Eating mammoths in America: A survival guide for the sane

A roundup of all the latest nutrition research you didn't know you needed

Americans haven’t always eaten as badly as they do now. There was a time when they dined on the fat of the land, quite literally. They had to, if they wanted to survive.

A study published in the journal Science Advances on December 4^th has revealed that early Americans ate mainly mammoths. And when they weren’t eating mammoths, they were eating the next biggest beast they could find.

These were the Western Clovis people who inhabited America 13,000 years ago and who regularly hunted mammoth, and to a lesser extent bison, elk and a type of camel.

Being able to bring down a mammoth is an impressive feat, unimaginable for most of us whose greatest food procurement skill is driving to the shops.

Why mammoth? Because one kill alone would feed a tribe of fifty people for at least three months. It made economic sense. Plus, mammoths were very, very fat and as American chef and TV personality Julia Child once remarked, ‘fat gives things flavor’.

In short, early Americans followed a ketogenic diet. Fortunately for them, there were no experts around to warn them that it was a dangerous fad and that they should switch to wholegrains instead.

And fortunately for us all today, we have rediscovered the benefits of eating the way we evolved to eat.

The ketogenic diet is very low in carbohydrate and high in fat and protein. It is something that people try and find helpful for weight loss, blood sugar control, and metabolic health. It is well established as the only effective treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy in children.

Fat feeds the developing human brain.

The brain — which is 60% fat — is so highly evolved that it must arrive in this world equipped with a large fuel reserve, else risk severe damage. A baby lands with around 500 g of fat packed away under the skin. Its brain burns an astonishing 70%-80% of all available fuel, so this back-up is essential.

‘It is entirely normal for healthy infants to be constantly in mild ketosis; it is not due to them being sick, underfed or diabetic.’

Research into the wider benefits of the ketogenic diet keeps on coming. In early December, we learned the results of a study that found that a ketogenic diet boosts CAR T cell therapy effectiveness and enhances tumour control in mice with lymphoma. CAR T cell therapy uses the body’s own immune cells to kill cancer cells.

On a ketogenic diet, ketones are produced in the absence of glucose. One of those ketones is beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and this is used as a source of energy for T cells. In this study, BHB supplementation in mice led to ‘complete cancer remission in most mice’.

Similar effects were seen in human tissue samples, and now clinical trials have begun on lymphoma patients.

‘If successful, this low-toxicity, cost-effective strategy could significantly improve cancer immunotherapy outcomes.’

As a preliminary investigation before the trial began, the research team tested the effect of different types of diet on mice with lymphoma and found that the most successful in terms of tumour control and survival was the high cholesterol ketogenic diet. One member of the research team, Maayan Levy, PhD, commented:

‘If the clinical trial data pans out, I’m excited to think about how a fairly simple approach like this could be combined with dietary interventions or other, more traditional approaches, to enhance the anti-cancer effect.’

If there’s another thing that a mammoth meal would have provided in spades, it’s the essential amino acids that make up a complete protein.

One of these amino acids is tryptophan. Red meat is a top source and so too are poultry, fish and eggs.

Tryptophan is necessary to make the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is found in the brain, but most of it is found in the gut. Serotonin is involved in regulating mood and preventing depression.

Whatever problems these early Americans may have had to deal with in their everyday lives, I suspect that depression wasn’t one of them, despite living through an ice age and having to dodge wild, ferocious beasts on a daily basis.

Results of a study published on December 11^th in the journal Gastroenterology suggest that increasing gut serotonin may be an effective treatment for mood disorders, without the side effects associated with pharmaceuticals.

Treatment usually involves a type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. SSRIs work by keeping serotonin in the brain.

It is well known in medicine that people with depression often also have a gut disorder, such as irritable bowel syndrome.

The health of the gut is pivotal to the health of the brain. The connection is the gut-brain axis, and there is accumulating evidence pointing to the role of gut microbes (collectively known as the microbiome) in regulating this axis, through its influence on tryptophan metabolism.

Ever since the demise of the mammoth hunters, the human brain has gone downhill. The end of the Palaeolithic era, when humans turned to agriculture and a grain-based diet, saw a change in brain size that is still ongoing.

The human brain is shrinking, as confirmed by a body of research that has been accumulating since 1988. This shrinkage — atrophy — began during the transitional period between hunter-gathering and agriculture. Since then, the brain has shrunk by 10%. What’s even more alarming is that the last 4,000–6,000 years have witnessed an acceleration of this atrophy.

And as if to confirm that humans have truly lost the plot since our mammoth-hunting days, there are people with questionable brain size who think that giving a feed additive to cattle to stop them burping methane is a good idea. As if a money-making scheme is ever going ‘save’ the planet and redirect climate change.

Here in the UK, Bovaer, a feed additive that suppresses the enzyme required to form methane, is scheduled to be given to all cattle by 2030.

Thankfully, there are some people whose brains are still functioning reasonably well and who don’t like being on the receiving end of a Big-Tech experiment.

A furious boycott is underway of the Danish dairy firm Arla, which is currently trialling this latest idiocy. Bovaer has been approved and deemed safe by experts, something that immediately sets off alarm bells and creates laws of unexpected consequences.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, we in the UK also learned this month that imported foods have been found to contain residues of 48 pesticides not approved for use here. These pesticides have links to cancer and are also neurotoxins. Like methane blockers, they were once considered safe, and approved for use.

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The mammoths may have disappeared, our brains may have shrunk, but we still have the ketogenic diet and grass-fed livestock to keep us sane while all the madness gathers pace around us.