Impact of Food Habits on Early Humans
Walker (1981) in his study on “Emergence of Man” states that the remains of the meals of early humans that are found on archaeological living floors are direct evidence of diet. Archaeological discovery also has found the microscopic damage on the occlusal surfaces of Australopithecine teeth. It is actually not sure that any of the bones collected by those early humans were just foods. The archaeological record documents that some early humans were breaking and cutting animal bones for meat and the bone marrow. However, as most plant remains are never fossilized like bones, the record of what was eaten is obviously biased in favour of animal food.
Based on evidences, it is likely that early humans did also ate grass, seed, leaves, fruits including meat, bones, brain and marrows. The fruits of most indigenous African plants weresmall, largely lacking of fleshy pulps and were mostly covered with hard outer shell. Almost everything of the fruitswhich includes the outer casings, pulp, seeds, and all were masticated. This consumption pattern could be the main causeof microscopic damage their teeth.As, the People of past had the tendency of consuming more which used to be easily available, the behavior of strict control on consumption on available food emerged from Homo erectus (1·9 × 106–200 000 years ago). And, later on the behaviour regarding symbolic use of food emerged with modern Homo sapiens (100 000 years ago to the present) between 25,000 and 12,000 years ago. This behavior with social and economic transformations, including the origins of agriculture(Ulijasek, 2002).
Major changes have taken place in our diet over the past 10,000 years since the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution but, our genes have not changed. The spontaneous mutation rate for nuclear DNA is estimated at 0.5% per million years. Therefore, over the past 10,000 years there has been time for very little change in our genes, perhaps 0.005%. In fact, our genes today are very similar to the genes of our ancestors during the Paleolithic period 40,000 years ago, at which time our genetic profile was established. Genetically speaking, humans today live in a nutritional environment that differs from that for which our genetic constitution was selected. Studies on the evolutionary aspects of diet indicate that major changes have taken place in our diet, particularly in the type and amount of essential fatty acids and in the antioxidant content of foods (Simopoulos, 2011).
As the diet of human included Animal Source Foods (ASF)in abundance, their pattern of use changed in dramatic ways over the course of evolution. Before 2 million years ago (mya), meat in particular was acquired opportunistically via hunting of small or young animals and scavenging of animals killed by other species. At some point after that time, humans began to hunt cooperatively, making possible the acquisition of meat from large game.Thus, the regular consumption of meat with other fruits and vegetables caused the increase in human heights(Larsen, 2003). And, also it resulted in the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 Fatty Acid which helped in elimination of homeostasis and enhanced the normal development of humans throughout the life cycle.
