If you are following the paleo diet, then perhaps you are one of those who think that this is the diet that mirrors the one our early ancestors ate. According to a new study, however, they do not care about diet at all.
The paleo diet is based on many premises, but one of these has something to do with what or how the earliest men, those who lived in the Paleolithic Age, ate. According to its advocates, our nutritional needs are actually not too far from theirs, and therefore, we are not really adapted to consume food produced by modern agriculture such as grains.
However, in a new research conducted by Georgia State University anthropologists, that may not be true at all. Based on their study, our early ancestors did not care too much about diet. They did not have any fondness or need for a particular food group, which is slightly contrary to the Paleo diet plan. (It puts a lot of emphasis on proteins derived from meat as well as fats and a very few number of carbohydrates.)
So what and how do they eat? Using the data the researchers have obtained pertaining to their chemistry, anthropology, and biology, they discovered a couple of things.
First, these early people were scattered in a very large place. Second, their choice of food depended on what was available to them. Hominids ate not mainly to keep themselves healthy but rather to survive and gain energy so they could hunt, among other things. When it comes to their protein consumption, it varied depending on the kind of animal they could easily obtain, weather, and the landscape they were in. In other words, they were more of opportunistic eaters.
One should also remember that the food they ate before was definitely so far different from what we have now.
