key factor that should give pause when comparing today’s nutritional needs with those of the Paleolithic is our species’ “ethology” and social habits. In the absence of cars, roads, elevators, smartphones, firearms, and all that technology does for us, the men and women who lived 40,000 or 20,000 years ago were much more physically active. The separation of roles was minimal, and women contributed as much as men to the hunt. Catching a large herbivore was not easy, and the entire village had to contribute, including the elderly, children, and pregnant women. Even gathering reeds or oats in the middle of the Arctic tundra for a few carbohydrates required great effort. The prey they caught were wild species low in fat, and the plants had seeds and tubers much smaller than today’s selectively harvested ones, which are difficult to harvest. The situation is very different for domesticated animals, selected over the last 10,000 years to provide as much fat and protein as possible, or for cultivated plants that produce abundant carbohydrates with relatively little effort. Modern chickens descend from an Asian species much smaller than a modern broiler, and eating chicken breast today is very different from eating a coot in the Paleolithic era, in terms of fat and protein intake and calories expended to obtain food.
