Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables

Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables

www.bbc.co.uk

Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth.

The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought

The popular image of Neanderthals as great meat eaters is one that has up until now been backed by some circumstantial evidence.

it is only now there is clear evidence that plant food was actually eaten by these people.

This study is the latest to suggest that, far from

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This solidifies my perception of man that we were not meant to eat meat, and often people used to say "Ha, from Neanderthals to Modern Man we've always ate meat".

Well.... perhaps not, that protein could have come from long ago vegetables and who knows what other vegetarian other sources it could have come from.



www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

You do realize that we are Omnivores, which means we eat both animal and plant matter right?

It's entirely possible that our earlier cousins ate a variety of fruits grains and meat. Animals move and can be difficult to hunt down, plants stay stationary and therefore are much easier to gather, hence, hunters and gatherers.

I can completely believe that early hominids ate a variety of food items. Meant that the species could survive.

The OP completely ignores us being omnivores and almost invents other sources of protein from vegetables that have never been discovered.

I think you need to start eating meat.

Originally posted by whatukno
You do realize that we are Omnivores, which means we eat both animal and plant matter right?

Omnivores means that the entity eats almost anything
So if you want to see Omnivores watch out for people who go to McDonalds everyday

Originally posted by whatukno
It's entirely possible that our earlier cousins ate a variety of fruits grains and meat. Animals move and can be difficult to hunt down, plants stay stationary and therefore are much easier to gather, hence, hunters and gatherers.

On the flipside of that argument some herbivores have eaten meat, but that doesn't mean they aren't herbivores anymore.

So that point is moot

This is very interesting information! I'm with the others, though. Sure they have found proof that they ate grains and veggies, but that doesn't mean they turned down a deer or antelope if they could catch it.

I wouldnt be surprised if it turned out that man started life as a herbivore and changed to an omnivore maybe more of a carnivore during an ice age or some other time when it might have been hard to find plant life.

Of course they cooked and ate vegetables. I thought this was common knowledge already.

reply to post by ModernAcademia

Yeah they were too smart that's why they went extinct.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


my four fang shaped teeth along with my rear grinding teeth would argue that my ancestors liked a bit of both, i even think that my ancestors might have liked to nibble on your vegan molar mouthed ancestors, but i couldnt be certain on that last part.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia


This solidifies my perception of man that we were not meant to eat meat, and often people used to say "Ha, from Neanderthals to Modern Man we've always ate meat".

Well.... perhaps not, that protein could have come from long ago vegetables and who knows what other vegetarian other sources it could have come from.



www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Like Pythagoreas said: As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
This is very interesting information! I'm with the others, though. Sure they have found proof that they ate grains and veggies, but that doesn't mean they turned down a deer or antelope if they could catch it.

have you ever tried to harvest raw grain? I am not talking about the stuff that our supposed 5,000 of domestication has created. I mean raw and primitive grains.

There is nothing to them. It is like trying to harvest and eat mosquito eggs (which they do in Asia, strangely enough). The difficulty with being able to do anything positive with grain makes it almost prohibitive, especially for a type of human that requires so much more energy than us (30% less efficiency) to gather the grain and process it.

Just because they have found plant matter in the teeth, doesn't mean they just ate plants.

They would've died if they were vegetarians anyway, i mean, imagine having that bland flavour ALL THE TIME! It'd be sooo boring!

Originally posted by johnyelland1234
Just because they have found plant matter in the teeth, doesn't mean they just ate plants.

They would've died if they were vegetarians anyway, i mean, imagine having that bland flavour ALL THE TIME! It'd be sooo boring!

How would they have died? Are you alleging that they would have been bored to death by their food?

My first statement is correct, but the other was a big light hearted.

But yes, the joke was they would be bored to death. As vegetarian options are generally boring.

I really like meat,.
I like the taste ,. the texture,. the smell,.
Yummy,.
and I like my vegies raw

Originally posted by johnyelland1234
But yes, the joke was they would be bored to death. As vegetarian options are generally boring.

This really isn't true.

Most meat-eaters have a very omnivorous diet. It's not like those who eat meat are having chicken, ham, beef etc. for breakfast, lunch and tea !

I know that some may, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that most meat-eaters continue to eat meat because it ''tastes nice'', while ignoring the pain and suffering that is unnecessarily caused to animals by their self-indulgent tastes.

A diet without meat isn't really boring, and I'm speaking from experience, as I'm both a part-time cook and a vegetarian !

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes


To be honest and joking aside there are some nice vegetarian dishes and I had some vegetarian mince once and it wasn't bad at all.

That Qourn is weird though!

Thinking of our Bushman (San) hunter-gatherers: 70% of what they ate was plant material gathered by the women.
That certainly did not make them vegetarians however, and any meat was highly prized.
Real vegetarianism (no meat, milk, fish or eggs) is only possible in an agricultural society.

Originally posted by johnyelland1234
To be honest and joking aside there are some nice vegetarian dishes and I had some vegetarian mince once and it wasn't bad at all.

That Qourn is weird though!

Yes, there's a common misconception that vegetarian meals strictly consist of munching broccoli, carrots, and parsnips !

I'm not a vegan, so I eat milk-based products, which may make my dietary choices a little more varied !

You'd be surprised at the variety of dishes that can be served without using meat. Pizza, for example, is a food is that most people like, yet it's based on an entirely vegetarian recipe: Flour for the base, tomato and cheese to cover it, after the base has been cooked. It's just the pizza-toppings that have to be meat-free when they are eaten.


I'm not a huge fan of Quorn ''meat'', I have to say. It tastes a bit plasticky.

Although, I hope this kind of stuff is a prototype of things to come, where we can perhaps create more realistic tasting ''meat'' in a factory ( as you say, the vegetarian ''mince'' is quite decent tasting, as is some of the ''bacon'' ).


Either way, I can say that there are many very nice tasting vegetarian dishes - after all, just think about the last non-meat dish or meal that you tasted !