Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is another classic
Speaker 1: brain Stuff episode. We as a culture are fascinated by
Speaker 1: last meals. If you choose it, how do you choose
Speaker 1: if you don't, what does it say about your habits?
Speaker 1: This episode concerns the last meal of the man that
Speaker 1: would become the oldest natural mummy we've ever found, Otsi
Speaker 1: the Iceman. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. You may
Speaker 1: have heard of folks emulating the diets of our ancient
Speaker 1: pre agricultural human ancestors for health and welfare, you know, paleo.
Speaker 1: But thanks to recent research, we now have an actual
Speaker 1: ancient menu of sorts to follow the last meal of
Speaker 1: Otsy a k a. The Iceman, a five thousand, three
Speaker 1: hundred year old man whose frozen body was found by
Speaker 1: German tourists in the Italian Alps back in. An international
Speaker 1: group of researchers has conducted the first in depth study
Speaker 1: of the contents of Otsi's stomach and small and large intestines,
Speaker 1: as detailed in an article published in a July issue
Speaker 1: of the journal Current Biology. They used a combination of
Speaker 1: multi omics studies involving different biomolecules such as ancient DNA, proteins, metabolites,
Speaker 1: and lipids, plus microscopic examination to reconstruct the exact composition
Speaker 1: of Otsi's food intake. Just before his apparent violent death
Speaker 1: from massive bleeding caused by an arrow wound in his shoulder,
Speaker 1: Otzi's stomach still contained a small amount of food that
Speaker 1: he was in the process of digesting, including animal muscle,
Speaker 1: fibers and plant fragments, as well as metabolic compounds that
Speaker 1: indicated the presence of dairy products and whole grain cereals.
Speaker 1: In addition to the chemical analysis, the researchers also analyzed
Speaker 1: DNA they found in the food and studied bacteria in
Speaker 1: Otsi's gastro intestinal tract. From that, they determined that Otsi's
Speaker 1: last meal probably consisted of ibex and red deer meat
Speaker 1: that he ate either fresh or dried, and fat from
Speaker 1: grazing animals or dairy products supplemented with eincre a wild
Speaker 1: species of wheat. Otsi's diet was high in fat, with
Speaker 1: its residues making up between twenty seven and forty of
Speaker 1: his stomach's contents. The researchers think that that wasn't by accident.
Speaker 1: In the cold, high altitude environment in which Otsi lived,
Speaker 1: it was a challenge to avoid starvation and energy loss.
Speaker 1: The researchers wrote, the ice man seemed to have been
Speaker 1: fully aware that fat displays an excellent energy source. Puzzlingly,
Speaker 1: Otsi's stomach also contained particles of toxic bracken fern and mosses,
Speaker 1: which may have come from plant material to wrap his meat.
Speaker 1: Another possibility is that Otsi took the toxic fern as
Speaker 1: a medicine for intestinal problems related to parasites found in
Speaker 1: his gut. But we should mention that Otsy's diet may
Speaker 1: not be demonstrative of the diets of his era. Ancient
Speaker 1: hunter gatherers diets varied greatly according to the region where
Speaker 1: they lived. While Otsi eight meat and grains, ancient people
Speaker 1: in what is now Botswana got seventy of their calories
Speaker 1: from carbohydrates and sugars in melons and starchy roots, for example.
Speaker 1: Ancient diets were necessarily local. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article O't see the iceman ate a high fat
Speaker 1: last meal on how stuff works dot Com, written by
Speaker 1: Patrick J. Tiger. Brain stuffs production of i heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsay Young. Four more podcasts
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