There has been a great deal of speculation about the pre-historic human diet among scientists and those who are interested in a healthy diet. New research from Oxford University appears to have answered some questions.

A study published by Dr Gabriele Macho of Oxford University shows that human ancestors in East Africa 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago ate fruits and invertebrates such as worms and grasshoppers, but that their diet consisted primarily of tiger nuts.

Tiger nuts (Cyperus esculentus) are among the oldest known cultivated plants. They are still used for food, oil, medicine, cosmetics and even fishing bait in parts of the world. Tiger nuts contain starch, fat, sugar, protein, saturated and unsaturated fat and are rich in vitamins E and C. There has been considerable debate though as to whether or not they were sufficiently nutritious to be the staple food for humans.

Dr. Macho examined the diet of Paranthropus boisei, also known as ‘Nutcracker Man’ because of his flat molar teeth and powerful jaws, by studying modern-day baboons in Kenya. She found that the baboons eat large quantities of tiger nuts and that they contain sufficient minerals, vitamins and most importantly the fatty acids which are vital to hominid brains.

The study was based on the assumptions that the nutritional needs of baboons are similar to those of Paranthropus boisei and that baboons select foods intuitively based on their dietary needs.

Dr. Macho was quoted as saying:

‘I believe that the theory – that ‘Nutcracker Man’ lived on large amounts of tiger nuts – helps settle the debate about what our early human ancestor ate. On the basis of recent isotope results, these hominins appear to have survived on a diet of C4 foods, which suggests grasses and sedges. Yet these are not high quality foods. What this research tells us is that hominins were selective about the part of the grass that they ate, choosing the grass bulbs at the base of the grass blade as the mainstay of their diet.

The study “Baboon Feeding Ecology Informs the Dietary Niche of Paranthropus boisei” was published in the journal PLOS One.