Iceman of 5,300 years ago ate a diet high in fat, meat lovers

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About 5,300 years ago, Otzi (aka "Fritz Frozen") was murdered in the Alps with a single punch with two blows: an arrow on the chest and a blow to the head.

But first, the ice man of about 45 years was refueled, enjoying a last hearty meal.

Fortunately for science, his corpse was carefully preserved in a rocky hollow and naturally mummified when the glaciers settled there and slid right over it, freezing its stomach contents.

Otzi was eating something mysterious after his first discovery in 1991. His stomach had moved up over time, making it difficult to determine what he was eating right before his death, and previous studies focused more on his intestines. Some scientists thought that he could have chewed on some kind of prehistoric bacon.

A new research, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, gives us a more accurate picture than ever of what the mountain man ate to fuel his high-altitude trip.

It turns out that the guy liked fat.

The microbiologist Frank Maixner of the Eurac Research Institute for Studies on the Mummy said he found a "remarkably high proportion of fat" – about 50% – in the stomach of the Mummy.

Further exploring in the DNA of the ice man's stomach, scientists found evidence of ibex [wild goat] and red deer in the interior, as well as einkorn wheat. A new badysis of meat fiber in the intestines of iceman confirms that they were probably cooked, barbecued or smoked and dried in some way before eating, because the Protein compounds seemed different from raw meat. Previous studies of Glacier found coal in his gut, suggesting further that he was a griller.

Thilo Parg / Wikimedia Commons License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Looks like Otzi has eaten well. He had a good mix of nutritious minerals, such as iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium and sodium in his stomach. These probably come from the consumption of animal products.

It also had smaller concentrations of chromium, copper, manganese, selenium, molybdenum and cobalt.

"These data suggest that the Iceman's last meal was well balanced in terms of the essential minerals required for good health," the scientists wrote in their article. It was a smart strategy for someone who was hiking nearly 10,500 feet high, crossing the Alps between Austria and Italy.

"Iceman seemed to have been fully aware that fat represents an excellent source of energy." The paleopathologist Albert Zink, also at the Eurac research institute for studies on the mummy, said in a statement. "The high and cold environment is particularly difficult for human physiology and requires an optimal intake of nutrients to prevent rapid starvation and energy loss."

The iceman worked using a principle similar to the popular ketogenic diet of today. When there are no more carbohydrates or sugars to fuel your trip, the body can switch to ketosis, using fats to keep the brain and body moving.

But the driver was not a paleo-dieter, and he was also not a fan of the keto plan with low carbs and fat.

"The last meal of the Iceman was a balanced blend of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, perfectly suited to the energy needs of his trekking at high altitude," write the authors.

In other words, he was not a tough eater, and nibbled all kinds of foods, including some dangerous dangerous ferns ferns. Scientists still do not know exactly why he would have eaten a poisonous leaf, but suspect that it might have been some kind of stomach medicine, or it was just an earthy container in which some of his other foods were packaged Tupperware.

His prehistoric body was not immune to some of the detrimental effects of a high-fat diet. Body scans show that his middle age arteries were hardening, and it seems that he was about to develop coronary artery disease. It did not matter once that he had been murdered and plunged into a dark rocky hollow, putting his fresh and greasy meal on the ice for curious scientists to discover thousands of dollars. years later.