The main takeaway that we should all agree on is simply this: Eat whole foods and avoid processed crap.

People are completely missing the point. She is not taking a stance on whether the modern "Paleo diet" is healthy or not. She is simply stating that it is not what people of the past would have eaten and presented evidence for it. It fact she supports the idea that past diets have much to teach us. Sometimes I think people comment on videos before actually watching it :(

I'm just happy to live in a world that people have a choice over what they eat. Count your blessings!

Variety, fresh, whole foods and an important fourth point...expending the energy it took our ancestors to gather a meal before, during and after. In other words...MacDonald's should have a military style obstacle course before arriving at the take out window.

Part of the problem relating to the criticism of the video by some, is that the title of it is misleading. At first reading the impression is that the Paleo diet is a bad diet (which is why I clicked on it). A better title would be: "What we call Paleo Diet is hardly Paleolithic at all". Or "The Modern Version of the Paleolithic Diet"

one thing about this, whether Vegan, Paleo or Keto we all agree added sugar is the problem, lets go with that as a basis for all of us ?

Paleolithic people also had a feature of their diet that nobody seems to mention: food availability was spotty, not around the clock.

Wow, I had no idea so many fruit and vegetable species are bio-engineered by humans. Pretty cool to find out about this.

As a paleo dieter myself, i wanted to hate this, but i'm really impressed. She made such good points; very well spoken also!

I pretty much eat a Paleo diet. I'm so happy I saw this! This is a really good unbiased view of diet in general which really makes a lot of sense. The take home message which she preaches (to avoid processed foods) is something we can all learn from. :)

Enjoyed this talk. As she clearly shows, paleo humans were not the carnivores that some people want to claim (the teeth and lack of being able to make our own vitamin C are great evidence). I've studied diet and nutrition (non-professionally) for decades. Learned that protein intake has a very wide span of what is healthy, although older folks do need more. There are lots of ways to get it. I'm not anti-meat, but I do think it's healthier to eat smaller amounts of meat. And it's much better for the planet. It takes a tremendous amount of water, for one, to make a pound of cow. As Michael Palin says: Eat (real) food, mostly plants, not too much.

Why does she continually say the the Paleo diet is mostly read meat? The paleo diet is mostly vegetables with 3 to 5 ounces of protein three times a day. On a plate, most of it should be vegetables.

The purpose of the video is not to debunk whether Paleo is healthy, but to debunk the claim that Paleo is based on sound archaeological and anthropological evidence. The thesis of the video, and the message I am taking home, is that the Paleo diet is based more on philosophy and observations about nutrition science than it is on archaeology. While she makes a few small observations about healthy eating, the focus of the video is not about whether or not Paleo is healthy. It is about archaeology and anthropology. She observes that the foods suggested in Paleo literature are quite different from foods available in the Paleolithic. She provides examples. The breeding of broccoli, almonds, carrots, and apricots, which either did not exist or were somewhat toxic during the Paleolithic, are widely accepted by proponents of Paleo as healthy. Precious little that can be found in any grocery store that resembles their paleolithic counterparts. So different are some paleolithic foods from their modern-day counterparts, she observes, that "many people in this room would not recognize it as edible." I especially appreciated her observations about how the philosophy of Paleo can, in fact, lead to healthy food choices. She argues that a paleolithic man or woman must eat more than eight feet of sugar cane to ingest the same amount of sugar in one large soda. This explains why there is evidence that Paleo dieters eat fewer calories while feeling as full as those following some other diets.

The paleo diet is a logical framework which you should apply to your basic nutritional principles. It is not meant to be a historical re-enactment. If you read any of the books she showed in the beginning they all make the points she makes about how impossible it is to emulate a paleolithic diet. Her dietary recommendations at the end of the presentation are the exact recommendations and arguing points of the paleo diet....

Always great to hear an expert speak on a topic which they are well-informed and passionate about.

This is a great topic to cover. Please post more like this in the future. Excellent!!!

3:18 "Humans have no known anatomical, physiological or genetic adaptations to meat consumption." Anatomical adaptations: Prof. Warinner Makes the point we do not have adaptations typical of most carnivores, like specific dentition (I’ll get to the digestive tract in a moment). I find this a bit problematic, as our meat eating appears to have developed in lock-step with the technologies of tool use and fire. Richard Wrangham of Harvard makes the point humans “pre-digest” their food outside the body by cooking, cutting, grinding, and processing. Humans have no “anatomical adaptations” to the cold (generally…there is a tendency for cold living people to become more barrel chested, shorter limbed, thus creating less surface area and conserving heat…Neanderthals showed this same tendency) yet we have populated areas of extreme cold by the use of technology: clothing manufacture, insulated structures to live in and again, fire use. The omission on the part of Prof. Warinner on this point of technology driving various aspects of human evolution is really troubling for me. Clearly she must be aware of this, but for some reason ignores this point entirely.

My grandmother is turning 105 in couple of months. She has never been a vegetarian either paleoterian. She has been eating just about everything but small amount of food. Meat, fish, whole grains, nuts, coffee, wine, lots of vegetables and fruits. But she doesn't eat any processed food mostly homemade and locally provided foods. She is a very very positive and funny person. Easily let go of the past. I truly believe that eating whole food and positive attitude is the key for her longevity.

Screw the paleo stuff, I just learned so much about the fruits and vegetables that we eat. Most of it (as we know it ) doesn't even exist in the wild. ..crazy!

I would have loved to hear her speak about how ancient populations made (pseudo)grains more nutritional and easier to digest by soaking/sprouting/fermenting them. This happened with quinoa, for example.

It amazes me how many people on this thread think they know more than a person who is an expert in their field and has spent their life, so far, researching this topic!

Holy crap, I always thought the seed in apricots looked like almonds. That's amazing :p

The strange thing about all of this (what-to-eat business), is that we actually have to have some experts tell us what to eat and why.

Wow... You were so excited throughout. And thank you for such precious convincing information.

Okay, just a few seconds, and based on the description, she's not really debunking the paleo diet's efficacy, just that it doesn't actually represent "paleo". If this is wrong, and she does argue against the diet's efficacy, could someone reply to this comment and then I'll watch the video.

This is an interesting presentation and she is concise in her delivery. Just a detail on the talk's title. I really dislike the word debunk. The word discourages those that subscribe to the topic to watch or listen. So we need to abandon the word debunked, debunking and debunk as well as exposed and replace them with; challenged, disputed. these words keep the debate going and attract everyone to give a listen. As of now when I try and share this to my paleo friends they won't give it a chance because of the title being aggressive.

She's an excellent presenter.

Amazing talk and well worth watching twice! Delivered in such an eloquent and interesting way.

A great perspective on paleolithic diets and why their name may be a misnomer, Being a physician I see first hand the benefits of a diet high in vegetables and meats and low in carbohydrate (especially refined ones). Whether cavemen ate grains doesn't matter as much as knowing that a diet high in grains is not a healthy diet and a diet of mostly vegetables and meats (add your marrow and organ meat if you choose) leads to lower cholesterol, less obesity, less prostate cancer, decreased severity of autism, decrease risk of Parkinson's, lower blood pressure, less allergies, the list goes on. We are continuing to find the harmful effects of the modern western diet and understand the diseases of affluence. Refined grains are a major health hazzard.

This video was a real eye-opener in terms of the foods that we do eat, it seems like most have been modified in some way through human technologies. Time to get back to the basics

Actually her three main takeaway points (variety, fresh, and whole foods) are also cornerstones of the paleo diet plans that I have read. No one is pretending we are eating from the exact same food options they had 10,000 years ago.

This is a glorious wonderful video of talking about the best real foods for our lives. God bless us all, Gustavo Ceja

She states that in arctic and subarctic zones "sure, people would have eaten a lot of meat". Incorrect. They ate a lot of fat, just like Native Americans' traditional diet during winter. Meat is too energy intensive to digest when it is extremely cold, and like polar bears (whose digestive tract is very similar to ours), meat is abandoned and fat is consumed. Otherwise they'd freeze to death. During winter, wrapped blocks of 20% bison meat / 80% bison fat were consumed as the primary source of nutrition for many Native American cultures.

So incredibly interesting! Thank you for your research !!

I do paleo for last 2.5 years and I dont want to stop. My body likes it so much!

I read Primal Blueprint and it was not "meat heavy." In fact, if I remember correctly 80 percent of a plate should be unprocessed plants such as vegetables and fruits. Nuts and seeds are snacks and meats would be lean and in small portions because meat more than likely was not consumed daily in paleolithic times, but as she stated regionally it could be different. She mentions diversity and fresh and Primal Blueprint was saying the same thing. I have eaten this way before, and it seemed like just clean eating. I felt great, became healthier and did not have calorie bombs from processed foods. Everyone is different but I found too many grains gives me heartburn. When I removed grains, it went away within two weeks. Diverse and fresh produce, edible without cooking, and lean meats in small portions with occasional cooked legumes and tubers proved to be the healthiest diet for me. Eating unprocessed meals, I never had the post meal "Food coma," and had much steadier energy throughout the day and very restful sleep.

There is no such thing as "the paelio diet" we ate whatever the fuck was around us back then wether it was fish and clams, fruit and nuts, meat and grain, potatoes and corn and we lived with it

Great presentation ...

She doesn't debunk Paleo here, she supports it, at least Dr. Cordain's version, though apparently unknowingly. Did you notice she stated early on that Paleo means 10,000 or more years ago (pre-agriculture), then gave her own debunking "paleo" example from 7000 years ago in Mexico? That's about 2000 years AFTER native Americans started farming maize and squash! (read "1491" by Charles C. Mann - he documents this very well, great book!). Then she goes off about how our cultivated plants have changed (duh, this is not news to the Paleo community). Then she concludes with 3 pieces of dietary advice that are actually main tenants of Dr. Cordain's book The Paleo Diet! 1) Diversity is key - we eat too much wheat, corn, and soy (all excluded from The Paleo Diet and replaced with a large variety of fruit and vegetables), 2) Eat fresh foods, in season (fresh fruit and vegetables are the base of The Paleo Diet - Paleo and Carnivore diets are VERY different - she confuses them), and 3) Eat whole foods - minimize added sugar and avoid processed foods. If she would just add 4) Eat fish and only lean, unprocessed meats, and 5) Avoid salt, she would actually be 100% recommending The Paleo Diet per Dr. Cordain! That IS The Paleo Diet! It's allowed me to drop 50 lbs, several years out, without missing a meal or EVER feeling hungry. I'm mid 50's, 5'11" at 170 lbs, a weight I haven't seen since my early 20's. We have an obesity epidemic in the western world that's not being helped by an anthropologist bad-mouthing a great way to combat it - a way of eating she doesn't realize she actually supports!

This was so interesting and I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the different foods. People are commenting about taking offense to this presentation when in reality she is just stating the differences between the historically accurate caveman diet vs. the 21st-century caveman diet. So interesting!

Wow! So much knowledge, so good to hear it from an expert, especially one who seems more interested in health and facts than selling anything.

I feel that the fact that humans have longer intestines than a strict carnivore does not necessarily mean that we should be the opposite, vegetarian. It simply means we're equipped to eat vegetables. We're obviously equipped in different ways to eat meat as well.

Paleo diet worked for me, I lost 5kg ( what I needed) and didn’t put on weight afterwards! It is working to maintain my weight and I feel much better health wise. My skin and my hair look great!

OK this was one of my favorite TED talks of all time. The science was so interesting and I learned so much. I loved her presentation! Go science!

She seems to be taking the very superficial aspects of the Paleo Diet, especially those aspects which represent marketing to consumers targeting Paleo dieters, and and comparing that information rather than comparing any real researched per reviewed studies and papers.

People ate WHATEVER they could get their hands on! Early humans lived virtually all over the globe, including the arctic, tropical rainforest and the deserts. Food intake depended on each geographic location. We are omnivores! We were clearly meant to eat whatever the hell we could find. Also as far as digestive tract, our digestive tract is longer than carnivores, but much shorter than herbivores. There's no one size fits all way that people were "meant" to eat. I'm tired of people saying "all people were meant to eat _________." Our ancestors didn't all eat the same diet. You think early people living in the arctic had the same foods as early people living in tropical areas? Early people lived EVERYWHERE and that we KNOW based on archaeological finds. So if we know early people existed virtually everywhere, why then try to say they all ate the same way? It defies logic. Some of our ancestors obviously ate meat. Some of our ancestors obviously ate plants only. Others had access to fish, while some didn't. My point is early humans didn't make a conscious decision of what to eat, they ate what was in their immediate surrounding. It's not like they could drive or take a train to get food elsewhere or fly / import food in like we do today. They had to walk to get food so they couldn't go very far. After a while they rode horses and donkeys once civilization picked up. But the earliest humans were on foot. They ate whatever the hell was in a close radius. Period. We were meant to sustain ourselves on whatever was naturally available, which makes us omnivorous. And that didn't include all this processed crap and GMO garbage. But, thank you to small, local, family owned farmers who provide a wide variety of food at Farmer's Markets, and livestock such as grass fed and reared Bison etc. Eat a wide variety of nutritious foods and you'll live a long healthy live, don't get hung up on the meat or no meat issue.

Fascinating. I wish it was a wbhole hour long lecture!

Great points made by a knowledgeable, and potent speaker.

Not really a debunk, very informative but sounds like someone who supports the same basic findings. The problem with 'Paleo' is it is idea easily misunderstood. In essence it uses an evolutionary perspective to inspire a healthy way of living in the modern world.

This lecture was so useful. I finally know how to pronounce agave.

Amazing. In the last few months I’ve been trying to figure out what to choose from- paleo, keto or SOS. I know what I must do now!

Thank you Christina Warinner, and thank you Tedx. Awesome info!

This was awesome and very scientific. Thank you! ❤️

Thank you for the informative talk. Regardless of whether the title was a bit misleading, it contained interesting info on the foods of our ancestors and how we can apply some of this knowledge to our lives now.

Great pace she has. Thank you

I know I distinctly do my best with meat as significant part of my diet. I've been through all this detail of relation of diet to health, vegan iterations of all sorts, yes, all popular sorts,…. and omnivorism is clearly healthiest for all around body maintenance, repair, strength of tissues, body integrity,… People that lived in plenty of environments around the world ate significant amounts of meat on a weekly or daily basis, as a matter of what works best for thriving.

We don't have access to the same foods that ancient man ate. The point of the paleo diet is to get as close as we can with modern foods. All she did was state that fact. Her summary was indeed a fairly good description of the paleo diet. She confirmed more than debunked.

If all the vegetables and fruits were poisonous or not abundant then what did Paleolithic peoples eat? Hmmm... The paleo diet models Vegetables as the number 1 food source not meats.

I was a vegetarian for 11 years. I'm epileptic and when I switched to the Paleo diet my seizures dropped off almost completely. Since then I've had maybe only 3 seizures in 3 1/2 years. I don't care what she says. I will never quit the Paleo Diet.

Balanced, insightful, and loaded with real science thanks for the wonderful lecture warm regards Dr Prashant Murugkar

Her assertions rely on evolutionary assumptions that have been demonstrated unprovable. The trophic hierarchy is simply false according to the data. She even points out the problems with using it. Concerning the paleolithic ecosystems--she flat tells us we know "too little" about it, and then moves directly from this assertion to saying "its false that they didn't eat grains." Again, any concern for the "paleolithic peoples" assumes evolutionary mentality that they are an inferior less evolved peoples and the archaeology simply does not back this up. The most ancient remains have demonstrated their more advanced levels than us in every way--they were larger, they were faster, smarter, and stronger. We have devolved because of the degradation of the worlds ecological conditions: degrading magnetic field, atmospheric pressure, oxygen content, etc.

fascinating and informative!

This is interesting from a historical/anthropological point of view, but I just want to be healthier. I'm kot interested in a pedantic break down of which things were eaten by our ancient ancestors. Equally, I'm not interested in whether the 'paleo diet' is 100% representative of the food groups they ate. I'm interested in what they didn't. Carbs, sugars and salts that we find in the western diet. Cutting them out is good for you, end of story. How they package and brand that diet is irrelevant to me.

Thank you, Mare. I always appreciate your wisdom

Interesting, but has no bearing or judgement on the Paleo diet itself. Of course this is not calling us to eat what prehistoric man ate. The attempt at a Paleo diet is merely to indicate an escape from the "modern processed food" diet that we eat in the "developed" nations. The processed food craze, which will kill us, is 80% of our health problems in the US. For those that do not know, a Paleo diet is defined as "eat whatever comes in it's natural form." No processed foods, colors or dyes. and NO HFCS for sure, and while we are at it, as little sucrose as possible. The modern diet consists of 175 grams of HFCS/sugar a day. Palue says "Keep your carbs under 50 grams a day, if you want to lose weight." Pretty simple, isn't it? Simple enough not to be a fad.

My most heartfelt compliments to this scientist. Her vibrant exposition got all of my alert attention from head to tail ; good job, and thank you very much for the enlightenment

She's trying to dispel some of the misinterpretations of Paleolithic diets - that's all. She's not bagging Paleo diets per se.

Getting off the sugar treadmill is a big factor, as is moderation, eating fresh, whole foods whenever possible and variety, including eating offal in your meat intake. What she said is true - there's no one optimal diet, but if we follow some basic guidelines, we can eat a healthy diet and, once you start eating like that, you'll wonder how you could have eaten the salty, sugary, greasy crap you thought was so delicious. You don't have to go without the odd treat here and there, but you'll find that your tastes change as your body chemistry settles down so you won't crave the same processed junk you used to. That's how it is with me, anyway. I enjoy the odd sweet, for example, but I don't crave sugar and when I do eat a dessert I eat a much smaller portion and go for a less sweet option because that's all I want.

There is no diet, The answer is simple quit eating foods with crap load on ingredients in it and stick to ONE ingredient foods only! Thats right 1, if we start doing that you will not only feel healthier but you will look better.

Christina Warinner thank you, you gave me answers on a few very important questions about diet and health that I could not find answer on for years.

This was a great video. So glad to have found it.

very informative and fantastically presented. Thank you

Apparently some of you vegans are very ignorant of the devastation cause by agriculture and that agriculture feeds the evil of CAFOs, that allows you to eat a environmentally unsound diet. You debate from a state of ignorant bliss, high and mighty about how morally superior you are for not eating meat. There is no saving grace for your ignorance, as we turn to more soy and grains that cause desertification. There is hope, as some growers return to traditionally raising of animals and of land and have turn some acres of land that was dead into thriving living things again. 

Very interesting! You can tell she's passionate about this subject :)

15 years ago I tried the paleo diet and lost 8 kgs mostly from waste down... Regrettably I lost all my leg muscles..what I didn't do is train my muscles. Therefore consider to train to maintain your muscles.

Very insightful analysis about the role of agriculture on humanity. Her cowry shell necklace was just a bit of icing on her cake.

Paleo is working for me. I suffer from hypothyroidism and my inflammations are coming down. We all have unique physiology. So i guess there is no single diet which works for all.

In Scandinavia we call the large blueberries for american blueberries - the real deal as we have over here are much smaller and grows in small small bushes

you can tell she's very knowledgeable, passionate, and nerdy about this subject.

Thank you. To sum up, the key is to have a varied natural diet without processed food, preservatives and sugars.

Paleo diet is way better than any other diet. Modern diet high in carbohydrate sucks! In fact, our meats and vegetables aren't EXACTLY what they were 10000 years ago. But I bet that our "modern" beef is still way closer to our primal beef than the breakfast cereal that you see on the market shelves. The point is: To eat PALEO today isn't eat exactly equal to the Paleo era eating, it's about reaching 90% of precision and eating only natural, fresh, whole and unprocessed foods.

the peleo diet is a nice starting point for hopelessly lost people in this world of processed food. hopefully from there, unhealthy people will learn how to eat in a healthy manner.

Excellent talk...I have been following quite a few people in Paleolithic diet community...In last few years many famous names in paleolithic diet community moved away for the same reason... There have been quite a bit of my learning in these days...and mostly covered in the talk...I think she did not realize the honey is very sweet and is abundant in tropical forest and savannas...and there are tribes who consume a lot of them...and organ meat is rich in calories...so probably calorie is not a problem...We are evolved to handle variety of diets both low and high in nutrients.

I really enjoyed Dr. Warinners talk. I have been using / following the Paleo diet for over 20 years. I really like and respect her position. I also agree with her conclusions on proper diet. People who follow the Paleo diet may be grabbing their flint knives and spears down from over the fire pit, but everything she said made PERFECT sense. I follow the Paleo diet because I am interested in optimum health, not to be a Paleolithic reenactor. I've not had any problems with the Paleo diet, per se, but I am more than willing to accept , adopt, and adapt my diet in light of new scientific data. I think Dr.Warinner provides that data.

Excellent talk! An extremely brilliant scientist and I am positive that this is not the last time that we will have the pleasure to hear this woman talk. She nailed it!

I do the Paleo diet, the majority of my food is consumed through plants. A lot of people are just trying to make a dollar off of the fad. Do the research yourself and make educated decisions. IMO, just as any diet should be that you eat multiple small meals each day, high fat consumption is key to preventing ketones. If you don't know what you're doing, I don't suggest this to anyone. Oh and btw, Christina doesn't even lift bro.

I have read paleo books and they do not tell you to eat mostly meat they say diet would mostly be plant base diet, and that different region in the world would eat different types of food.

Excellent presentation, thank you !

This just makes me realize we don't eat enough nutritional variety.

She's a really good speaker. I wish she was a professor for one of my classes.

The reason why she is so concerned was explicit in her first statement about "not abandoning our agricultural foods." Farming and ranching is big business that is subsidized by the U.S. Government. So much so, the industrialized farming complex has essentially squeezed out the small farmer to almost extinction. Truth be told, corporate farming is more concerned with making a profit more than the land, animals, and the people who consume their products. Pesticides on depleted soils and abused animals make for a nutrient poor and down right toxic food choice. Right now, to combat obesity and multitude of diseases that come with it, we need to cut out the sugar that carbohydrates offer and focus on nutrient dense food that organics has to offer to replenish and restore out health and drop the poundage per person. The Government's recommendations with the Food Pyramid Guidelines in the 80's were horribly wrong to state that we should eat more whole grains. Grains are what we feed animals to fatten them up quick and it is a method used because it is efficient and cost effective. We did manage to prohibit ranchers from feeding downed and disease cows to otherwise healthy ones. I say, listen to your body not the so called "Experts." Paleo is excellent for body maintenance. Then, if you want to step off once in a while, you can without destroying your health. It's about listening and learning about your own unique body's preferences and tolerances.

Gostei imenso desta palestra !

She literally just proved the point of the Paleo Diet. The point is, Animals were preferred, as many plant and fruits were inedible. They weren't edible till later with farming. Thats exactly the point of the Paleo Diet. Animal foods are more bioavailable. No Anti-nutrients. No defense mechanisms in the food. Thus ancient man, if their ever was such a thing, would have preferred to eat Animals first and foremost, only reverting to plants out of necessity, when no animals were available. Plants were a supplement. This is when they would be starving due to malnutrition. Thus the reason for their nomadic behavior. They travelled where the animals were. Plants were emergency food. Animals provide an efficient package of calories and nutrients, including vitamin C, which is found in raw meats, and organs. Instead of collecting tubers, nuts, seeds and berries, more bang for your buck comes from animals, so to speak. Providing more bioavailable nutrition and calories gram for gram than any plant ever could. She literally proved their point.

still not going to eat grains. i love low carb paleo. been doing it for four years. but yes, whole foods and old foods.

i was raised on deer rabbit fish and garden fresh foods and was the picture of heath it took a hectic lifestyle fast foods and mcdonald's to screw that up ...now i'm back on that diet and getting better.

Yay Dr. Wahl, and to add, Mitochondria LOVE real sunshine every day, and they love it when you sleep so they can have a clean kitchen (metaphorically) b/c that's when clean-up occurs from the day's energy production. So, food, sleep, sun. LOVE too.

setting the record straight: paleo is nutritional guidlines, it not about eating tons of meat, not at all, it's more about what to avoid, what the paleolitic people did'nt consume. it's not a low carb nutrition, it's on the moderate side but not low. some tribes mostly meat, some ate mostly starchy carbs fruits and veggies and everything between according to what was available. basicly it's divided quite evenly between some fruits and mostly stachy carbs, eggs, meat, fish and seafood protein and healthy animal fat, nuts, seeds, avocado and coconut and olive oil. and lots and lots of veggies, leafy greens.

All I know is that my brother had horrible digestive problems, UNTIL he went on the Paleo Diet, which saved his life. The Paleo diet includes both meat and vegetables, and is low-sugar - it's a very healthy diet.

Kind of off topic, but the “Clan of the cave bear” series was highly researched and said to be close to the natural nutrition at the time. Worth the read.

She does not mention B12 or the fact that our zygomatic arch begin to become smaller as we consumed more meat. We do not have large arches anymore like our ancestors who ate more plants. She also doesn't mention our brain compacity that increased from 300cc in Australopithics to 1400 in Neanderthals because of the increase of animal consumption. Also our digestive systems are short like carnivors. If we were majority plant eater our stomachs would be large and swollen like the great apes due to a large digestive track. Seasonal eating and if possible eating food from where your genetics are from are best.