6. Effects of Meat in diet
EFFECTS OF MEAT IN DIET
About 2.3 million years BC, hominids of the species Homo lived on Earth. These hominids were meat and plant eaters with 800cc brains. Including meat in their diet provided social, nutritional, and environmental benefits for the creatures. It is suspected that meat was added to the diets because of decrease in plant sources. Having meat in their diets gave social opportunities because when a whole dead animal was large enough to feed more than one individual, sharing socially between fellow hominids was necessary. Also, because humans are born unable to take care of themselves and provide their own food, we know that there had to have been some sort of sharing food between the matured hominids and the infants. All of these interactions and sharing between hominids must have caused relationships and personal opinions to form among the creatures. In addition, the process of finding the meat source helped with brain growth, since they had to figure out how to catch their prey without becoming the prey, using careful and wise actions when an opportunity arose. Usually they either scavenged the remains of carcasses left behind by other animals, used Oldowan tools to pry into carcasses that animals could not get into, or by getting the nutrients from the bone marrow of smashed bones. As the species grew more and more used to mainly meat diets, their bodies became dependent on it and when an individual did not receive a sufficient amount of meat and protein it suffered from malnutrition and developed diseases. Hominids used Oldowan tools to butcher the animal carcasses, increasing brain growth due to the processes of making and using the tools. The meat consumed provided nutrients and energy needed for brain growth. Finally, meat diets also benefited the environment, since unlike plants, animals were not only found in climate specific locations. As the prey traveled in vast distances, the predators followed, opening up environments that had not been explored before.
Pages 21 & 22 in manual
By Katie Friedman
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