Catalyst: Ancient Teeth – By investigating evidence from ancient teeth, we find out about how the human diet and health conditions have changed over time.
Our diets have changed tremendously as humans have developed and progressed over time, from the meat-heavy diets from our hunter-gatherer days, to the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago and the high sugar content of today’s fast, convenient food. Our changing diet has had a variety of effects on our health, not least on our ‘microbiome’; diversity in the bacteria living inside us has decreased dramatically, with severe knock-on effects on our immune systems. Dr Graham Phillips presents evidence from our ancestors’ teeth, which shows just how much our diets and resultant bacterial communities inside our bodies have changed over time.
