Energy source, protein metabolism, and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies

https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-4165(83)90006-5Get rights and content

Abstract

During late winter and spring, hunter-gatherers in temperate, subarctic, and arctic environments often relied on diets that provided marginal or inadequate caloric intakes. During such periods, particularly when stored food supplies dwindled or were used up entirely, lean meat became the principal source of energy. Nutritional problems associated with high-protein, low-energy diets are discussed. These problems include elevated metabolic rates, with correspondingly higher caloric requirements, and deficiencies in essential fatty acids. The relative benefits of adding fat or carbohydrate to a diet of lean meat are evaluated in light of the protein-sparing capacities of these two nutrients. Experimental data indicate that although both enhance high-protein, low-energy diets, carbohydrate is a more effective supplement than fat. Given the nutritional inadequacies of a lean-meat diet, the paper concludes with a discussion of alternative subsistence strategies that increase the availability of carbohydrate or fat at the critical time of year.

References (150)

  • E.A. Morris et al.

    Nutritional content of selected aboriginal foods in northeast Colorado: Buffalo (Bison bison) and wild onions (Allium spp.)

    Journal of Ethnobiology

    (1981)
  • M. Aleksiuk et al.

    Aspects of seasonal energy expenditure in the beaver (Castor canadensis Kuhl) at the northern limit of its distribution

    Canadian Journal of Zoology

    (1969)
    M. Aleksiuk et al.

    The winter metabolic depression in arctic beavers (Castor canadensis Kuhl) with comparisons to California beavers

    Canadian Journal of Zoology

    (1969)
  • R.B. Alfin-Slater et al.

    Lipids

  • Durward L. Allen

    Wolves of Minong

    (1979)
  • James B. Allison

    Interpretation of nitrogen balance data

  • J.B. Allison et al.

    The determination of the nitrogen balance index in normal and hypoproteinemic dogs

    New York Academy of Sciences Annals

    (1946)
  • Angelo Anastasio

    The southern plateau: An ecological analysis of intergroup relations

    Northwest Anthropological Research Notes

    (1972)
  • Allen E. Anderson

    Morphological and physiological characteristics

  • A.E. Anderson et al.

    Indices of carcass fat in a Colorado mule deer population

    Journal of Wildlife Management

    (1972)
  • A.E. Anderson et al.

    Relationships of carcass fat indices in 18 wintering mule deer

  • M.F. Baker et al.

    Mandibular cavity tissue as a possible indicator of condition in deer

  • Asen Balikci

    The Netsilik Eskimos: adaptive processes

  • Richard H. Barnes

    Energy

  • Lowell J. Bean

    Mukat's people: the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California

    (1972)
  • F. Berkes et al.

    Eastern James Bay Cree Indians: Changing patterns of wild food use and nutrition

    Ecology of Food and Nutrition

    (1978)
  • E.J. Bigwood
  • Lewis R. Binford

    Nunamiut ethnoarchaeology

    (1978)
  • Kaj Birket-Smith et al.

    The Eyak of the Copper River Delta

    (1938)
  • A. Booren et al.

    Carbonyl and fatty acid analysis of antelope and beef fat

    Journal of Food Science

    (1973)
  • F. Bourlière

    The natural history of mammals

    (1964)
  • G.M. Briggs et al.

    Bogert's nutrition and physical fitness

    (1979)
  • Jane E. Buikstra

    The Caribou Eskimo: General and specific disease

    American Journal of Physical Anthropology

    (1976)
    Jane E. Buikstra

    Mortuary practices, palaeodemography and palaeopathology: A case study from the Koster site (Illinois)

  • Ernest Burch

    The caribou/wild reindeer as a human resource

    American Antiquity

    (1972)
  • D.H. Calloway

    Nitrogen balance of men with marginal intakes of protein and energy

    Journal of Nutrition

    (1975)
  • D.H. Calloway et al.

    Nitrogen balance as related to caloric and protein intake in active young men

    American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

    (1954)
  • Margaret S. Chaney et al.

    Nutrition

    (1971)
  • Charlotte Chatfield

    Proximate composition of American food materials

    U.S. Department of Agriculture Circular

    (1940)
  • B.B. Cook et al.

    The influence of seasonal and other factors on the acceptability and food value of the meat of two subspecies of California deer and of antelope

    Hilgardia

    (1949)
  • George Cox
  • W.F.J. Cuthbertson

    Essential fatty acid requirements in infancy

    American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

    (1976)
  • T.C. Dauphiné

    Biology of the Kaminuriak population of barrenground caribou, Part 4. Growth, reproduction and energy reserves

    Canadian Wildlife Service Report Series

    (1976)
  • Deethardt, Dorothy n.d. The best of bison. South Dakota State University, Agricultural Experiment Station B668,...
  • Robert Dirks

    Social responses during severe food shortages and famine

    Current Anthropology

    (1980)
  • H.H. Draper

    Nutrition

  • Kerstin Eidlitz

    Food and emergency food in the circumpolar area

    Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensia

    (1969)
  • Laura Evans

    Comparison of fatty acids from lipid classes of serum lipoproteins and other lipids in the bison

    Journal of Dairy Science

    (1964)
  • J.C. Ewers

    The Indian trade of the Upper Missouri before Lewis and Clark

    Missouri Historical Society Bulletin

    (1954)
  • FAO/WHO (Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization)

    Energy and protein requirements

  • A.W. Franzmann et al.

    Marrow fat in Alaskan moose femurs in relation to mortality factors

    Journal of Wildlife Management

    (1976)
  • Cited by (444)

    • Understanding human diet, disease, and insulin resistance: scientific and evolutionary perspectives

      2023, Ketogenic: The Science of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction in Human Health
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text