Column #205

Is it fair to say there’s a grassroots movement to convince all Americans that humans are vegetarians and shouldn’t eat meat? Some believers are so convinced meat is not a proper food that they feed their cat vegetables and grain. Yet cats are true obligate carnivores. They must eat meat for their nutritional needs. Plant-based foods cannot sufficiently provide cats certain key nutrients such as Omega-3 DHA, taurine, Omega-6 arachidonic acid, vitamin A, and vitamin B12. Without these key nutrients cats can suffer from liver and heart problems, skin irritation, and hearing loss.

Of course, humans aren’t cats.

Modern humans are Homo sapiens. Our earliest dated skeletons come from Africa and date 300,000 years ago. Before us were many other species of humans with the oldest dating back seven million years! That’s a lot of generations. And since the earliest days humans changed physically in many ways, especially regarding the brain. But the physical changes did not alter the required essential nutrients for supporting life. That’s because from the beginning of life on Earth the green leaf has been the foundation food for all animal life. Maybe this is why people today are confused about Homo sapien’s position in the food chain.

Eating leaves is relatively easy. But the energy (calories) in green leaves is very low which means humans can’t eat enough to survive and thrive. On the other hand there are more calories in roots and some vegetables. Underground storage organs (USOs) are root foods similar to beets, yams, and potatoes. But USOs have to be gathered and, before the advent of cooking, required processing (smashing) and even then they were very hard to chew and even digest.

Harvard University evolutionary biologists Katherine Zink and Daniel Lieberman, the authors of “Impact of Meat and Lower Palaeolithic Food Processing Techniques on Chewing in Humans,” came up with some interesting statistics. Their studies indicate that proto-humans would have to perform 41,100 “chewing cycles” a day eating USOs. In addition they determined it required from 39% to 46% less force to chew and swallow processed meat (prepared either by slicing, pounding, or flaking) than it did to chew and swallow processed USOs.

They also determined that if a 100% USO diet is changed to being one-third animal protein and two-thirds OSUs that saves about 5,480 chews per day, a 13% reduction. The total energy required for chewing and swallowing declines 24%. By extrapolating these statistics a 100% animal protein and fat diet requires 23,300 chews per day, a 57% reduction, and the energy for chewing and swallowing declines a whopping 75%. Eating meat was certainly the most efficient way for proto-humans to gain nutrients.

Since the brain is nutritionally demanding, as it grew in size so did its requirements for calories and nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids. That’s why, starting about two million years ago, proto-humans required more meat in the diet because meat is more calorie dense, requires less effort to eat, and is better balanced and more nutrient diverse than USOs.

About 700,000 years ago humans learned how to create fire. Before controlling fire, food was rarely cooked which limited food selections. Consequently, before fire, meat was a preferred food because of it’s nutrient density and ease of digestion. Even after cooking, meat retained these advantages. Meat’s preference as a food is underscored by the many bones and skeletons discovered at the Jebel Irhoud archaeological site in Morocco. It was there that paleontologists determined that 300,000 years ago Homo sapiens were using fire and eating gazelles, hartebeests, wildebeests, zebras, buffalos, porcupines, hares, tortoises, freshwater molluscs, snakes, and ostrich eggs. Since all of those animal proteins and fats had the green leaf at the bottom of the food chain, they fulfilled the proto-human’s nutrient needs

The most extensive prehistoric excavation in North America, the Old Man Vero site in Florida, shows that humans and late Pleistocene animals, some of them gigantic, lived together in the same vicinity. The Page-Ladson site near Tallahassee is one of only a handful of sites that show humans were living in North and South America around 14,500 years ago. Among the many animals on their menu at that time was mammoth!

It was only about 14,500 to 12,000 years ago that mankind invented agriculture in Southwest Asia. That introduced new foods and soon food choices not only increased dramatically but the characteristics of the foods changed. Grain, vegetables, and fruit became relatively abundant. By selecting the seeds of outliers that tasted better or were larger, it didn’t take long before some fruits were sweeter and bigger and vegetables and grain were larger. Also, the domestication of animals made meat more convenient.

Two thousand years ago in biblical times, agricultural capabilities had been advancing for over 10,000 years. Cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep had been domesticated and were managed in flocks and herds. The growing of grain, vegetables, and fruit was very advanced. The time spent hunting for meat was reduced significantly. Meat was fresher since it was processed as needed. Cooking was very advanced. People lived in permanent settlements. Meat was still very important, so important that many religious ceremonies incorporated animal sacrifices.

The bottom line is that meat made Homo sapiens what they are today. Being human rather than related to cats doesn’t exempt us from natural laws. And, like cats, man is very high up on the food chain. Based on what is known, is it fair to say that maybe a diet without meat could be the Homo sapien’s undoing?

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

History of the Domestication of Animals from History World

Animal Sacrifice from Wikipedia

Sorry Vegans: Here’s How Meat-Eating Made Us Human by Jeffrey Kluger from Time Magazine

Managing to Get More Milk and Profit from Pasture from The Bullvine

Control of Fire by Early Humans from Wikipedia

Impact of Meat and Lower Palaeolithic Food Processing Techniques on Chewing in Humans by Katherine D. Zink & Daniel E. Lieberman in Nature (24 March 2016) Abstract

Homo Sapiens 100,000 Years Earlier: Ancestors’ Diet of Game Revealed from University of California - Davis in Science Daily

Livestock in the Roman Empire: Mostly Pigs and Sheep from FactsAndDetails.com

Agriculture in Ancient Rome from Wikipedia

First Humans in Florida Lived Alongside Giant Animals from Ancient Origins

Humans and Mastodons Coexisted in Florida, New Evidence Shows by James Gorman from The New York Times

Origins of Agriculture the Earliest Beginnings from Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Mastodon from Wikipedia