The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008).
Bread is considered to be first prepared probably some 30000+ years back and is one of the very first foods made by mankind. The earliest proof of making bread loaf occurred with the Natufian hunter-gatherers that lived in the Levant.
This means that from the time of H. erectus, the human body has depended on a diet of energy-dense food—especially meat. Fast-forward a couple of million years to when the human diet took another major turn with the invention of agriculture.
So if they weren't eating each other, what were they eating? For the first billion or so years of life on Earth, the only organisms were chemosynthetic bacteria, which grew as mats in shallow seas and by volcanic hydrothermal vents. The very first cells probably metabolised hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide.
Humans would not have evolved to become humans without animal products, including meat. The primates that eat almost entirely plant food have smaller brains and are furthest from humans.
The Ancestral Human Diet | Peter Ungar | TEDxDicksonStreet
Are humans meant to eat every day?
Our bodies can go without food for several hours, for several days, and even longer because our bodies are developed to store fat. In other words, human bodies are equipped to encounter periods of fasting. Humans evolved to be in sync with the day/night cycle, or a circadian rhythm.
Our jaws are also able to move more freely than a carnivore's, as we are able to move them both up and down and side to side, giving us greater use of our incisors while allowing us to crush and grind our food. As with the rest of our gastrointestinal tract, our teeth are not predisposed to meat consumption.
Looking back at history, you can see that breakfast wasn't always a regular meal. In ancient times, people typically had one abundant meal a day that was considered special and snacked on plant-based foods just like other primates.
The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008).
The earliest species of the Homo genus appeared around 2 million to 1.5 million B.C.E. Current evidence supports modern Homo sapiens appearing around 190,000 B.C.E. Modern Homo sapiens originated in Africa, though the exact location has long been debated.
Even with Neanderthals, we are typically inferring ritual behavior. The earliest example of established cannibalism is around 800,000 years ago, but that has been inferred to be due to warfare and for consumption.
To Noah and his descendants God said, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Genesis 9:3). And so, from Noah on, mankind, the godly as well as the ungodly, were given God's permission to eat flesh, that is, meat and fish and so on.
Early humans mainly ate uncultivated fruits, roots or tubers, vegetables, and sometimes honey, fish, and meats. They consumed varying amounts of fats and protein and, most likely, a diet high in plant fiber. Archaeological findings based on isotopic analysis show no universal dietary regimen in prehistoric times.
30,000 years ago: Earliest archaeological evidence for flour, which was likely processed into an unleavened bread, dates to the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe. 25,000 years ago: The fish-gorge, a kind of fish hook, appears. 13,000 BCE: Contentious evidence of oldest domesticated rice in Korea.
Bananas are believed to have originated up to 10,000 years ago and some scientists believe they may have been the world's first fruit. The first bananas are thought to have grown in the region that includes the Malaya Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea.
Raw meat may contain harmful bacteria including Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter and E. coli that can cause food poisoning. These bacteria are destroyed when meat is correctly cooked.
Altogether, a tidy package of archaeological evidence of the earliest butchery and stone tools—in other words, carnivory—seems to have emerged by at least 2.5 million years ago with the origins of our genus.
Gorillas stick to a mainly vegetarian diet, feeding on stems, bamboo shoots and fruits. Western lowland gorillas, however, also have an appetite for termites and ants, and break open termite nests to eat the larvae.
For most people, there are no serious dangers involved in eating one meal a day, other than the discomforts of feeling hungry. That said, there are some risks for people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Eating one meal a day can increase your blood pressure and cholesterol.
Individuals were comparable to humans today in terms of body size and shape, although they were more muscular and had much wider hips. Adults grew to about 1.4-1.8 metres tall and weighed 41-65 kilograms.
Experts suggest aiming for at least three meals a day and then listening to your body's hunger cues from there. For most people, eating every 3 to 4 hours is ideal. But while meal timing is an important consideration, the quality and quantity of your food matters the most.
Wild gorillas would not have the intestinal adaptations necessary to properly break down and assimilate meat, fat, and proteins, even if they were able to kill an animal. Their microbiome is tuned to ferment the complex carbohydrates that are present in a wide variety of plants.
