The Perfect Human Diet

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Isotopic analysis provides information about the sources of dietary protein over a number of years, even though it does not measure the caloric contributions of different foods. As the method only measures protein intake, many low-protein foods that may have been important to the diet (i.e., high caloric foods like honey, underground storage organs, and essential mineral and vitamin rich plant foods) are simply invisible to this method. There are high-protein plant foods in Europe that Neanderthals and early modern humans could have consumed, such as hazelnuts [commonly consumed in the Mesolithic (49" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer"> that would have been visible in the isotopic analyses, but they are simply not seen. Another important consideration is that this method tracks the bulk protein consumption over a number of years, and provides an average and proportional measure of the protein sources. Therefore, the occasional consumption of resources like fish or marine mammals by Neanderthals (i.e., once a month, 1 month a year) would be largely invisible to this method. Indeed, it is evident that Neanderthals sometimes consumed aquatic resources (50), although the isotope evidence shows that it was not likely to have been an important part of their diet across Neanderthal populations.

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Stable isotope analysis is therefore a powerful method for reconstructing aspects of past diets, and it has been especially useful in determining the protein sources in Neanderthal and early modern human diets in Europe. There are now enough isotopic data to see patterns in the data, and they show that the Neanderthals and early modern humans had similar dietary adaptations, obtaining most of their dietary protein from animals, although some of the early modern humans obtained significant amounts of their protein from aquatic, and not just terrestrial, sources.

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Stable isotope analysis of carbon (d13C), nitrogen (d15N) and sulphur (d34S) were carried out on one of the largest assemblages of Late Upper Palaeolithic human remains in Southern Europe, at Grotta del Romito (Cosenza), Italy. The burials were stratigraphically dated from ca. 18,000 to 13,000 cal BP, which was confirmed by a series of new AMS dates made directly on the bone collagen. Dietary reconstruction from carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes revealed that eight of the nine individuals analysed, dating to the Final Epigravettian, had very consistent diets, rich in terrestrial animal protein, regardless of their age or sex

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Nitrogen isotopic values (d15N) increase by 3e5& with increasing trophic level (Hedges and Reynard, 2007) and therefore are useful for distinguishing animal-rich diets from plant-rich diets as well as theconsumption of high trophic level marine and freshwater fish. Nitrogen in collagen is directly obtained from dietary protein and therefore will only reflect dietary protein sources consumed. Carbon in bone collagen is also preferentially obtained from dietary protein, but can be derived from other dietary carbon sources (carbohydrate and lipid), depending on dietary protein levels

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The majority of human nitrogen isotope values are enriched compared to the animals by 3e5& (Fig. 4) indicating that they derived the majority of their dietary protein from the large herbivores found in the cave. The exception is Romito 9, where the measured d15N value is >5& higher than even the maximum herbivore value suggesting that this individual regularly consumed protein from an additional dietary source that was of higher trophic level, such as freshwater or possibly even marine fish. Similarly enriched d15N values, indicative of significant aquatic (marine or freshwater) protein (interpreted to be >20%), have been observed for mid-Upper Palaeolithic humans from Europe (Richards et al., 2001a; Pettitt et al., 2003; Fig. 5).

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4. Conclusions In this study, we have substantially increased the stable isotope data set of Late Upper Palaeolithic human remains from the Mediterranean region. Most of the individuals had a very similar terrestrial diet. The exception is Romito 9, dating to several millennia earlier, who had a more mixed diet, comprised of freshwater and/or marine fish in addition to terrestrial animals. Whether this is typical of a more general dietary change during the Late Upper Palaeolithic cannot be ascertained by considering the dietary histories of just nine individuals. But this should be a priority for further studies, as such a change may be related to a reduction in the territories that people habitually used due to increased productivity and in turn related to climate amelioration.

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Essentially if you can't go kill it, pick it or grow it exactly as you are about to cook it, don't eat it.

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Abstract

This paper presents the published and unpublished stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values for 36 European Upper Paleolithic humans from 20 sites. The isotope data were measured to determine the sources of dietary protein in Upper Paleolithic diets; the evidence indicates that animal, not plant, protein was the dominant protein source for all of the humans measured. Interestingly, the isotope evidence shows that aquatic (marine and freshwater) foods are important in the diets of a number of individuals throughout this period.

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The nitrogen isotope data (Fig. 20.1b) from this time period is particularly interesting. Most of the humans have values that are best interpreted as deriving from the consumption of animal protein, namely terrestrial herbivores, as the main source of dietary protein This is based on the comparison between the d15N values of these humans, and the d15N values of herbivores and carnivores from a number of Eurasian sites dating to this time period.

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A number of individuals have higher d15N values than would be expected from a diet in which the protein derived purely from terrestrial herbivores. Of particular interest are the two earliest individuals from the sites of Oase and Kostenki 1, which both have very high d15N values. These elevated values are indicative of the consumption of large amounts (proportionally) of freshwater foods, likely fish, which is a reasonable assumption as both of these sites are close to freshwater sources.

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Summary and Conclusions This paper presented published and unpublished bone collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data for European Upper Paleolithic humans. The isotope data shows that animal protein, mainly from terrestrial herbivores, was the dominant source of dietary protein for most humans in this period. However, in some circumstances, aquatic protein was an important source of dietary protein. This was the case for the earliest modern humans in Europe, where freshwater resources were important, in the Gravettian period when marine foods contributed up to 20% of dietary protein at two coastal sites, and in the Late Upper Paleolithic, where there is evidence for higher amounts of marine protein consumption at a coastal site. Clearly, though, animal protein was the main source of dietary protein for all humans, and must have been obtained through active hunting (and fishing). Plant foods were not an important part of diet, at least in terms of dietary protein, which means that gathering protein-rich plants like hazelnuts was unlikely to have been an important subsistence activity in the Upper Paleolithic, at least for the humans measured here.

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Anyone seen this documentary on Netflix? Basically a low carb documentary about one man's search on paleolithic diets.

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No but I've been wanting a new nutrition documentary to watch. I need to put it on my list.

eta

I don't see it on netflix?

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