How do you imagine a caveman? Probably gnawing a piece of bison meat. But a new chemical analysis suggests that people of the Stone Age ate less meat than we think.
Previously, to find out how much meat the ancient people ate, scientists proceeded from the fact that protein is the only macronutrient that contains nitrogen. Different products have different ratios of heavy and light nitrogen isotopes. Scientists recreated ancient diets by measuring the proportion of heavy and light nitrogen isotopes in fossilized bones, also taking into account the fact that heavier nitrogen isotopes predominantly accumulate in the body. According to their calculations, the proteins of animal origin prevailed in the diet of prehistoric humans, and their share was 60-80%.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge claim that animal proteins were less important in the nutrition of ancient people.
To confirm this, they took samples of human blood for research and meticulously recreated the diet of people, indicating exactly how much and what they ate during the week. By comparing the ratios of nitrogen isotopes in food and blood, they were able to determine how much heavy nitrogen accumulated in the human body. Then, using the same methods, scientists examined the hair and bones of ancient people. It turned out that in the diet of people who lived about 12,000 years ago, there were no more than 40-50% of animal proteins.
As for the nutrition of modern man, scientists believe that we should get no more than 45% of any type of protein in our diet. Animal proteins from the point of view of human physiology - this is a very heavy, toxic food.
