Rice ranked #1 on the most commonly consumed foods list. It is believed that over half of the world's population consumes rice as a staple dish and is one of the most common food items across the biggest continent Asia, along with Latin America and areas of South Africa too.
In 2021, Poultry Was the Most Consumed Meat in the World, with a Total Consumption of 132.3 Million Tons (Statista) During the Covid-19 pandemic, when the world went into lockdown, poultry was the most widely consumed meat, with the population eating more turkey, chicken, duck, and pheasants than ever before.
Bread, potatoes, cabbage, beans, and various kinds of cereal were the base of local cuisine. There was usually only one dish per meal on the table on regular days. On holidays, there could be several dishes served during the same meal, but they were the same as those cooked on regular days, as a rule.
As of Q3 2022, hamburgers, mashed potatoes, and cheeseburgers were the most popular American dishes in the United States (U.S.).
Hunter-gatherer societies ate raw meat. Hunter-gatherers also ate plants found in the wild, such as seeds, nuts, and berries. By the end of the Stone Age, humans began to grow their own crops, domesticate animals, and use fire to cook food.
The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008).
Prior to about 3.5 million years ago, early humans dined almost exclusively on leaves and fruits from trees, shrubs, and herbs—similar to modern-day gorillas and chimpanzees.
Chicken meat most popular meat in Australian diet, new trends for other meats.
Could Humans Eat Raw Meat in the Past? Homo antecessor, seen by some researchers as the last common ancestor of both Neanderthals and us Homo sapiens, did eat raw meat, according to dental plaque analysis.
Our ancestors in the palaeolithic period, which covers 2.5 million years ago to 12,000 years ago, are thought to have had a diet based on vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots and meat.
Still, the fossil record suggests that ancient human ancestors with teeth very similar to our own were regularly consuming meat 2.5 million years ago. That meat was presumably raw because they were eating it roughly 2 million years before cooking food was a common occurrence.
Apple trees blanketed Kazakhstan 30,000 years ago, oranges were common in China, and wild berries grew in Europe. None of these fruits were identical to the modern varieties, but they would have been perfectly edible.
The Oldest Edible Food Still Found Today: Honey
The oldest edible food in the world is honey, found in a tomb in Ancient Egypt. It's around 3,000 years old and hasn't spoiled due to the honey's antimicrobial properties.
Previous estimates based on animal studies were too small and thus inflated how much animal protein our ancient ancestors ate, she said. Instead, the first farmers, who lived around 12,000 years ago, likely ate no more than 40 to 50 percent of their protein from animal sources.
1/ Okinawan diet – Japan
So much so that Japan has the lowest obesity rates and second longest life expectancy of any developed country. The Okinawan diet is centred around fish, seafood, tofu, and other nutrient-rich ingredients. It's also extremely low in processed foods.