Food, Malnutrition, Avitaminoses, and Famine

Abstract

Nutrition has so many diverse influences on mortality that an attempt must be made to summarize its history. Lee and DeVore (1968b) point out that “cultural” man has spent most of his time as a hunter-gatherer, for it is only in the past 10,000 years that he has domesticated plants and animals for food; further, of all cultural men over the past 2 million years, it is estimated that more than 90% have lived as hunters and gatherers, about 6% have lived by agriculture, and the remainder have lived in industrial society. Attempts have been made to assess the activities of ancient man with the aid of observations on modern hunter-gatherers, but criticisms of this approach have been made, for many of the modern hunter-gatherers appear to be descendants of agricultural man forced back from the more fertile lands by others with more highly developed technology. Authors have therefore turned their attention particularly to the Eskimos, Bushmen, and Australian aborigines. Indeed, the Australian aborigines had had very little cultural contact with the outside world before the coming of the Europeans 200 years ago. Harlan (1975) concludes from his studies that the emphasis is on gathering, from which many “hunters” obtained their principal food, for the rewards of hunting are variable; it is time consuming and seems often to be undertaken chiefly as a sport. Gathering has the additional advantage that it can be carried out by the women and children of the tribe. Gathering, by definition, includes the seeking not only of seeds and roots but also of rodents, lizards, eggs, insects, grubs, worms, tortoises, and shellfish; moreover, the gathering does not take up too much time, 2 to 5 hours a day (Lozoff and Brittenham, 1977) or even less (Harlan, 1975) being sufficient. These authors and Truswell (1977) agree that hunter-gatherers do not suffer from malnutrition. Detailed analysis has shown that plant sources contribute 60%–80% of the calorie intake of the gatherers. Of course, gathering becomes more difficult as a complete way of life in the high latitudes and Harlan (1975) finds that 44°N and 44°S can be taken as useful limits for the gatherers, citing the Eskimos as the extreme example of hunters, with a diet entirely composed of fish and meat. Before the development of agriculture, most men lived predominantly on plant foods, always qualitatively good and only rarely in short supply, in what was in many ways a “golden age”, enjoyed by some 10 million men until about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, according to Lee and DeVore (1968a). There were some disadvantages; thus, among certain modern Bushmen, breast milk is the predominant food over the first year and continues sometimes for 3 years; supplements in forms of melons, roots, and perhaps nuts are introduced in the first year, but the child suffers from not being able to chew enough in the early part of the second year. These Bushmen, by our standards, are mildly undernourished but not qualitatively malnourished; as compensations, they do not suffer obesity, they have very little dental caries, there is no hypertension, serum cholesterols are low, there is no coronary heart disease, and old age is attainable. Perhaps this can be extrapolated back to 10,000 BP, together with the suggestion that the tribes had not yet been forced off the most fertile land.