Over the last 50 years, we have been bombarded with messages extolling the health benefits of processed cereals and porridge oats. We are told breakfast helps us reduce weight by speeding up our metabolism — this helps us avoid hunger pangs and overeating later in the day. These are not just marketing messages, they are core to nutritional guidelines in developed countries, such as in the US, UK and Australia, prepared by expert scientific panels. These messages are mirrored in the media and websites worldwide. But what if the benefits of breakfast are just another diet myth? The Hadza people in Tanzania are the last true hunter-gatherers in east Africa who we believe live much like our ancestors. Living with them, we noticed a definite lack of a breakfast routine. If they stay in camp in the morning or even all day, a handful of honey late morning — or even consumed as late as early afternoon — may be all they eat until a larger, evening meal. That said, there is no routine and eating patterns are highly variable, depending on the camp size and season. The women stay close to the camp and on some days make simple food, like baobab porridge, or they eat some stored honey, but rarely before am, giving them a fasting time since their evening meal of over 15 hours. Lacking a regular breakfast routine has not made them fat or unhealthy and they lack most western diseases.
But there were some broad strokes: Almost all of them eat a mix of meat, fish and plants, consuming foods that are generally packed with nutrients. Living archaeology. The spines, skin and valuable organs were expertly dissected and the heart, lung and liver cooked and eaten straight away. Volume This reliance on superfoods caused not only an increase in infectious diseases in agricultural societies but also a decline in nutritional health, he says, which was only exacerbated by an Industrial Age that brought an abundance of high-density foods to humans. He and his team examined the diets of traditional populations, and they found that the distribution of plant-based versus animal-based food consumption was all over the map. Some of us are programmed to prefer eating food earlier in the day and others later, which may suit our unique personal metabolism.
Published April 21, under Research News. A Hadza woman digs for wild tubers while carrying her baby on her back. Touted as a return to our nutritional roots, this popular diet promotes the consumption of lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and discourages people from eating carbohydrates. But Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist who studies modern-day hunter-gatherers, says traditional diets vary widely, and the vast majority of them include a high percentage of carbohydrates. Despite their carb loading, though, hunter-gatherers are among the healthiest people on Earth. Pontzer, whose research focuses on energy expenditure, has spent much of his career trying to figure out the mechanisms behind their good health, including food intake and physical activity.