Amidst Jane Galt’s current flirtation with the life of the carnivore, Discover says that ancient Brits literally ate like wolves.

Andrew Myers, an archaeologist with the Derbyshire County Council who has recently undertaken a review of the Mesolithic in England’s east Midlands, was not entirely surprised “that terrestrial animals provided the main source of dietary protein.”

But he was astonished by the extent to which land meats dominated over other potential sources, like vegetable and nut proteins.

And of course, this being pre-agricultural, no grains at all. This isn’t that many generations removed from us, and it’s unlikely that Jane (who judging by her real name is almost certainly of Celtic descent), has evolved that much from her ancestors (I suspect that the Lady of Trent described in the article was a Celt, since this was long before the Angles and the Saxons…). She’s probably a carnivore by nature, as is much of humanity.

To me, this backs up Sears’ proposition that a modern (post-agricultural) diet is not one that our bodies are designed for, and is the cause of much of our ailments. Agriculture gave us civilization, and allows us a much greater population, but we may be paying a high price in our health for it.

This has interesting implications for plans to feed the third world. It would certainly indicate that researchers should be working on more higher-protein-content crops, and perhaps more attention to aquaculture and small-animal ranching (i.e., rabbits) to improve production efficiency of protein sources.