Raw Paleo Diet to Suit You > Carnivorous / Zero Carb Approach

Resolved: humans are naturally opportunistic carnivores

<< < (2/3) > >>

invisible:
biblelife.org is a pretty good website. Even if you oppose the religious aspects, his writings about diet is backed with many sources.

PaleoPhil:
Yes, I have found biblelife to be a surprisingly good source of information, though I don't agree with everything there. Here is some more evidence that humans are opportunistic carnivores, if anyone still needs it at this point:

Heme Iron Receptors in Human Intestine Reveal Humans to Be Designed for Meat Eating

"Heme iron receptors: an adaptation to animal foods in the diet. The information that the human intestine has receptors specifically for absorption of heme iron is significant. Heme iron is found almost exclusively in animal foods. Plant foods may contain heme iron as well, as cytochrome c, a protein found in plants, reportedly contains a heme group. However, the level of heme iron in plants is extremely low, and not nutritionally significant. (Most of the standard references, such as NRC [1989, p. 198], report that all of the iron in plants is in non-heme form).

Given that plant foods contain effectively no heme iron, and that heme iron is found only in animal foods, the presence of intestinal receptors in humans that are specific to heme iron is strong evidence of evolutionary, physiological adaptation to animal foods in the diet."

From: "Key Nutrients vis-a-vis Omnivorous Adaptation and Vegetarianism (cont.): MINERALS (IRON AND ZINC)"
http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-7g.shtml

Paleo Donk:
The one puzzling thing about the article is that the researchers say that this is a very rare discovery. I have virtually no knowledge on the subject, but arent there thousands of different bones from around this era that have been discovered. Do none of these bones give the same information about diet as the one above or is this the only one?

Do you have any other sources about bones discovered at or around this time period?

Paleo Donk:
I suppose this part of the article is the clincher

--- Quote ---"This was an extremely rare find and has led to a greater understanding of the way our ancestors lived. It is rare that we have direct evidence as to the diet of one of our long dead ancestors."
--- End quote ---

I still would have assumed that we would have a vast supply of bones from this time period. Apparently not?

PaleoPhil:
I'm not sure, but I think he means rare in the UK. The bones of prey animals are another form of dietary evidence. There are plenty of such sites in continental Europe that reveal large accumulations of the butchered bones of prey animals that homo sapiens, Neanderthals and other hominids ate. Clive Gamble's book The Paleolithic Societies of Europe lists Stone Age dig sites in Europe that's over three pages long. So strong is the evidence for carnivory (fauna-based diets that also include some plants) that Gamble terms the European hominid cultures in the Middle Paleolithic period from around 300,000 to 30,000 years before the present "the carnivore guild."

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page