carbohydrates

[Tartar Horde]

Mort is right about our early diet and the problems with the transition to "cereal" based food production. Although a sedentary agricultural system can support more humans, the quality of the "support" ie grain is not as fuel efficient as a meat based hunter gatherer economy. Meat provides a lot more "bang for your buck" than cereals. It also depend on culturally where your ancestors are from as some cultures have access to tropical fruit like Bananas and Coconut etc, but these cultures also tend to have less large game as compared to Northern Europe. For instance Amazon indians have a much larger store of Carbohydrates than our Ice Age ancestors had, but meat is still the most sought after food, and that's the same for all hunter gatherer societies even today. If you compare skeletons from a Stone Age hunter to a medieval peasant, the hunter has a more robust physique and better muscle mass, although he may have injuries, mainly broken bones due to close contact with dangerous animals, he is in better shape than most peasants would ever be. Our medieval worker shows much more "wear and tear" due to heavy continuous labour with a poor diet. He also has very bad dental hygiene, with death by septic tooth rot being very common. In comparison many skeletons of Pre-historic man show excellent teeth, and a lifespan comparable to, if not better than medieval people. The only medieval people who had a good diet were the "Knightly classes" who's diet was centered around meat to build strong physiques. Which was also the reason for these classes to limit the meat consumption of the peasant workers, keep them worked and on the verge of starvation, so they are too "knackered" to do anything else like revolt.