Why Hadza women look different when they eat more meat or tubers
Tubers as fallback foods and their impact on Hadza hunter-gatherers.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Higher intake of least-preferred food (tubers) correlates with lower body fat, while preferred food (meat) correlates with higher body fat.
Common belief: we gain fat from eating ‘good’ high-calorie foods like meat. But here, the food people avoid is linked to leanness, and the food they crave is linked to fat gain—challenging the idea that preference = nutritional reward.
Practical Takeaways
Consider that your body may respond differently to foods you dislike versus foods you crave—your preferences might not reflect what’s best for your body composition.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Higher intake of least-preferred food (tubers) correlates with lower body fat, while preferred food (meat) correlates with higher body fat.
Common belief: we gain fat from eating ‘good’ high-calorie foods like meat. But here, the food people avoid is linked to leanness, and the food they crave is linked to fat gain—challenging the idea that preference = nutritional reward.
Practical Takeaways
Consider that your body may respond differently to foods you dislike versus foods you crave—your preferences might not reflect what’s best for your body composition.
Publication
Journal
American journal of physical anthropology
Year
2009
Authors
F. Marlowe, J. Berbesque
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Claims (4)
When shown pictures of their foods, Hadza people picked honey as their favorite and tubers as their least favorite — they really like sweet stuff and don’t care much for roots.
Hadza people don’t really like tubers, but they eat them a lot when berries aren’t around — so tubers are like a backup food when their favorite stuff isn’t available.
When Hadza women eat more tubers, they tend to have less body fat; when they eat more meat, they tend to have more body fat — but this doesn’t mean tubers make you skinny or meat makes you fat, just that the two are linked.
Wild, unmodified plant species are generally unpalatable to humans due to high concentrations of defensive compounds, limiting their consumption without processing or selective breeding.