Human evolution and the carnivorous diet diet

One of the most widely accepted hypotheses worldwide is that the carnivorous diet played a fundamental role in the evolutionary development of Homo erectus, a hominid that appeared almost 2 million years ago in the Asian region. One of the features that made Homo erectus different from its predecessors is that it possessed a larger brain, and coincided in many aspects with the characteristics of contemporary humans. Most of the scientific studies we have to date agree that the carnivorous diet led to this increase in the size of the brain of Homo erectus.

Omnivorous or carnivorous?

Analyzing the biology of the modern human body, scientists from several universities such as Tel Aviv and Minho, in Israel and Portugal respectively, tried to determine what was the diet of Stone Age men. For many years it was believed that they were omnivorous, meaning that their food source came from both plants and animals; however, the article published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, showed that the diet of those men was in principle based on the consumption of meat.

The researcher Ben-Dor of Tel Aviv University explains that, as evolution is a slow process, in our body there is still the necessary evidence to reconstruct the eating habits of the first men who inhabited the Earth. Thus, the researchers have been examining the biological characteristics and processes of today's humans, such as genetics, metabolism and physical complexion.

The results of these investigations suggest that a carnivorous diet was the dietary basis of Stone Age humans. High levels of acidity were found in our stomachs, a sign of a meat-based diet. These figures are much lower in omnivorous living beings. Stomach acidity is a protective barrier that humans had to protect themselves from the bacteria contained in the old meat of the animals they hunted.

On the other hand, it has been proven through the study of bones found from the first human races, that in principle they specialized in hunting as a primitive form of survival. Agriculture came later, with the development of specialized tools and techniques for processing agricultural products.

Another indication that points more to the idea that they were carnivores and not omnivores are the fat cells. Animals that feed on both plants and animals do not have many fat cells, while carnivores have more. Humans today have a high number of fat cells, which makes us similar to many predators; this is considered by scientists to be a characteristic inherited from our ancestors.

Finally, studies conclude that the first humans were hypercarnivorous, which does not mean that they did not consume vegetables, only that these were not significant in their diet.

Other factors to take into account

The studies that try to support the idea that the carnivorous diet played a transcendental role in the evolution of the human race are not only limited to the aforementioned elements.

The enamel of the dental pieces has been examined by anthropologists to determine, from its wear, the type of diet practiced by primitive men. However, to state categorically that they were carnivorous on this basis alone is speculative to say the least.

This is why it was decided to delve into the strategies used by these men to obtain their food. The development of the brain is largely conditioned by this factor. Depending on the degree of difficulty of the strategies used to search for food sources, the size and complexity of the brain would depend on this factor. At the same time, the growth of the brain requires a high intake of proteins and nutrients.

Hypothesis contrary to the carnivorous diet

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences states that although there is indeed vast evidence in fossil records that the carnivorous diet was the dietary basis of Homo erectus, this is not necessarily due to a sustained intake of animal protein.

The hypothesis holds that the amount of evidence found is conditioned by an increase in sampling intensity. In other words, a tendency to compulsive excavation in search of support for the theory of a carnivorous diet as the basis of evolution has been underway for several years, while elements that prove the contrary go unnoticed.