New research shows our ancient ancestors were eating meat 1.5 million years ago!

There is a debate raging in the diet and nutrition world. Some claim eating meat is healthy and others say it is not. The purpose of this information is to inform you and not to make a decision for you. According to a study that was published October 3 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, “Meat-eating was an important factor affecting early hominin brain expansion, social organization and geographic movement.”

Researchers used skull fragments found by anthropologists in Tanzania to show that our ancient ancestors were eating meat at least 1.5 million years ago. “Meat eating has always been considered one of the things that made us human, with the protein contributing to the growth of our brains,” said Charles Musiba, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Denver, who helped make the discovery. “Our work shows that 1.5 million years ago we were not opportunistic meat eaters, we were actively hunting and eating meat.” Authors of the study also noted, “This discovery highlights that by at least 1.5 million years ago, early human physiology was already adapted to a diet that included the regular consumption of meat.”