Anthropological Research Reveals Human
Dietary Requirements for Optimal Health
H. Leon Abrams, Jr., MA, EDS
Associate Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, ECJC,
University System of Georgia, Swainsboro, Georgia.


Journal of Applied Nutrition, 1982, 16:1:38-45
Reprinted with permission of the author.


Many claims are set forth stating what the "natural" diet of humans
is
or should be, but in order to ascertain what constitutes the basic
dietary requirements for optimal health, the problem must be
approached from an anthropological perspective which encompasses the
total dietary evolution and history of mankind, a scrutinization and
syntheses of human diets from the earliest times to the present, the
diets of mankind's nearest relatives, the primates, and cross-
cultural
dietary comparisons of primitive and modern societies.


There are one hundred and ninety-two living higher species of
primates
in addition to humans. (30) Until recently, it was taken for granted
that all monkeys and apes were vegetarians, but ethological studies
(1, 2, 12) revealed that all primates, in their natural habitat, also
eat small animals. The National Zoo in Washington attempted to breed
the Amazon Golden Marmoset monkey in captivity, but failed until
animal protein was added to their diet. (5) It had been erroneously
assumed that they were complete vegetarians, but apparently they must
have some animal protein in order to be fertile. With the addition of
animal protein, they reproduce rapidly in captivity. (5)


Until the research of Goodall (16, 52) it was assumed that
Chimpanzees
eat only plant foods, but she discovered that they kill and eat
monkeys, baby baboons, and other small animals and concluded that
there was a small but fairly regular number of them captured and
eaten
throughout the year. Gibbons, orangutans, and baboons also kill and
eat small animals regularly. (35, 44) The simplest of all primates,
the tree shrew, which resembles the supposed ancestor of today's
primates most closely, lives entirely on small animals. Ethological
studies have necessitated the reclassification of monkeys and apes
from herbivores to omnivores, and indicate that all primates have a
basic need for some animal protein in their diet if health is to be
maintained. (1)


The first humans, the Australopithecines (9, 11, 54) (and Homo
habilis), who appeared around four million years ago, included food
plants in their diets, but they apparently ate a large number of
small
animals and were scavengers; they ate the remains of any large
animals
they could find, and therefore were able to secure a large amount of
meat. (43) Around one million years ago, man had evolved into Homo
Erectur (Peking and Java Man), and had greatly increased his ability
to hunt large game. His life centered entirely around the hunt for
game (4, 20, 50). Following in the evolutionary sequence was
Neanderthal man (early Homo Sapiens), followed by Cro-Magnon Man.
(36)
Again, there has been a progressive increase in the hunting
technology
especially for large game. The driving force that compelled Cro-
Magnon
man to all unpopulated parts of the inhabitable world was his quest
for game. Actually, the disappearance of many game species, such as
the wild horse, mammoth, et. al., was not due to climatic change, but
to man hunting them to extinction in his quest for meat. (7, 2 From
the very beginning, the diet of humans has been meat oriented,
therefore the evidence seems to warrant the conclusion that our human
progenitors, from the very beginning around four million years ago,
have relied heavily upon meat as a major source of food; they were
omnivorous, but the emphasis was on meat, not on plant foods. (7) Man
turned only to agriculture, which began around 10,000 years ago, when
he had largely exhausted the seemingly endless supply of game due to
his ever increasing population. (7)


Of humans some four million years on earth, 99% of this time has been
that of hunting game and gathering wild plants. (21) And, when the
animals had been hunted to either extinction or near extinction, then
and only then did humans turn to agriculture and animal
domestication.
(7) However, when humans turned to agriculture, a large percentage of
the crops was devoted to rearing domesticated animals for meat. Meat
has been, and remains so when available, the choice food of mankind
because it supplies all the nutrients, amino acids, minerals,
vitamins, and essential elements necessary to sustain sound health.
For example, the surest source of vitamin B-12 is animal protein. (2)


No cultures or people in the world have ever been 100% vegetarians;
however, a number, such as the Masai of Africa (25, 26), Plains
Indians (7), the Eskimo (29, 42, 47, 48, 49) and the Lapps (34), in
their traditional culture, subsist almost entirely on meat and have
been very healthy. When they adapted to our modern diet which is high
in refined carbohydrates, their health deteriorated rapidly; they
developed a high incidence of degenerative diseases characteristic of
our modern civilization, especially heart disease. (2)


In 1957, several hypotheses maintained that there is a direct
relationship between diet, especially animal fats, and coronary heart
disease and cancer of the colon. (19) All of these studies are
controversial because a large percentage of the supporting data has
been epidemiological in nature, and many studies contradictory to
these findings have been made (13, 14, 15, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31,
32,
51).


The publicity given these studies implicating foods containing
cholesterol and saturated fats, such as "red meat," in causing heart
disease and cancer, has prompted many people to adopt, erroneously, a
total or partial vegetarian diet in the hope of maintaining or
restoring sound health and thus avoiding heart disease and cancer.
(2)


For example, Puerto Ricans eat a large amount of animal fat, but have
a very low rate of colon cancer and breast cancer. (13) A comparative
study on the incidence of colon and breast cancer was carried out in
Finland and the Netherlands because both peoples consume about the
same amount of animal fat per capita per day. Even though the animal
fat consumption was the same, breast and colon cancer rates in the
Netherlands was discovered to be almost double that of Finland
although vegetable oil consumption in the Netherlands in much higher
than in Finland. (13)


Weidman and his colleagues (53) carried our a cross-cultural study,
with a follow-up, centered on specific adult risk factors for
atherosclerosis in 103 white school children ranging in age from six
to sixteen; and concluded that diet is not of major importance in
having an impact on serum cholesterol levels. (53) Although Americans
have been recommended to eat a diet moderate in cholesterol and
calories, if carried too far it may result in some high risk factors
for children and especially for those who show low serum cholesterol
levels. (53)


A study conducted by N.E. Hitchcock and M. Bracey in the town of
Busselton, Western Australia, contradicts the orthodox view that diet
is closely correlated with the body's level of serum cholesterol
content indicating a high risk for heart attack. (17) They studied
three groups of mothers and children at Busselton; one with high
cholesterol, one with medium and one with low cholesterol levels.
They
studied the diet patterns of each group and found no significant
difference among them in the percentage of daily energy contribution
of protein, fat or carbohydrates. They also noted that obesity was
not
a factor in the cholesterol level since the levels or the obese did
not differ from the non-obese. They concluded that the result of
their
study strongly indicates that diet does not account for the
differences in cholesterol levels of culturally homogenous groups.
They further state that the "correlation between habitual diet and
average serum cholesterol levels is good between contrasting
populations (for example, people of Japan and Finland)," and note
that
"within a given culture, people eating the same kind of food can have
different serum lipids. Those who develop coronary heart disease do
not necessarily eat differently from those who do not." (17)


As a result of the widespread publicity and promotion of vegetable
oils, millions of Americans are convinced that by not eating meat,
eggs, and dairy products and by consuming only plant fats
(polyunsaturated fats), that they will greatly reduce their chances
of
suffering from heart disease that afflicts and kills a million or
more
Americans every year. Scrutinization of the facts shows that they
have
been lulled into a sense of false security. (23) They fail to know or
understand the following facts that are never carried in the
advertisements:


1. There is no positive or direct scientific proof that eating foods
high in cholesterol raises serum cholesterol levels. (23)


2. There is no positive or direct proof that high cholesterol levels
results in heart disease. (23)


3. There is no positive or direct proof that lowering cholesterol
levels will reduce one's susceptibility to heart disease. (23)


4. Consuming great quantities of polyunsaturated fats or oils may be
detrimental to health. (23)


The present state of knowledge in the cholesterol diet controversy
has
been evaluated by Reiser, who stated that the assumption that serum
cholesterol is directly related to saturated (animal fats) and
cholesterol in the diet is based upon three erroneous assumptions as
follows:


1. That each person is at equal risk of heart disease in proportion
to
how much animal fat and cholesterol is included in the diet.


2. One's risk of coronary heart disease will increase with the rise
of
serum cholesterol.


3. One can control the rise in serum cholesterol by eliminating
animal
fats and cholesterol containing foods.


He categorically sets forth clinical data that the above assumptions
are invalid when subjected to strict scientific investigation and do
not provide justification for people eliminating all animal fats and
meat from their diet. (38, 39, 40)


Michael DeBakey, world renowned heart surgeon from Houston, who has
devoted extensive research into the cholesterol coronary disease
theory, states that out of every ten people in the United States who
have atherosclerotic heart disease, only three or four of these ten
have high cholesterol levels; this is approximately the identical
rate
of elevated cholesterol found in the general population. (10) His
comment: "If you say cholesterol is the cause, how do you explain the
other 60 percent to 70 percent with heart disease who don't have a
high cholesterol?" In 1964 DeBakey made an analysis of cholesterol
levels from usual hospital laboratory testing of 1,700 patients with
atherosclerotic disease and found there was no positive or definitive
relationship or correlation between serum cholesterol levels and the
extent or nature of atherosclerotic disease. (10)


A comparative study of men in Crete and the village of Crevalcore,
Italy, indicates that there is probably no relationship between serum
cholesterol and coronary heart disease when the level is 245 mg of
cholesterol per 100ml. (38, 39, 40) The men in Crete show serum
cholesterol levels of 200mg/dl and have an incidence of less than one
coronary heart disease per 100 men in five years. In contrast, the
men
in Crevalcore with similar serum cholesterol levels suffer an
incidence of approximately six cases of coronary heart disease in
five
years. (38, 39, 40)


Many questions are being asked about the generally accepted and
greatly advertised theory that consumption of saturated fatty acids
(beef, lamb, mutton, butter, and pork) are major factors contributing
to hypercholesterolemia and heart disease, while the consumption of
polyunsaturated fatty acids (vegetable oils) will prevent coronary
heart disease. Rivers states that the trend toward eating so much
margarine and other vegetable oil products may be "exactly the wrong
thing," and explains that because polyunsaturates are very unstable,
extra polyunsaturated fatty acids are added by substituting soft
margarines and stabilized vegetable oils for animal fats and butter.
The difficulty is, he continued, that the two changes lead to a
dramatic increase in the eating of trans-fatty acids that results in
hypercholesterolemic effects that far outweigh the reported benefits
of polyunsaturated fats. (41)


It seems that the human body requires some essential polyunsaturated
fatty acids such as linoleic and arachidonic acid, but the
established
requirement seems to be only approximately 1% of calories. (1
Studies strongly indicate that large consumption of margarine, and
other polyunsaturated vegetable fats, may be conducive to cancer.
(37)
Animal experiments found that rats fed a chemical carcinogen in
addition to 20% vegetable polyunsaturated fat and a much higher
incidence of tumors than when fed a carcinogenic with animal fat.
(37)
In a similar experiment, rats treated with a carcinogen and given 5%
corn oil had a 3.5 times higher incidence of colon tumors that did
rats who were maintained on 5% lard. (37)


Studies have also linked a high intake of polyunsaturates, which is
probably over 10% of the average American's diet, with vitamin
deficiencies, liver damage, premature aging, nutritional muscular
dystrophy, cancer, and severe blood disease in infants. (23)
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are believed to be highly reactive
chemical compounds that render them possibly harmful; they can be
oxidized by ordinary cooking in one's body when they react with
nitrous oxide in smog, from X-rays and sunlight and some trace metals
such as iron. (23) Passwater states that of fourteen tests conducted,
all showed a high correlation between eating high amounts of
polyunsaturates in the form of corn oil, peanut oil, margarines,
soybean oil, et al., and notes that presently Americans eat two to
three times more vegetable oils than were consumed sixty years ago.
He
stresses that only from two to four percent of one's diet should
consist of vegetable fats. (33)


Most hunting and gathering societies eat a large amount of meat. The
classical example is the Eskimo who lived almost entirely on land and
sea mammals, fish and birds. Anthropologist Vilhjalmur Steffansson,
who spent many years living with the Eskimo around the turn of the
century, found that they were in excellent health and remained so as
long as they maintained their traditional diet. (47) It was
discovered
that as long as they ate fresh meat, they obtained an ample supply of
vitamin C which was previously thought to come only from plant
sources. However, cooking at high temperatures destroys vitamin C in
both meat and plant foods.


Although it was accepted that the Eskimo thrived in a high state of
good health on an almost complete meat diet, authorities stated that
the diet would probably be harmful for Europeans. To prove the thesis
that a 100% meat diet is sufficient for sound health, Vilhjalmur
Steffansson and Karsten Anderson submitted themselves to an
experiment
conducted by The Russell Sage Institute of Pathology at Bellevue
Hospital, an affiliate of the Medical College of Cornell University.
For a period of one year, they ate only fresh meat in the ratio of
two
pounds of fresh lean meat to one-half pound of fat per day.
Steffansson, who had been on the Eskimo diet for years, remained in
good health, while Anderson was found to be in much better physical
condition than when he began the experiment. (47) Steffansson
continued to live on the Eskimo diet for many decades, in very good
health, until his death at the age of 83.


Otto Schaeffer, a specialist in internal medicine and director of the
Northern Medical Research Unit at Charles Campbell Hospital, Arctic
Canada, found that as long as the Eskimo lived on his native diet in
the traditional manner, he remained in sound health and was
practically free from degenerative diseases, especially those that
afflict Americans. (42) He reports that with the adoption of the
white
man's diet, which consists largely of refined carbohydrates (sugar,
white flour), processed polyunsaturated fats, and other processed
foods, the Eskimo is widely afflicted with all the degenerative
diseases common to our modern society. (42)


There is a relationship between diet and degenerative diseases, but
the total history of mankind strongly indicates that the relationship
is not one of consuming meat and animal fats. Anthropological data
strongly suggest that as human societies developed a greater
dependence on cereal grain crops and other carbohydrate foods, such
was accompanied by undermining the health adaptations of food-
producing populations unless they were successfully able to maintain
a
balance between meat and animal protein and their relatively low
content protein plant crops such as rice, wheat, barley, potatoes,
and
corn. (6, 34) Since the last century, this deterioration has been
accelerated to a very high level due to the ever increasing use of
sugar (55, 56, 57, 5, refined white flour, coffee and other
caffeinated beverages, excessive consumption of salt, alcohol,
chemical preservatives, synthetic, processed and junk foods. (2)


it is in investigating the relationship of the effects that these
foods have upon the body, including smoking, that will probably be
most fruitful in providing answers to the ever increasing rate of
degenerative diseases.


Anthropological research proves that humans are both animal and plant
eaters, but of the two, animal foods are essential in human
nutrition.
(2) The wisest diet is no doubt the one humans have followed for
millions of years, a diet that emphasizes fresh meat or animal
protein
supplemented with wholesome plant foods augmented by ample exercise.


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