We almost never see hunter-gatherer groups pursue leafy or cruciferous veggies as a source of significant calories.
Eh, but they still ate some, and ate plenty of starchy stems and root vegetables. Also, in modern first-world diets, I’d say the biggest thing vegetables provide is fiber, which was also provided in hunter-gatherer diets by un-domesticated grains or seeds.
Every hunter gatherer culture was/is different, but I don’t think any consume large quantities of grains or seeds- that was mostly only made practical as a major source of calories by the development of agriculture.
It’s not clear that humans actually need much insoluble fiber (what’s mostly found in grains and seeds) for good health. Starchy tubers (which make up as much as 70% of calories in many equatorial hunter gatherer societies such as the Kitvavans) are a good source of soluble fiber, which acts as a substrate for gut bacteria.
Compared to agricultural diets, I suspect that most hunter gatherers had much higher consumption of soluble fiber (primarily from leafy vegetables and tubers), and much lower consumption of insoluble fiber.
Every hunter gatherer culture was/is different, but I don’t think any consume large quantities of grains or seeds- that was mostly only made practical as a major source of calories by the development of agriculture.
Oh, okay. I was thinking of un-domesticated seeds like sumpweed when I said that, but wikipedia ways it was “cultivated,” so I was wrong.
Eh, but they still ate some, and ate plenty of starchy stems and root vegetables. Also, in modern first-world diets, I’d say the biggest thing vegetables provide is fiber, which was also provided in hunter-gatherer diets by un-domesticated grains or seeds.
Every hunter gatherer culture was/is different, but I don’t think any consume large quantities of grains or seeds- that was mostly only made practical as a major source of calories by the development of agriculture.
It’s not clear that humans actually need much insoluble fiber (what’s mostly found in grains and seeds) for good health. Starchy tubers (which make up as much as 70% of calories in many equatorial hunter gatherer societies such as the Kitvavans) are a good source of soluble fiber, which acts as a substrate for gut bacteria.
Compared to agricultural diets, I suspect that most hunter gatherers had much higher consumption of soluble fiber (primarily from leafy vegetables and tubers), and much lower consumption of insoluble fiber.
Oh, okay. I was thinking of un-domesticated seeds like sumpweed when I said that, but wikipedia ways it was “cultivated,” so I was wrong.