In today’s modern times, many have heard of the popular “Paleo Diet” that has become somewhat of a craze for individual’s attempting to change their bodies. The Paleo Diet, advertised to allow individuals to live well and longer, consists primarily of fish, organic meats, fruits and vegetables, eggs, oils, nuts, and seeds. Foods such as dairy, refined sugar, processed foods, salt, etc. are forbidden. While this diet has grown in popularity, one wonders how accurate the menu is compared to what our ancestors ate in the Paleolithic Era.
During the Palelithic Era, according to an article by Bethany L. Turner and Amanda L. Thompson, published in Nutrition Reviews, the Paleo Diet of today is not so different from the Paleolithic person’s diet (501). The only exceptions are that people of the Upper Paleolithic Ere did not eat eggs or seek out natural oils, such as flaxseed oil. According to Turner and Thompson, people of the Upper Paleolithic Era were gatherers, as well as hunters. It was not until the Upper Paleolithic Era that hunters began to appear and meat was introduced into the population’s diet. They sustained themselves by gathering many leafy greens such as vegetables. They also gathered fruits and were known to eat nuts and berries, which is similar to the modern day’s Paleo Diet (502). The Upper Paleolithic population also survived off of meat and fish that they hunted. The Upper Paleolithic Era also saw the human race expanding to different areas of the globe, such as Alaska and other diverse places, where diets also began to diversify to suit whatever resources were available (505).
While there are similarities between the diet of the people living in the Upper Paleolithic Era and the individuals who participate in the Paleo Diet of today, the way people came by their food in the Upper Paleolithic time was quite different. Gatherers were sent to find foods such as leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries, according to Steven L. Kuhn, author of “Questions of Complexity and Scale in Explanations for Cultural Transitions in the Pleistocene: A Case Study from the Early Upper Paleolithic (195).” During the middle Paleolithic Era, fire did not exists, nor did certain tools. This would have made fishing and the hunting of other animals only possible by the upper Paleolithic Era. After fire was discovered by man and tools in the form of sharpened sticks were fashioned, fishing became easy (196). As stated in John F. Hoffecker’s article, “Innovation and technological knowledge in the Upper Paleolithic of Northern Eurasia “ Homo sapiens living in what is presently the Democratic Republic of the Congo began using barbed sticks as tools to fish during the Upper Paleolithic Era, while other groups raised Reindeer, later slaughtering them for their meat, with rocks they would sharpen into knives (188).
As you can see, humans of the Upper Paleolithic Era knew how to live off of the land. Much like the Paleo Diet of today, individuals of the Upper Paleolithic Era gathered many portions of their diet such as leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries. The invention of fire and tools helped them begin to gain their full potential as hunters, allowing them to settle in one area instead of remaining consistently nomadic. In a way, this change in diet would eventually help the evolution of society as humans were able to begin fishing and even raising and slaughtering reindeer in order to meet their dietary needs. Much as it is now, even in Paleolithic times, an individual’s life appeared to revolve around their next meal.
References
Hoffecker, John F. "Innovation and technological knowledge in the Upper Paleolithic of Northern Eurasia." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews (2005): 186-198. Print.
Kuhn, Steven L. "Questions of Complexity and Scale in Explanations for Cultural Transitions in the Pleistocene: A Case Study from the Early Upper Paleolithic." Journal of Archealogical Method and Theory (2013): 194-211. Print.
Turner, Bethany L. and Amanda L. Thompson. "Beyond the Paleolithic prescription: incorporating diversity and flexibility in the study of human diet evolution." Nutrition Reviews (2013): 501-510. Print.
