Why Stone Age cannibalism was not the best source of protein

MEAT from chickens, cows and turkeys is a nutritious modern source of protein – but how does human flesh compare? Researchers at the University of Brighton endeavoured to find out, to see how cannibalism rated as a diet during the Stone Age.

By analysing the calorie content of cadavers, the scientists found that a human weighing 65kg – or roughly ten stone – contains about 32,000 calories in their muscle tissue alone.

It might sound a lot, but it pales in comparison to other animals, such as cows, which have 360,000 calories in their muscle tissue, and deer, which contain roughly 163,000.

The results of the 2017 study indicated that our ancestors were unlikely to eat members of their own species, as the animals which they hunted at the time were of a much higher nutritional value – especially woolly mammoths, which had a belly-busting

3.6million calories.