Thursday 26 June 2014

Cavemen didn’t just eat meat – they ate vegetables as well

While modern men might turn their nose up at having a bit of salad with their barbecued burger, it seems our paleolithic predecessors were more open minded.

Although we have an image of cavemen as club-wielding, blood-spattered hunter gatherers gorging themselves on mammoth steaks, it appears they quite enjoyed a side of vegetables too.

A sample from the world’s oldest known fossilised poo, which dates back 50,000 years, suggests even Neanderthals could appreciate the value of eating your greens.

Researchers from the University of La Laguna in Spain and Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysed samples found in El Salt, Spain, and used faecal biomarkers to identify what was in the caveman’s diet.

The tests found they predominantly ate meat because of the high levels of one biomarker formed by bacteria reducing the levels of cholesterol in the gut.

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