Hunter-Gatherers--Examples of Healthy Omnivores

(Comparative Anatomy and Physiology Brought Up to Date--continued, Part 8B)

Hunter-Gatherers: Examples of Healthy Omnivores

A major point often overlooked by dietary advocates eager to condemn all omnivore diets (based primarily on clinical research that by default normally utilizes the SAD/SWD diet as the "control" omnivore diet) in order to "sell" their favorite (raw/veg*n) diet is that healthy omnivore/faunivore diets do in fact exist. Besides the apparent anomaly that occasional individuals appear to thrive on the deservedly maligned SAD diet, hunter-gatherers (who have by now all but disappeared or assimilated Western lifestyles) provide examples of healthy omnivore/faunivore diets.

HEALTH AND DISEASE IN HUNTER-GATHERERS

Environmental factors

Malnutrition and starvation. Dunn [1968], a paper on health and disease in hunter-gatherers, makes a number of relevant points. Dunn (p. 233) reports "patent (and perhaps even borderline) malnutrition [in hunter-gatherers] is rare." Dunn also reports that hunter-gatherers are often better nourished than nearby agriculturalists or urban residents.
Dunn also notes (p. 223), "Starvation occurs infrequently." Agriculturalists who depend on a few crops for the bulk of their diet are more susceptible to starvation (e.g., caused by crop failure from climatic variation, insect attack, plant diseases) than hunter-gatherers who have a wider dietary base.
Occupational hazards of hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Dunn (pp. 224-225) also mentions that:

4. Accidental and traumatic death rates vary greatly among hunter-gatherer populations...
7. Ample evidence is available that "social mortality" has been and is significant in the population equation for any hunting and gathering society.

In the above, social mortality refers to warfare, cannibalism, sacrifice, infanticide, etc. These are rare or non-existent today, though they may have been significant factors among certain hunter-gatherer populations in the not-too-distant past.
Parasites and infectious diseases. On the topic of parasites, Dunn notes (p. 225):

8. Parasitic and infectious disease rates of prevalence and incidence are related to ecosystem diversity and complexity. Although many of these diseases contribute substantially to mortality, no simple, single generalization is possible for all hunter-gatherers.

Chronic and degenerative diseases

Chronic diseases rare in hunter-gatherer societies. Dunn (pp. 223-224) reports that:

3. Chronic diseases, especially those associated with old age, are relatively infrequent...
Although life expectancies of hunter-gatherers are low by modern European or American standards, they compare favorably with expectancies for displaced hunter-gatherers, many subsistence agriculturalists, and impoverished urbanized people of the tropics today (Ackerknecht, 1948; Billington, 1960; Duguid, 1963; Dunn, MS-i; Maingard, 1937; Polunin, 1953). Few hunter-gatherers survive long enough to develop cardiovascular disease or cancer, major causes of mortality in America and Europe today. These diseases do occur infrequently, however, and preclinical manifestations of cardiovascular disorder may be detected in such populations (Mann et al., 1962). Occasional writers have claimed that certain primitive populations are "cancer-free" or "heart disease-free," but sound evidence to support such contentions is lacking, and evidence to the contrary has been steadily accumulating.

Note: the term "MS-i" is as it appears in Dunn [1968]. No explanation is given for it there; possibly it might stand for "manuscript 1."
How "hunter-gatherer" is defined is an important point when determining disease incidence. (note regarding Mann [1962] reference cited in Dunn [1968] above) The comments from Dunn [1968] above have been cited at enough length to provide the context that no human population is completely disease-free. However, at the same time, there are some important qualifications that need to be clarified regarding groups sometimes cited as "hunter-gatherers" who in actuality do not meet the relevant definition.
The paper of Mann et al. [1962] referred to just above, which studied African Pygmies in what was then known as the Congo, is a case in point. The dietary survey component of Mann's study could not be completed due to political unrest, so dietary information had to be obtained from other, perhaps less reliable sources. Mann's paper claims both that the Pygmy diet was mostly wild foods, and that the second and third most common foods in the diet were sweet potatoes and rice, both of which are cultivated foods. The Pygmies also consumed palm oil and salt obtained via trade. By current research standards, of course, all of these foods are well outside the definition of a hunter-gatherer diet.
The paper also claims that the Pygmy aboriginal culture has been preserved, while, simultaneously, the Pygmies are oppressed and used as laborers by nearby Bantu tribes. Further, the claims of heart disease were based solely on ECG (electrocardiogram) readings, which Mann et al. [1962] report are an unreliable diagnostic tool for Africans (p. 367). Finally, the abnormal ECG readings that were a basis for the claim of possible heart disease should be interpreted in light of the serum cholesterol readings obtained for the Pygmies: 101 for adult men, 111 for women. These are extraordinarily low readings.
Such inconsistencies in the Mann et al. [1962] paper raise considerable doubt concerning their finding of signs of possible heart disease, and also whether the Pygmies tested were following their traditional lifestyle. The lesson here, once again, is to check sources, particularly older ones, to see how well the research standards match currently accepted definitions and criteria.
Humans are not exempt from the reality of diseases. No doubt certain dietary extremists will seize on quotations like the one above regarding the lack of complete freedom of disease in hunter-gatherers, and try to use it against the hunter-gatherer diet. The above remarks and qualifications notwithstanding regarding the care needed in assessing (reputed) hunter-gatherers, a couple of obvious points need to be remembered regarding any population:
- Wild animals can and do suffer from degenerative diseases. McCullagh [1972] discusses the occurrence of atherosclerosis in wild African elephants; Goodall [1986] discusses the incidence of arthritis-like conditions (also colds and pneumonia, among other disorders) among the wild chimps of Gombe. Of course, wild animals can and do suffer from a wide range of non-degenerative diseases (hoof and mouth, Lyme disease, bubonic plague, polio, etc.).
- No diet can guarantee "paradise health," and claims that a particular diet does are simply "dietary snake oil." The idea that a particular diet can guarantee "paradise health" (a bogus claim made by some fruitarian extremists) or prevent any/all diseases is nothing but a fairy tale. More specifically, such false claims are also "dietary snake oil" when used by dishonest dietary advocates to "sell" their "ideal" diet. In the real world of nature, diseases exist, and despite the considerably enhanced probability of better health by following a better diet, there are no guarantees in life.
The point of the above is straightforward: wild animals can and do die from diseases, and there is no reason to assume humans are different in this matter. However--the absence of total immunity aside--the incidence rate of chronic and degenerative diseases is in fact very low in hunter-gatherer societies.
Incidence of specific diseases. Although hunter-gatherers are not immune to chronic diseases, the available evidence indicates that such diseases are relatively rare in hunter-gatherer groups who follow their traditional lifestyles. However, the incidence of such diseases increases sharply once these societies begin to assimilate Western culture and lifestyle. Comments on specific diseases are as follows.
- Cancer. As Eaton et al. [1994, p. 361] note:
  
  Medical anthropologists have found little cancer in their studies of technologically primitive people, and paleopathologists believe that the prevalence of malignancy was low in the past, even when differences in population age structure are taken into account (Rowling, 1961; Hildes and Schaefer, 1984; Micozzi, 1991).
  
  Eaton et al. [1994] also analyzed the factors involved in women's reproductive cancers and developed a model that indicates that up to the age of 60, the risk of breast cancer in Western women is 100 times the risk level for preagricultural (e.g., hunter-gatherer) women.
- Cancer in Africa. The famous medical missionary, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, writing in Berglas [1957], reports the following [Berglas 1957, preface]:
  
  On my arrival in Gabon, in 1913, I was astonished to encounter no cases of cancer. I saw none among the natives two hundred miles from the coast.
  I can not, of course, say positively there was no cancer at all, but, like other frontier doctors, I can only say that if any cases existed they must have been quite rare.
  
  Williams [1908] reports that cancer is extremely rare among Australian aborigines and in the aboriginal peoples of Africa and also North America. (Note the date of the citation: 1908, a time when there were far more hunter-gatherers than there are today.)
- Cancer among the Inuit. Stefansson [1960] describes the search of George B. Leavitt, a physician on a whaling ship, who searched for cancer among the Inuit of Canada and Alaska. It took him 49 years, from 1884 to the first confirmed case in 1933, to find cancer. (Stefansson [1960] describes a possible but unconfirmed case of cancer in 1900, and Eaton et al. [1988] describe cancer in a 500-year-old Inuit mummy.)
  Schaefer [1981] reports that breast cancer was virtually unknown among the Inuit in earlier times, but was one of the most common forms of malignancy by 1976.
- Cardiovascular disease. Moodie [1981] reports on evidence of hypertension among Australian aborigines, from 1926 to 1975. The data support an association between increasing Westernization and hypertension, but there are some inconsistencies. However, citing additional, more recent data, Moodie reports further evidence of increasing hypertensive disease among Aborigines.
  Moodie [1981] also reports that prior to the 1960s, arteriosclerosis and ischemic heart disease were rare among the Australian aborigines.
  Schaefer [1981] reports that hypertension and coronary heart disease are extremely rare among the less-acculturated Inuit, but are increasing markedly among the acculturated groups. A 1958 survey of Alaskan natives found no hypertension; however, a 1969 survey found that native Alaskan women showed so-called normal levels of hypertension (i.e, comparable to Western women).
- Diabetes. Moodie [1981] reports that diabetes was rare in Aboriginal communities prior to the 1970s; nowadays the prevalence of diabetes is more than 10% in some Aboriginal communities.
  Schaefer [1981] reports there are no cases of diabetes among the Inuit who still live the traditional lifestyle. However, cases are now being reported among the acculturated Inuit of the Mackenzie delta area (Canada). Diabetes is also increasing in incidence in the Inuit of Alaska and Greenland.
The above indicate that chronic degenerative diseases are rare when traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles are followed, but the incidence of disease increases as Westernization occurs. This suggests that at least from the viewpoint of chronic degenerative diseases, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and diet were quite healthy.

Biomarkers

The biomarkers for hunter-gatherers following traditional lifestyles reflect a high level of health and physical fitness. Eaton et al. [1988] report that the aerobic fitness of male hunter-gatherers is in the superior to excellent range. The triceps skinfold measurements for young males range from 4.6-5.5 mm in hunter-gatherers compared to 11.2 mm for Westerners. Diabetes prevalence is 1.2-1.9% in hunter-gatherers versus 3-10% for Westerners. Finally, serum cholesterol levels for hunter-gatherers are astonishingly low by modern standards--in the 101-146 mg/dl range. (See Eaton et al. [1988, pp. 742-745] for the tables the preceding data comes from.)

Health status of the Aborigines of Australia: O'Dea [1991]

O'Dea [1991] provides additional insight into the health of Australian aborigines, pre-Westernization, when they followed their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Below is Table 1 from O'Dea [1991, p. 234]:

Table: Health of Australian Aborigines as hunter-gatherers.

Recognizing that we are all the descendants of hunter-gatherers, the negative impact on modern hunter-gatherers when they adopt Western diet and lifestyles may provide insight into factors behind the health problems that afflict those of us whose hunter-gatherer ancestry is more recent. The standard Western diet is dramatically different from the hunter-gatherer evolutionary diet. O'Dea [1991, p. 237] provides the following summary comparison table:

Comparison of lifestyle and diet of Australian Aborigines as hunter-gatherers and after westernization.

The hunter-gatherer diet of the Aborigines was low in fat (lean meat from wild animals) and simple carbohydrates like sugar. Further, considerable energy was required to obtain such foods (i.e., those high in fat or sugar) in the wild, especially in the arid outback of Australia. In contrast, the diet of Westernized Aborigines is high in fat from domesticated animals and in simple carbohydrates (refined sugars, e.g., sucrose, fructose from corn syrup). Also, little effort is required to obtain such foods in today's modern society--just go to the store and buy it (much easier than hunting for your meal).

Impact of Western diet on Aborigines. Once Aborigines switch to a Western diet and lifestyle, they frequently develop the problems common on Western diets: adult-onset diabetes, coronary heart disease (CHD), hyperinsulinemia, high blood pressure, obesity, etc. The incidence of such diseases increases as the degree of Westernization increases in Aborigine communities. As an example, O'Dea [1991, p. 239] observes that:

In the 20-50 year age group, the prevalence of diabetes is ten times higher in Aborigines than in Australians of European ancestry. Although fewer data are available, the prevalence of CHD and hypertension is also considerably higher in Aborigines (Wise et al. 1976; Bastian 1979), and hypertriglyceridemia [high triglycerides] is a striking feature of the lipid profile in all Westernized Aboriginal communities in which it has been measured (O'Dea et al. 1980, 1982, 1988, 1990; O'Dea 1984).

In summary, despite implicit assumptions to the contrary by many raw/veg*n diet advocates, healthy omnivore/faunivore diets do in fact exist, and the diets of hunter-gatherers pre-Westernization are good examples thereof.

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SEE REFERENCE LIST

SEE TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:
PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART 6 PART 7 PART 8 PART 9

GO TO PART 1 - Brief Overview: What is the Relevance of Comparative Anatomical and Physiological "Proofs"?

GO TO PART 2 - Looking at Ape Diets: Myths, Realities, and Rationalizations

GO TO PART 3 - The Fossil-Record Evidence about Human Diet

GO TO PART 4 - Intelligence, Evolution of the Human Brain, and Diet

GO TO PART 5 - Limitations on Comparative Dietary Proofs

GO TO PART 6 - What Comparative Anatomy Does and Doesn't Tell Us about Human Diet

GO TO PART 7 - Insights about Human Nutrition & Digestion from Comparative Physiology

GO TO PART 8 - Further Issues in the Debate over Omnivorous vs. Vegetarian Diets

GO TO PART 9 - Conclusions: The End, or The Beginning of a New Approach to Your Diet?

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