To put it bluntly, it’s irrelevant. Why? Because humans are still evolving. If our evolution had come to a halt over ten thousand years ago, before agriculture was invented, then, yes, our ancestral diet might still matter. Agriculture, however, has changed many things, including our genome (Carmody et al, 2016).
Prior to the onset of agriculture, humans, like every other animal in existence, then and now, were lactose intolerant. Keeping farm animals changed this. While some populations (such as Chinese, Pima, Bantu) are still, to various extents, lactose intolerant, most of us have developed the ability to digest milk, a feat that ensured the survival of several pastoral societies around the globe.
Adaptations for extracting sugar from starchy foods vary among populations, as differences in environment and agricultural habits led to the evolution of a number of genetic variations (Hardy et al. 2015) (Perry et al. 2007). These differences mean that some populations are better adapted to consuming and thriving on plant foods, while a small segment are better adapted for consuming animal products. The latter tend to reside in places such as Siberia, where vegetation is scarce.
For most of us, modern, post-agriculture humans, consuming animal products on a regular basis can raise the risk of some health problems (heart disease, certain types of cancer, type two diabetes). This is particularly true for populations better adapted to plant based diets, such as Eastern Europeans, who, ironically, have a love affair with meat based cuisine, and sport some of the highest cardiovascular disease rates in the world.
Gut bacteria changes, antibodies against neu5gc found in red meat (dubbed the meat eater’s molecule), the development of smaller jaws, alcohol consumption, and countless other adaptations to stationary, agricultural life have all taken place in very recent human history. As such, the best way to determine which dietary habits are worth keeping and which are to be discarded, is to look at the current human genome, while taking into account geographical differences, rather than casting our eyes to the past and dwelling on our ancestors’ choices.
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