{"id":779204,"date":"2025-09-10T08:13:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779204"},"modified":"2025-09-10T09:00:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:00:17","slug":"no-our-ancestors-werent-the-carnivorous-cavemen-we-once-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779204","title":{"rendered":"BEYOND MEAT: No, our ancestors weren\u2019t the carnivorous cavemen we once thought"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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What people imagine to be \u2018ancestral\u2019 eating is not only inaccurate, but often unhealthy. The first thing to note is that our ancestors weren\u2019t actually carnivores. That\u2019s a misplaced narrative based on outdated archaeology. Dr Emma Pomeroy at the University of Cambridge says: 'We have this idea of cavemen eating a very high meat diet. For most humans, that wasn\u2019t the case. Archaeologists have amassed a wealth of evidence that our ancestors ate plants'.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

HATTY WILLMOTH:<\/strong> Data from Google Trends shows that searches for the term \u201ccarnivore diet\u201d roughly tripled in the UK and US from 2022 to 2025, and there are now more than 160 carnivore cookbooks listed for sale on Amazon.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no real science proving the diet is beneficial, but many meat munchers feel confident in their choice because they think our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate mainly (or only) animals.<\/em><\/p>\n

The carnivore diet, they say, is a better fit for our biology than a modern diet of carbohydrates, processed foods and farmed plants. It\u2019s what we evolved to eat.<\/em><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: there\u2019s a limit to what The Flintstones can teach us about nutrition.<\/em><\/p>\n

What people imagine to be \u2018ancestral\u2019 eating is not only inaccurate, but often unhealthy. And any lessons we can learn from our Stone Age predecessors are nothing like what the podcast bros would have you believe…<\/em><\/p>\n

The first thing to note is that our ancestors weren\u2019t actually carnivores. That\u2019s a misplaced narrative based on outdated archaeology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Emma Pomeroy is an Associate Professor in the Evolution of Health, Diet and Disease at the University of Cambridge. She says: \u201cWe have this idea of cavemen \u2013 and it usually is men \u2013 eating a very high meat diet and not relying on anything else. For most humans, that wasn\u2019t the case”…<\/em><\/p>\n

We know better now. Archaeologists have amassed a wealth of evidence that our ancestors ate plants. Some of the strongest comes from isotope analysis. Isotopes are distinct versions of chemicals that can give us clues about what humans ingested during their lives…<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps, the most annoying thing about fans of the carnivore diet, however, is that they do have a point.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even though we\u2019re living longer and there are more of us compared to Stone Age times, Pomeroy says that skeletons from agricultural societies seem to have more signs of chronic disease, such as diabetes and heart disease.<\/em><\/p>\n

And, in the last few centuries, what we eat has changed a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe nugget of truth here is the food system has rapidly changed over the last couple of hundred years and our biology hasn\u2019t to that extent,\u201d says Dr. Emily Leeming, a dietitian and scientist at King\u2019s College London.<\/em><\/p>\n

But, while Paleo and carnivore fans may have spotted this problem, they\u2019ve got the solution all wrong…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe real problem with an agricultural diet, if we can call it that, is the reduction in the diversity of plant foods,\u201d says Fuller. He explains that we rely too heavily on carb-rich foods such as wheat, rice and corn, while missing out on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve become quite narrow in the plants that we eat,\u201d agrees Pomeroy. She adds that we process foods more than we did in hunter-gatherer times. We would have eaten whole fruits and whole grains with their fibre intact…<\/em><\/p>\n

Fuller adds we have evidence, too, that Palaeolithic people were eating more nuts and seeds than we do today, and benefitting from healthy fats such as omega-3, good for longevity and the brain… All in all, everything that we assume about Stone Age diets is wrong.\u00a0 SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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