Caveman Diets

Anthropologist Katherine Milton of University of California-Berkeley believes all ancient societies ate three main diets: wild animals, wild plants or one cultivated starch accompanied by wild animals or wild plants. The earliest humans were vegetarian foragers. Eventually, they became nomadic hunters and gatherers who followed available food supplies. A recent trend is the resurgence of the caveman diet from 2.5 million years ago. The so-called Paleo Diet consists of low-fat proteins, healthy fats and few carbohydrates, using natural foods with no processing, genetic altering or chemicals. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Eating History

Human ancestors the Ramapithecines foraged on wild grains and grasses that grew on the ground's surface. Australopithecus had massive teeth and jaw muscles to chew coarse, fibrous plants, hard nuts and abrasive seeds. Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Neanderthals ate plants and scavenged for lean meats and bone marrow from dead, partially eaten animals. As cavemen evolved into hunters and gatherers, they began to hunt, fish and forage. Their diet consisted mostly of plants and small animals, with occasional large prey.

Eating Habits

Cavemen ate out of need, which maintained a lean muscle mass and healthy weight. Since the caveman had to ration food, he limited his intake to smaller portions. When food became scarce, he was forced to fast until food sources became available again. For liquid nourishment and to prevent dehydration, he drank lots of water from fresh springs and streams. He brewed teas from needles, bark, flowers and leaves. He snacked on insects, wild fruits and plants. He hunted and harvested only what he needed to survive and consumed almost the entire carcass with very little waste.

Animal Protein

The land and sea animals cavemen ate had higher protein and less fat than today's domesticated animals. Their diet resembled the aborigine diet -- 81 percent vegetable and 19 percent animal. Generally, they ate anything they could catch. If they lived near the sea, they ate fish, turtles, crocodiles and shell animals like mollusks and gastropods. They ate insects, waterfowl, seals and antelope. They consumed considerable fat from animal organs, bone marrow, eggs, tongue, eyeballs and gut.

Plants and Other Edibles

Cavemen consumed little salt. They ate sugar in the form of honey or tree sap. They often ate raw fruits and vegetables. Their diverse plant diet consisted of wild fruits, berries, flowers, leaves, roots, legumes, nuts, seed and fungi. Most caveman carbohydrates came from fiber-rich, underground plant parts such as yams, carrots, turnips, parsnips and rutabagas, but they also ate bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, grasses and sedges. They ate wild fruits that had lots of fibrous pulp and multiple seeds.