Our ancestors ate from hundreds of wild plant and animal ...
“Our ancestors ate from hundreds of wild plant and animal species — rotating with the seasons, guided by what the land offered each month. No two weeks ate the same. Now the majority of the modern diet traces back to three crops — corn, wheat, and soy — showing up in almost every packaged product on the shelf. We didn't simplify our meals. We simplified our entire food system. The variety that once fed us for thousands of years quietly collapsed into an aisle. Somewhere along the way, abundance started looking a lot like sameness.”
Summary
Archaeological evidence shows prehistoric peoples consumed a wide array of wild plants and animals, with dozens to hundreds of species varying seasonally. Contemporary dietary data reveal that most packaged foods now rely heavily on corn, wheat, and soy, and the food system has become dominated by ultra‑processed products derived from these few crops. This reflects a marked reduction in dietary diversity compared with ancient diets.
Sources 59 searched
- Paleolithic Diet - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf - NIH
Archaeological findings based on isotopic analysis show no universal dietary regimen in prehistoric times.[5] In Israel, fossil evidence from approximately 800,000 years ago reveals a varied, plant-based diet, including seeds, wild fruits and vegetables, nuts, and lesser amounts of meat and ...
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- Nutrition and Health in Human Evolution–Past to Present - PMC
Anyone who wants to understand ... of human history, gathering and hunting have been the basis of nutrition. It was not until about 12,000 years ago that humans began domesticating plants and animals....
- Consumption of ultra-processed foods and associated sociodemographic factors in the USA between 2007 and 2012: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study - PMC
¶Including soy products such as meatless patties and fish sticks; baby food and baby formula; dips, spreads, mustard and catsup; margarine; sugar substitutes, sweeteners and all syrups (excluding 100% maple syrup); distilled alcoholic drinks. NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Crude and multivariate-adjusted linear regressions were used to evaluate the association between sociodemographic characteristics and dietary contribution of ultra-processed foods.
- Today's Food System: How Healthy Is It? - PMC
From essentially zero consumption in 1970, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) came to account for the entire additional sweetener consumption since 1985, and then some73; Americans today eat or drink about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, or approximately 1 in 10 daily calories.75 Of added fats in ...
- Consumption of grains by Americans is above recommendations | Economic Research Service
While wheat flour consumption grew by 23 percent, consumption of corn products grew by 202 percent, reflecting the growing popularity of corn-based foods, such as tortillas and chips, and the use of cornstarch in processed foods. Consumption of rye flour, oat products, and barley products totaled ...
- Viva! - Evolution and the Paleo Myth – our ancient ancestors were plant-based
Of the remains found on site, Professor Goren-Inbar and Dr Yoel Melamed of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar Ilan University identified 55 different species of edible plants, including root vegetables, leafy veg, celery, figs, nuts, chenopodium ...
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