Health and nutritional status of people indicate the development of the
Answers
Answer:
Throughout most of history, the quest for sufficient food was the chief occupation of the earth's people. The diet of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, before the development of agriculture, is believed to have consisted of approximately 35% meat and 65% plant foods; no dairy products and practically no cereal grains were consumed. Meat from wild animals contains low levels of fats (4% in this early diet compared to 25 to 30% fat in today's domesticated animals), and the plant foods in this early diet consisted of a variety of vegetables and fruits (Eaton and Konner, 1985). The high-meat diet resulted in a high protein intake, but dietary fat was relatively low and contained more polyunsaturated fats than saturated fats. The intake of cholesterol, dietary fiber, calcium, and ascorbic acid is believed to have been high, but sodium intake was remarkably low. The accuracy of these estimates of the diet of hunter-gatherers cannot be established, however.
Two notable revolutions caused major changes in food supplies. The first occurred around 10,000 B.C., when people began to give up their nomadic ways in favor of living on specific plots of land, existing chiefly on plants they grew and animals they domesticated. For the first time, dairy products and cereal grains became a part of the diet. Agricultural innovations evolved slowly at first, but accelerated greatly with the onset of the second important revolution—the Industrial Revolution of the 1800's. Industrialization gave rise to two new socioeconomic classes: a new middle class of merchants and managers, who demanded a variety of socially desirable foods, and a new class of industrial workers, who could afford only the cheapest foods. Although the poverty, poor sanitary conditions, malnutrition, and disease that prevailed among workers in the industrial cities and towns was a blight on the Industrial Revolution, resources were soon mobilized to meet the food demands of the middle classes. Eventually the poor also benefited, as increased production and new techniques made cheaper foods available to them (Tannahill, 1973).
When large numbers of people left farming to work for wages in factories or to become entrepreneurs, there was a marked change in the kinds and quantities of food that were readily accessible. In the years since the Industrial Revolution, the U.S. diet has again undergone very large changes. In 1800, 95% of all Americans consumed minimally processed foods produced chiefly on their own small farms, but by 1900, only 60% of the population remained on farms (Hampe and Wittenberg, 1964). In less than 175 years, nearly all Americans have become dependent on others to produce and distribute food to supermarkets where their ability to obtain items they desire is determined largely by their financial resources.