The Starving Caveman Myth
In today’s food-abundant context, most people’s eating choices are shaped by their desire to feel fit, eat what tastes good, or optimize health. But our ancestors ate for one main reason: survival.
Up until about 12,000 years ago, all humans got their food by hunting, gathering or fishing. As foragers, they would fast until they found, caught or killed their food. There was no breakfast upon waking,, or leftovers for lunch. They ate opportunistically, Freedman and Pobiner say, consuming anything they could get their hands on.
Contrary to what Paleo diet enthusiasts might say, there was no single diet that prevailed; the diets of hunter-gatherers depended largely on location, season, and opportunity. In the polar regions, Eskimo communities relied on wild animal protein, while the Juǀʼhoansi in Southern Africa ate mostly wild plant foods. There was no neighborhood bodega or Trader Joe’s to pick up mango during winter.
At the time, humans did not eat as much as we do now.
Mark Mattson, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and former chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, says there is no scientific basis for our current “three meals a day plus snacks” eating pattern.
For the majority of human history, people ate one or two meals per day. The current time-restricted eating patterns like the 16:8 or one meal a day diet (OMAD) mimic this ancient phenomenon.
During periods without food, the body evolved to tap into fat stores for energy. Some research shows this capability makes us metabolically and nutritionally flexible — able to maintain a sporadic diet.
See also: The Trick That Kept Our Ancestors From Starving May Contribute to Obesity
While cavepeople may have eaten less in total, Freedman disputes the notion that hunters and gatherers would go days or weeks without food on a regular basis, calling into question the idea that fasting is natural.
“In the Stone Age, when everybody was a hunter gatherer and when the streams were full of fish, and yes, it depended on climate, but the places where people settled tended to have enough stuff going on to support a regular diet,” he says.
Hunter and gatherer societies were egalitarian, so there was no ruling elite or large-scale hierarchy dictating consumption, says Freedman. Communities were small and resources were relatively abundant.
“A lot of missing meals in history is not from nature, it is from oppression,” he says. “I would test the assumption that because hunter gatherers are cast as uncivilized people they do not live in cities; they do not have writing; they must therefore be eating worse.”