriculture.

◦ Nitrogen Isotope studies confirm low plant consumption in the late Paleolithic even though cooking was well established.

◦ Meat and fat consumption offer more parsimonious solution to the fiber problem as they are energy dense and do not have fiber so do not require cooking to be metabolized.

Genetic adaptation only in groups with post-Paleolithic consumption of tubers to:•Starch and sucrose metabolism•Folic acid biosynthesis•Detoxification of plant glycosides

Genetics

Microbiology

Genetics

Uneven Very recent?

Archaeology

Archaeology

Grinding tools and storage structure found in sites dated to a period just before agriculture

Archaeology

Archaeology

81% 87% 80% 89% 61% 78% 29% 68% 26%? 54%Animal foods

Caloric percentage of animal food for groups who were systematically studied

Ethnography

Isotopes

Isotopes

Humans

Strontium and Barium analysis in human and animal teeth from approx. 2 MYA show: “Early Homo (is) indistinguishable from carnivores” (Nature 2012)

Strontium

Africa 1.5 MYA - “The appearance of Homo is marked by a sharp drop in the number of large carnivores (>20 kgs) but not small carnivores”

Italy 0.5 MYA – Homo appear. Large carnivores drop despite increase in large herbivores.

Werdelin L, Lewis ME (2013) Temporal Change in Functional Richness and Evenness in the Eastern African Plio-Pleistocene Carnivoran Guild. PLoS ONE 8(3): e57944.

Large Carnivores Small Carnivores

Homo erectus

Paleontology

Signs of competition between early humans and large carnivores

“there is incontrovertible evidence of the convergence of human behavior with carnivore behavior”

Animal Behavior

Wolf (Canis)

Social

Monogamy

2nd Widest geographic distribution

Endurance locomotion

Prey size: 1000 kgs – 1 kg

Preying on young and old

Homo

Social

Monogamy

Widest geographic distribution

Endurance locomotion

Prey size: 6000 kgs - 1 kg

Preying on adults

Animal Behavior

Joint venture?

“our findings highlight the emergence of carnivory as a process fundamentally determining human evolution.”

Weaning in humans 2-3 yearWeaning in Chimps 4-5 years

Life History

Kuhn, S. L., & Stiner, M. C. (2006). What’s a Mother to Do? The Division of Labor among Neandertals and Modern Humans in Eurasia. Current Anthropology, 47(6), 953-981

Ethnography

Life History

Inter-disciplinary evidence supportsOne Paleolithic

Highly Carnivorous Diet

Life History

Archaeology

N Isotope

Strontium

Anatomy

Genetics

Animal Behavior

Ethnography

Paleontology

Bacteriology