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South Tyrol Museum of Archeology Eurac M. Samadelli
- Scientists probe the stomach of Otzi, a 5300-year-old mummy who was found in the Alps between Austria and Italy in 1991.
- They find new clues about his diet: a balanced blend of meat, leaves and wheat.
- About half of Otzi's stomach contents are fats, a "remarkable" proportion according to the researchers. They think that he probably planned this way to better survive the harsh alpine conditions.
About 5,300 years ago, Otzi (aka "Fritz Frozen") was murdered in the Alps with a single punch to two: An arrow to the chest and a blow to the head.
But first, the man at the 45-year-old was refueling, enjoying a last hearty meal.
Fortunately for science, its dead body 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 remained something of a mystery after his first discovery in 1991. His stomach had changed up over time, making it difficult to determine what he ate just before his death , and earlier studies focused more on his intestines. Some scientists believe that it could have crunched some kind of prehistoric bacon
A new study, published in Thursday in the journal Current Biology, gives us a more accurate picture than ever of what man from the mountain ate -valitude trip.
It turns out that the guy liked fat.
Microbiologist Frank Maixner of the Eurac Research Institute for Studies on the Mummy said to have 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 analysis 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 Glaceman found charcoal in his gut, further suggesting 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 came from the consumption of animal products.
There were also smaller concentrations of chromium, copper, manganese, selenium, molybdenum, and cobalt.
"These data suggest that the last meal of the Iceman was well balanced in terms of the essential minerals required for good health," the scientists wrote in their article. It was a clever strategy for a trekking of nearly 10,500 feet tall, crossing the Alps between Austria and Italy
"Iceman seemed perfectly aware that fat was 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 follower of the low carb and fat keto plan.
"The last meal of the Iceman was a balanced blend of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, perfectly adjusted to the energy needs of his trekking at high altitude," wrote the newspaper's authors .
In other words, he was not a tough eater, and was nibbling 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.
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