The Study
Latitude, local ecology, and hunter-gatherer dietary acid load: implications from evolutionary ecology.
This study looked at what different groups of hunter-gatherers ate long ago and guessed how acidic or basic their food was based on math. It found that people living farther from the equator tended to eat more acidic foods, but it didn’t prove that where they lived caused their diet — it just saw a pattern.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Long ago, humans ate mostly what was around them—plants in warm places, meat in cold ones. This study looked at how much acid their food made in their bodies.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 539 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—this means there was no single 'Paleolithic diet'; what people ate depended on climate and available food, not a universal plan.
- 2In places near the equator, food made the body less acidic.
- 3In colder places like the Arctic, food made it more acidic.
- 4Fat in meat lowered acid levels.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition
Year
2010
Authors
A. Ströhle, A. Hahn, A. Sebastian
Related Content
Claims (6)
Estimates of how acidic the diet of modern hunter-gatherers was depend on how much animal fat is assumed in their diet; higher fat assumptions lead to lower calculated acid production.
In modern hunter-gatherer societies, diets at higher latitudes produce more acid in the body than diets at lower latitudes because they contain more animal foods and fewer plants.
Diets of hunter-gatherers in tundra, coniferous forest, temperate grassland, and tropical rainforest environments produce acid in the body, while diets in other environments do not produce acid or produce base. This difference is determined by the amount of vegetation and availability of animals in each ecosystem.
Modern hunter-gatherer groups consume diets with very different levels of acid-producing nutrients, so there is no single ancestral diet that represents all early humans.
Scientists infer that early human ancestors in East Africa ate a diet that produced base in the body, but this is based on modern hunter-gatherers' diets, not direct analysis of ancient food remains.
Human metabolism evolved over 2.5 million years to rely primarily on animal-based foods for energy and essential nutrients.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.