By Nikki Phipps
What did our distant ancestors eat? Our early ancestors often had no choice but to eat the food that was available in season. For instance, people who lived near the sea, rivers, or lakes would have caught fish and other seafood. Nevertheless, it is believed that our distant ancestors made use of a greater number of species of animals and plants than most people do today. The foods we eat today are very different from the foods our ancestors ate. People ate far fewer carbohydrates, and those they ate were healthier. Potatoes were smaller and more nutritious, rice was long grain, bread was whole grain, and pasta was made from unrefined wheat. The more generations back you go, the higher the fiber and rarer the refined carbohydrates. But in addition to eating more complex carbohydrates, our ancestors also ate a larger proportion of vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries, fish, and wild game.
Our early ancestors lived before the days of commercial food processing and the addition of preservatives. According to research, animals, birds, fish, and shellfish were the primary diet. The Neanderthals, for example, were cold-climate hunters and presumably subsisted primarily on game during the coldest periods. Their cooking techniques appear to have included “earth-ovens” constructed similar to a barbecue pit today. As time progressed, hunters no longer exclusively sought out small mammals but foraged, grubbed, and picked berries as well. Variable amount of roots, fruits, leafy vegetables, and nuts made their way into their diet too. Vegetables such as the radish, turnip, and onion were eaten. In the Americas, the early Indians ate potatoes and yams. Eggs from a variety of fowl were cooked in a number of ways as well. Milk was a popular beverage and used for making butter and cheese. Insects have also provided a good supply of food to man. Honey was also a favorite of early people. People eventually developed the capacity to gather wild grains using wooden scythes. They would then ground them on stone-grinding blocks, and baked the coarse flour as cakes, scones, or bread. With the advent of agriculture, grains and other crops could be stored, providing a food reserve from one harvest to the next.
After that it seems to have went downhill. Nowadays, food is processed and sent to supermarkets in vast amounts. Those not purchased are simply tossed out. Nowadays, there is more fat and sugar in our diets. We are becoming a nation of overeaters as well, resulting in poor health. In essence, the body we inherited from our ancestors isn’t designed to run on the food we’re feeding it today. Whether we like it or not, the food that tastes the best is probably the worst for our health. Our ancestors craved salt, sugar, fat, and carbohydrates because they were scarce, and in times of scarcity, they were beneficial. But in America today, where food is plentiful, manufacturers have exploited these cravings. The typical high fat, high-carbohydrate, high-sugar, high-salt meal in the average dinner is not good for our overall health. Perhaps we should take what our ancestors consumed into consideration. Maybe if we ate more like they did, we would not suffer from so many health concerns such as obesity and heart disease.