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"We found some striking similarities, for example, the crude lipid or fat content of the diet (Figure 9). There were three important points regarding the crude lipid content of the diets: 1. there were no significant differences among the primate species in the fat content of their diets, 2. the seasonality in fat intake coincided with an increased ripe fruit availability, and 3. the amounts of fat in the diets were very low, even at peak consumption levels; peak was only about 8.5% lipid, and the average annual intake was only about 2.5%. As a point of reference, humans do not need more than 3-5% fat on a dry matter basis in their diet, enough to provide the one essential fatty acid and the fat soluble vitamins (RDA, 1989). Modern, westernized humans consume 15-25% fat on a dry matter basis (usually referred to as 30-45% of calories consumed) (RDA, 1989), far in excess of need or recommendation (Butrum et al., 1988)."


"Modern humans do not have high protein or fat requirements, as already mentioned. The value of 9.5% CP in the chimpanzee diet in our study is consistent with the prediction by Oftedal (1990) that all primates should have relatively low protein requirements because they have slow growth rates compared to other mammals (Case, 1978). Although a need for protein or fat is often assumed to explain increasing amounts of hunting throughout hominid evolution, primates do not have metabolic demands for high levels of protein or fat."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2014 04:06PM by fresh.

Interesting study Fresh. Thanks!