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Dietary Requirements: Comparison Between Apes and Humans
“We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.”
― Adelle Davis
First we'll look at the content of a typical gorilla diet as this is where our roots lie. Then we will observe the evolutionary changes hominins went through discussed in the previous chapter. Lastly, we will look into the effects that leaving the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle for agriculture caused whereby we began growing our own foods and domesticating animals for our consumption. We’ll put these facts together to conclude the diet best suited for human consumption; one that is in tune with our modern day physiology, ensures an ongoing nurturing supply of energy to support our brains and our bodies, and maintains the health level we deserve.
The Common Gorilla and Modern-Day Human Diets
The Diet of Eastern Lowland Gorillas consists largely of foliage, including leaves, stems, pith and shoots, while fruit makes 5-25% of their diets in contrast to mountain gorillas.
The Diet of Mountain Gorillas consists of over 142 different plant species. They consume foliage of herbs and vines, with leaves making up 68% of their food intake, stems 25%, piths 2.5%, epithelium from roots 1.4%, and the remaining 4% from bark, roots, flowers and fruit. During the rainy season, mountain gorillas eat bamboo shoots and mountain bamboos when they are green, young, and tender. The bamboo shoots are made of 84% water and therefore gorillas hardly ever need to drink water. During the dry season they eat many berries, especially blackberries that grow on high altitude.
Both Mountain and Eastern Gorillas have very flexible diets, (178) and it is thought that they consume a small amount of animal protein by eating small insects, insect eggs and larvae found on the plant foods they eat, although no evidence to consumption of animal matter was found in mountain gorilla feces. (179)
The Diet of Western Gorillas is the same foods as mountain gorillas, but in different proportions. Green plant material remains the majority of their diets; however, Western lowland gorillas eat more fruit (180). About 67% of their diet is fruit, 17% is leaves, seeds and stems, and 2% is ants, termites, caterpillars, snails, and grubs. (181, 182) The Western lowland gorillas consume parts of at least ninety-seven plant species, and they also have access to aquatic herbs in some areas while they have less access to terrestrial herbs.
All Gorillas are very selective in their food choices, choosing only certain parts of the vegetation available to them at certain times of the year. (183, 184)
Gorillas prefer immature leaves over the mature ones, which usually contain less fiber, but more protein. (185, 186)
The gorilla’s diet in the wild is low in carbohydrates and fat, but very high in fiber which helps them to maintain normal cholesterol and blood sugar levels. When their diets are changed drastically in zoos and become rich in fats and simple carbohydrates, we see an almost immediate deterioration in their health state.
The gorilla's days are arranged around their feeding schedule. Gorillas normally have three rest intervals a day and they eat in between these resting periods. They spend a lot of their time traveling and foraging in search of food. Because plants and trees change with the seasons, they get plenty of dietary variation, plenty of rest, and also plenty of exercise during the day. Gorillas spend four to six hours daily being physically active. They only become dormant when it rains heavily.
The Diet of Humans living in the Western world on average consists of three main grains including maize, wheat, and rice, in their processed form stripped of their germ layer. These nutrient poor grains form 40% of the diet. Meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products form 45% of the average modern Western world diet, and fruit and vegetables form the remaining 15%. This diet is a far cry from the one our bodies are meant to consume and to thrive on. Modern human diets are high in fat, low in fiber, and high in simple carbohydrates which is unsupportive of human health.
Gorilla and Human Energy Requirements
Full-Grown Adult Gorillas can eat up to 60 pounds (30 kg) of vegetation a day and walk about 4 km (2.5 miles) per day
Theoretically their energy needs can be fulfilled with 5500 to 8000 kcal/day. (187) To acquire this amount of energy, wild gorillas need to spend 50-90% of their waking hours foraging and consuming food.
When an animal or a human is hungry, their mind is focused only on finding food to satisfy their hunger. Thus gorillas in the wild that only consume vegetation are less likely to have the