What Was the True “Paleo Diet”?

By Dig Labs Contributors

Source: Dig Labs Project

How did the Paleolithic human diet differ from region to region and from seasonal availability?

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Note to reader:
We hope you find this article useful—it’s an ongoing Observatory research project that will be updated.
If you have expertise or insight on the topic that you think could be useful, please send us a note.

Join Our Collaborative Research

Dig Labs Collaborative ResearchHelp us investigate these questions further. Review the current state of research surrounding this topic, suggest new sources, or share your expertise. Every contribution helps.

“What Was the True “Paleo Diet”?” by Dig Labs Contributors is licensed by the Observatory under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). For permissions requests beyond the scope of this license, please see Observatory.wiki’s Reuse and Reprint Rights guidance.Last edited: July 9, 2026

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Introduction

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The original human diet was far more diverse and localized than modern health trends often suggest. New evidence from dental calculus and coprolites indicates that ancient hunter-gatherers relied on a wide variety of plants, tubers, and aquatic resources depending on seasonal availability. This dietary flexibility was a key component of human survival in shifting environments worldwide.

Our investigation analyzes the chemical signatures of food remains from different climatic regions to reconstruct prehistoric menus. We are picking up the trails of evidence for the original human diet and following the leads of Paleolithic nutrition.