介绍： This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.
The paleo diet is a popular high-protein diet that aims to mimic what our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate. But what we buy at the supermarket doesn't quite approximate those ancient foods. Take for example, star lily roots. Heard of th...

介绍： This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.
The paleo diet is a popular high-protein diet that aims to mimic what our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate. But what we buy at the supermarket doesn't quite approximate those ancient foods. Take for example, star lily roots. Heard of those?
"They taste a bit like yams."
Lyn Wadley is an archaeologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Her team recently discovered the charred remains of star lily roots in South Africa's Border Cave—hunks of roasted root that date to 170,000 years ago.
"And there's greater glucose availability once the root vegetables were cooked. And they knew that nearly 200,000 years ago, which I think is extraordinary. Or maybe they didn't know the chemistry of it, but they would have realized they felt far more satisfied after eating a meal that's cooked rather than one that is raw."

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。
“原始人饮食法”是一种流行的高蛋白饮食法，旨在模仿我们狩猎采集祖先的饮食。但是我们在超市买到的东西和那些古代食物不太一样。以星百合根为例。你听说过这种食物吗？
“味道有点像山药。”
南非威特沃特斯兰德大学的考古学家林·瓦德利说到。她的团队最近在南非边界洞穴中发现了烧焦的星百合根遗迹，这些大块烤根可追溯到17万年前。
“块根类蔬菜经过烹饪后，葡萄糖的利用率就会上升。他们早在20万年前就知道了这一点，我认为这非常了不起。或许他们不知道其中的化学成分，但他们会意识到，食用烹饪过的食物比吃生食要令人心满意足得多。”