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| Author | Topic: our ancestors and fat consumption |
| Sanna 02-05-2003 10:36 AM | did our ancestors consume fat every time with fruits? was it even available widely? what did they eat for fat? is it really necessary to consume fat EVERY time? I know it stabilizes blood sugar...but can we for example easily get diabetes if we don't eat fat with fruits all the time? what other animals eat avocadoes btw? |
| Wai 02-07-2003 03:55 PM | quote:nope quote:just in nuts, avocadoes and in animal food (such as fish) quote:they needed less fat because their foods / fruits were probably less sugary, so these sugars were very evenly ingested throughout the day. quote:not for everybody; it depends on how much your blood sugar level can fluctuate (and on what you eat), so it is up to your personal experiences; how do you feel with consuming different levels of fat... quote:no, because the main cause of diabetes is the repeated triggering of the secretion of insulin by the same sugar molecules. for an explanation, check out this thread: link quote:i don't know... |
| jay 03-06-2003 11:37 AM | It is quite likely that our ancestors ate quite a lot of brain and bone-marrow and other animal fat. Although the best sites for archaeologists are where there are layers of sediment that build up on the banks of lakes and most archaeological data comes from these sites (eg Olduvai gorge in east Africa) there must have been many more hominids on the savannah who could easily have been our ancestors.Many people studying evolution presume that fresh-water fish were the major source of animal fat but I think it is more likely that these hominids scavenged from the carcasses of animals that died or were killed on the savannah. Many of these animals (elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, pigs) are hairless and like humans therefore have subcutaneous fat which other scavengers would not completely remove but also the brain is protected from other scavengers inside the skull and it requires ingenuity to get it out. The bone marrow can only be partly removed by hyenas, wild dogs etc so it is probable that ther would be fat available wherever the vultures were flying overhead, even if other scavengers got there first or it was a carnivore's kill. The quantity of fat available from this source could be considerable and that from the brain and bone-marrow (about 65% of calories in these organs) is rich in omega-3 fatty acids including EPA and DHA, useful for building bigger brains. Freshwater fish are eaten by baboons today so they must have formed part of their diet too if they were next to lakes (which were much more plentiful then). Marine fish probably became a regular part of the diet about 100,000 years ago, I think. Jay |
| Wai 03-07-2003 01:43 PM | quote:yes, i agree with that; at least we had the skills to use tools to open up skulls quote:yes, studies show no evidence of marine fish in earlier diets, but do show that fresh water fish was part of the diet of hominoids living about 1.6 million years ago |
| mjkst27 05-02-2003 11:30 AM | I guess this is my main question regarding your diet, Wai: If we need all this "clean fat" from olive oil and avocados in our diets, you say approximately 50% of calories from these fats...where did early humans get all their fat from? Unless they lived near an avacodo tree, they would have been extremely fat-deficient, no? |
| jay 05-02-2003 11:34 AM | The early hominids got most of their fat from animal sources. As they lived on the equatorial savannah in Africa they had access to the carcases of animals that died from natural causes or which were killed by predators. Animals that evolved at the equator (including humans) often have very little body hair and a layer of fat under the skin instead. These animals include elephants, hippos, rhinoceroses, pigs. The other animals that have little body fat (usually less than 4%) have most of their fat in the bone-marrow and brain where predators cannot get at it. This fat is rich in essential fatty acids. Freshwater fish also entered the diet millions of years ago and eggs would have been an occasional food too. There is some more information about this on: http://www.ex.ac.uk/archaeology/rfats |
| mjkst27 05-02-2003 11:36 AM | I have a hard time with that, Jay. I just don't believe that humans have the instincts to approach a rotting picked-over carcass and pull it apart for food. We just aren't buzzards. In an emergency situation, in a cold climate where humans don't belong indigenously, I guess I could see it happening, but I don't believe that humans in their **true** natural habitat (which may truly have only been a few hundred square miles in the tropical forest somewhere) evolved to eat animal carcass. JMHO, I could be wrong. |
| Schmolch 05-02-2003 11:37 AM | Hi Mike, why do you have a problem with eating some nice and gently sun-heated carcass? ;-) I think it all depends on how your "true natural habitat" looks like. Imagine you are not much more than a ape walking on two feet, without any kind of weapons to attack or even defend against bigger animals, what would you do? All day and night you have to fight to survive, look for something to eat, and be aware of predators which have you on their menu. Compare your naked body to those of predators of the same weight or even bigger. They probably have not much work killing you. Then one day you notice vultures flying over a spot not far away and you have learned what this means. A dead animal is lying there, maybe 100 pounds or more of fresh (or less fresh) meat, and meat is a luxury, very rich in nutrients with lots of calories. Now you can decide what to do. You can either think about the differences between those vultures and yourself or about the better food you think you would deserve beeing such a noble beeing or you can just try to get something of this meat for yourself before you starve. Hey you know what? There is a dead cat lying on a street nearby, i invite you for a nice meal, you coming? ;-) |
| Michael 05-02-2003 11:37 AM | Mike K wrote: "where did early humans get all their fat from? Unless they lived near an avacodo tree, they would have been extremely fat-deficient, no? " - There are plenty of fat in insects. And there are plenty of insects which can be eaten raw, just like most apes and many humans do today. |