lifescience Neanderthal leftovers

Our ancestors were plant-based

Many think that our Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors mostly ate meat and foraged some fruit However, evidence that they regularly processed and cooked plant foods is rapidly expanding

Charred remnants of what may be the world’s oldest cooked meal ever found were discovered in caves in northern Iraq Thought to be about 70,000 years old, the food remnants were recovered from a Neanderthal dwelling 500 miles north of Baghdad in the Zagros Mountains. Microscopic examination of the charred remains revealed the use of pounded pulses as a common ingredient in cooked plant foods.

The research adds to mounting evidence of plant consumption by both early modern humans and Neanderthals Wild nuts and grasses were often combined with pulses, such as lentils, nuts, tubers and wild mustard Professor Chris Hunt, who coordinated the excavation, and his colleagues even recreated one of the recipes using seeds gathered from near the caves: “It made a sort of pancake-cumflatbread which was really very palatable – a sort of nutty taste”

Kabukcu C, Hunt C, Hill E et al 2022 Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar Antiquity 1-17

New AGE compounds in meat

Linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease

Sixty-three per cent of UK adults are overweight or obese However, it may not be just a simple case of their eating too much; the extra weight and associated health problems may be in part due to harmful compounds found in some people’s diets detailed wax figure from neanderthal museum, germany

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are hen protein or fat GEs are also naturally nimal foods and cooking, sting, searing or frying mation of new AGEs mation and oxidative stress an lead to chronic 2 diabetes and heart o interfere with a person ’ s k study, 244 overweight a low-fat vegan diet or a g meat and dairy Results fell in the vegan group by to just 15 per cent in the duction was associated ht loss of 14 pounds and tivity, making people less etes ort previous studies fects of vegan diets on diabetes nko-Miller, T, Uribarri, J et al 2022 ed glycation products and their with insulin sensitivity and body 6-week randomized clinical trial cience and Practice 1-8