Anthropometric data indicate nutritional homogeneity in Hadza foragers of Tanzania

Sherry, Diana S.; Marlowe, Frank W.

doi:10.1002/ajhb.20591

Cited by 51 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Women are probably eating a significantly higher proportion of their overall diet in camp, and their out of camp diet is probably lower quality than men's out of camp diet. Sherry and Marlowe (2007) reported on the nutritional homogeneity among the Hadza as measured by percent body fat (%BF) and body mass index (BMI). However, the results here reveal that there are significant sex differences in the Hadza diet in camp (as measured by eating frequencies).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in Hadza eating frequency by food type

Berbesque

Marlowe

Crittenden

2011

American J Hum Biol

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At least in the case of the Hadza, we see pronounced sex differences in the in-camp diet. Hadza men are eating a higher quality diet than are women, but women are able to eat far more frequently, and spend less time foraging than men. It is not yet clear whether a regular caloric intake of lower quality foods would be more beneficial for maintaining fecundity than a more variable diet consisting of higher quality foods.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in Hadza eating frequency by food type

Berbesque

Marlowe

Crittenden

2011

American J Hum Biol

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“…Lower overall body fat in the Hadza nomads compared with settled populations may reflect seasonal fluctuations of resources in this environment. Fat reserves in ecologies where caloric intake fluctuates provide a useful survival strategy (43,51). Urban dwellers have lower activity levels and more consistent access to food than do hunter-gatherer or nomadic populations, as well as higher body fat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body composition in Pan paniscus compared with Homo sapiens has implications for changes during human evolution

Zihlman

Bolter

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The human body has been shaped by natural selection during the past 4-5 million years. Fossils preserve bones and teeth but lack muscle, skin, fat, and organs. To understand the evolution of the human form, information about both soft and hard tissues of our ancestors is needed. Our closest living relatives of the genus Pan provide the best comparative model to those ancestors. Here, we present data on the body composition of 13 bonobos (Pan paniscus) measured during anatomical dissections and compare the data with Homo sapiens. These comparative data suggest that both females and males (i) increased body fat, (ii) decreased relative muscle mass, (iii) redistributed muscle mass to lower limbs, and (iv) decreased relative mass of skin during human evolution. Comparison of soft tissues between Pan and Homo provides new insights into the function and evolution of body composition.body composition | bonobo | Pan paniscus | human evolution | Homo sapiensT he human body has been shaped by natural selection during the past 4-5 million years. The large brain and expanded neurocranium of Homo sapiens (1,100-1,550 cm 3 ) is triple the size of closely related chimpanzees (Pan, 275-420 cm 3 ) and fossil australopithecines (e.g., Australopithecus afarensis AL-444, 550 cm 3 ; Australopithecus africanus Taung, 382 cm 3 ; and Australopithecus sediba MH1, 420 cm 3 ) (1-6). Long lower limbs in humans accommodate habitual bipedality and contrast with the relatively short lower limbs of quadrupedal African apes. These changes in limb proportions can be tracked across millions of years of australopithecine and early Homo remains, (e.g., partial skeletons of Au. afarensis AL-288 "Lucy," Au. africanus STS 14, Homo erectus WT 15000 "Nariokotome Boy") (7-9).Fossils, even relatively complete ones, preserve only bone, one component of body composition and a small proportion of body mass. The remaining muscle, skin, fat, and vital organs that make up the other 85% do not leave a record, although, separately and together, they underpin locomotor activity, energetics, health, and reproduction (10-14). There has been much speculation about their interrelationships. The "expensive tissue hypothesis" attempts to explain the threefold expansion of the human brain (15-18). It argues that because human brain tissue requires a disproportionately high energy supply, its increase during evolution necessitated a compensatory decrease in another component, the gastrointestinal tract (18). Another hypothesis suggests that body fat in australopithecines was as high as the body fat of modern hunter-gatherers (19). Tests of hypotheses about the evolution of body composition require a comparative database, one that includes the major tissues.One way to fill in the missing information is to compare human body composition with the body composition of our closest living relatives, members of the genus Pan (20, 21). Few such comparative data are available on apes (but cf. 22-25). The rarity of apes in captivity, their long lives, and the logistics of obtaining ...

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“…We assume that humans have evolved in environments where the food supply fluctuates between limited and abundant, but also that there are times, years or seasons, where the proportion of time that food is abundant is greater or lesser [30, 34, 35]. The current level of food availability is therefore not sufficient to infer the long-term food availability.…”

Section: The Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%