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