Diets of modern hunter-gatherers vary substantially in their carbohydrate conten

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271531711000911

Diets of modern hunter-gatherers vary substantially in their carbohydrate

content depending on ecoenvironments: results from an ethnographic analysis

Ströhlelow asterisk, a, E-mail The Corresponding Author and s

Hahna

a Nutrition Physiology and Human Nutrition Unit, Institute of Food Science and

Human Nutrition, Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover D-30167, Germany

Received 18 March 2011;

revised 30 April 2011;

accepted 2 May 2011.

Available online 12 June 2011.

Abstract

In the past, attempts have been made to estimate the carbohydrate contents of

preagricultural human diets. Those estimations have primarily been based on

interpretations of ethnographic data of modern hunter-gatherers. In this study,

it was hypothesized that diets of modern hunter-gatherers vary in their

carbohydrate content depending on ecoenvironments. Thus, using data of

plant-to-animal subsistence ratios, we calculated the carbohydrate intake

(percentage of the total energy) in 229 hunter-gatherer diets throughout the

world and determined how differences in ecological environments altered

carbohydrate intake. We found a wide range of carbohydrate intake ( & #8776;3%-50%

of the total energy intake; median and mode, 16%-22% of the total energy).

Hunter-gatherer diets were characterized by an identical carbohydrate intake

(30%-35% of the total energy) over a wide range of latitude intervals (11°-40°

north or south of the equator). However, with increasing latitude intervals from

41° to greater than 60°, carbohydrate intake decreased markedly from

approximately equal to 20% to 9% or less of the total energy. Hunter-gatherers

living in desert and tropical grasslands consumed the most carbohydrates

( & #8776;29%-34% of the total energy). Diets of hunter-gatherers living in

northern areas (tundra and northern coniferous forest) contained a very low

carbohydrate content ( & #8804;15% of the total energy). In conclusion, diets of

hunter-gatherers showed substantial variation in their carbohydrate content.

Independent of the local environment, however, the range of energy intake from

carbohydrates in the diets of most hunter-gatherer societies was markedly

different (lower) from the amounts currently recommended for healthy humans.