What do cavemen drink

Global brand giant Unilever has brought scientists and experts from fields as diverse as evolutionary genetics, anthropology, food science and botany together to find out the answer. Dr Mark Berry, who is in charge of the research at Unilever, says the aim is to create a healthier diet for people today, drawing inspiration from that period.

Nowadays we try our best to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day. They ate 20 to 25 plant-based foods a day," said Dr Berry. So contrary to common belief, palaeolithic man was not a raging carnivore.

He was an omnivore who loved his greens. He would have gathered seeds to eat, used plants and herbs for flavouring and preserving fish and meat, and collected wild berries. Their need for other essential nutrients would have been found in fish while pulses provided additional proteins. In contrast to the cereal crops we rely on now for the basis of our food, the pre-farming diet contained fewer carbohydrates, less fat and more vegetables.

So was it a healthier diet? Previous research has shown that the diet and lifestyle of hunter-gatherers was characterised by a lower incidence of "diseases of affluence" such as type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

In fact, many communities around the world depend on rainwater as their primary source of drinking water. That said, not all rainwater is safe to drink. Although, some bacterial spores not typically associated with water borne disease are capable of surviving boiling conditions e. Boiling is sufficient to kill pathogenic bacteria, viruses and protozoa WHO, If water is cloudy, let it settle and filter it through a clean cloth, paperboiling water towel, or coffee filter.

Bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute. Boiled water can be kept in sterilized, properly sealed containers in the refrigerator for 3 days or for 24 hours if kept at room temperature out of direct sunlight. We were born to drink—first milk, then fermented beverages. Our sensory organs attract us to them. As humans came out of Africa, they developed these from what they grew.

In the Middle East, it was barley and wheat. Guerra-Doce is the author of a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory that analyzes drug and alcohol use "in prehistoric Eurasia. Among other discoveries, bits of opium poppy have been found in the teeth of a male adult at a Neolithic site in Spain, and charred cannabis seeds were found in bowls at an archaeological site in Romania, the study says.

Guerra-Doce also noted that traces of ephedra, ergot and some varieties of nightshade, all of which can be rendered to produce types of recreational substances, have been found at archaeological sites throughout Europe. And while researchers have uncovered no direct evidence of hallucinogenic mushrooms, their ritual use appears to be depicted in "abstract designs" found in the Italian Alps.

Many of the various substances were uncovered in tombs of high-status individuals or in restricted ceremonial locations, which suggests that the substances were only accessible to a privileged class, according to Guerra-Doce. However, many psychoactive plants, such as cannabis or psilocybin mushrooms, grow in the wild, making them difficult to control. So how did early humans manage to keep the substances from being used outside of sacred rites?

One of the earliest documented examples suggestive of mind-altering substance use by early hominids was found at Shanidar IV , a Neanderthal burial site from roughly 60, B. At the site, which Science magazine describes as a "flower burial," researchers found evidence of a number of plants known for their medicinal use, suggesting that the grave may have been the final resting place of an ancient shaman.