Optimum Diet for Captive Humans: Part 1

Once upon a time, there was a human in a zoo.  I know it sounds crazy- and there have actually been more than one occurrence.  I think we can currently all agree that keeping humans in zoos is unethical, but from the time of the Renaissance to fairly recently, humans have been put on display.  Perhaps one of the most famous was Ota Benga, a native of the Kassai River in then Congo.  On September 8, 1906 visitors to the Bronx Zoo who wondered by the monkey house could see Ota.  He was considered a pygmy, and like in many other places around the world, from American side shows to European zoo, “exotic populations” and “unusual humans” were popular exhibits of the day.  One major question arises- not “who in their right mind puts a human in a zoo”, that question is relatively easy to answer- a moron.  No, the question is, “what did he eat”, or more importantly, “what is the optimum diet for a captive human”. 

I think this question is important, because the story of Ota Benga is almost that of Inception- a zoo inside a zoo.  Human society is defiantly different than that of our ancestors twenty thousand years ago.  Society is rather “captive” and a fair cry away from “natural”.  Many of us would have little to no chance surviving on our own in the wild; much like a monkey born in captivity would have little chance of survival upon being released.  Human technologically has exploded as of late, and I would postulate that we are growing on that front exponentially.  Modern society has changed us from hunter-gathers to desk jockeys and weekend warriors.  Socially and mentally we have advanced… but we are in the confines of society, captive to its care.  Most of us are reliant on modern technology and convenience. Not so much like “I need to check Facebook or I will die”, but literally if ostracized from modern society we’d have little chance of survival in nature.  I thinks it’s fair to say that we have been moved from our natural habitat – we have been moved from nature into buildings, houses and automobiles.

So if we considered, as a captive animal, what our ideal diet would look like, what would we suggest?

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) has a proposed a set of Feeding Program Guidelines.  From the AZA website:

AZA FEEDING PROGRAM GUIDELINES:

Aim to provide a nutritionally balanced diet.

Provide a diet that reasonably stimulates natural feeding behaviors.

Provide a nutritionally balanced diet that the animal consumes consistently.

Provide a diet that meets all of the above criteria, and is practical and economical to feed.

To meet the guidelines, it is recommended to follow four steps:

Investigate the background of the animal

Evaluate the nutritional characteristics of the diet

Implementation- ensuring proper instructions and acceptance of the diet

Diet update and reformulation- changes should be made based upon initial results.

Determining the background of the animal is the first step. “A literature review will help pull together information on a particular species or on an individual animal”, and “the literature review should include information on the nutritional, behavioral, and functional needs of the species in the wild and in captivity.” Of particular interest is that the diet stimulates natural feeding behaviors, should be in form and functions as reasonably close to what they would eat in the wild. 

What is the natural human diet and what does the literature say about it?  I’d postulate that it’s what we evolved eating.  A hunter-gatherer or forager diet, were most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals.  The diet eaten by Homo Sapiens for 200,000 years- food typical before the Neolithic revolution when the wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to agriculture and settlement that occurred only 3000 years ago.  Today that would translate into mostly meat and veggies, some fruit and nuts, and avoiding all the processed foods humans have developed in the last couple thousand years (but more so the last 100 years of processed food explosion).   

There is a significant amount of anthropological evidence suggesting that this style of eating is how humans and the human body were designed to run.

For example, in the paper “Anthropological Research Reveals Human Dietary Requirements for Optimal Health “ from the Journal of Applied Nutrition, 1982

"There are one hundred and ninety-two living higher species of primates in addition to humans. Until recently, it was taken for granted that all monkeys and apes were vegetarians, but ethological studies revealed that all primates, in their natural habitat, also eat small animals."

"Of humans some four million years on earth, 99% of this time has been that of hunting game and gathering wild plants."

"No cultures or people in the world have ever been 100% vegetarians; however, a number, such as the Masai of Africa, Plains Indians, the Eskimo  and the Lapps, in their traditional culture, subsist almost entirely on meat and have been very healthy. When they adapted to our modern diet which is high in refined carbohydrates, their health deteriorated rapidly; they developed a high incidence of degenerative diseases characteristic of our modern civilization, especially heart disease. "

"There is a relationship between diet and degenerative diseases, but the total history of mankind strongly indicates that the relationship is not one of consuming meat and animal fats. Anthropological data strongly suggest that as human societies developed a greater dependence on cereal grain crops and other carbohydrate foods, such was accompanied by undermining the health adaptations of food-producing populations unless they were successfully able to maintain a balance between meat and animal protein and their relatively low content protein plant crops such as rice, wheat, barley, potatoes, and corn. Since the last century, this deterioration has been accelerated to a very high level due to the ever increasing use of sugar, refined white flour, coffee and other caffeinated beverages, excessive consumption of salt, alcohol, chemical preservatives, synthetic, processed and junk foods.”

“Anthropological research proves that humans are both animal and plant eaters, but of the two, animal foods are essential in human nutrition. The wisest diet is no doubt the one humans have followed for millions of years, a diet that emphasizes fresh meat or animal protein supplemented with wholesome plant foods augmented by ample exercise.”

In part 2, I’ll address the evaluation of the nutritional characteristics of the diet.