Eat Me! Exploring the Costs & Benefits of Eating Human Flesh

Cannibalism is a topic that continues to fascinate and intrigue people across the world.  Between Jeffrey Dahmer and the forsaken crew of the HMS Terror of the Franklin Expedition to the soccer players in the Andes and the doomed Donner Party expedition across the Sierra-Nevada Mountains there are several examples of cannibalistic events in recent human history.  Cannibalism is not a recent human phenomenon, however, as our hominid ancestors regularly participated in such actions for yet to be discovered reasons.  While cannibalism is largely taboo and banned across the globe it is still of central focus among many, taking center stage in horror films and television shows, scary stories, and even our language.  The most recent act of cannibalism where a man fed pieces of his amputated foot to his friends has in part reignited interest in this topic, as well as reopened a question commonly asked of cannibalism: can the act of eating human flesh cause irreparable harm to the consumer?  This blog post seeks to answer that question by exploring the potential consequences of consuming human flesh.

Figure 1: Fore man holding a skull

 

Cannibalism is the act of eating members of one’s own species.  Several animal species, including primates, have been known to participate in cannibalism, causing researchers to consider if there is an evolutionary cause for such practices.  While those questions continue to be investigated the health costs and benefits have been fully explored.  This line of research was taken up when a large number of Fore, an indigenous group from Papua New Guinea (Figure 1), were discovered to have a rare disease that was killing them off in droves.  Anthropologists and biologists teamed up to discover the origins of this disease, which the local Fore called “kuru” after the symptoms of the disease.  Initially the research team considered kuru a genetic disorder, but that was quickly ruled out when it was realized that women and children of all social groups and not directly related were suffering and dying from the disease.  It was later discovered that the Fore were dying due to the consumption of their dead, which was customary of their funerary rituals.  Men, women, and children would eat the dead, but it was the job of the women to consume the brains of the deceased.  They would share this delicacy with their children, as well, which narrowed down the culprit of the kuru disease.  Further investigation determined that kuru was a prion disease, much like Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, Mad Cow in cows, and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease in humans.  Prion diseases are caused by a twisted protein that causes degradation of the brain (Figure 2), leading to shivering, uncontrollably laughing, and loss of motor function.  While contraction of prion diseases is rare it is known that consumption of infected tissues, particularly brains, will lead to infection, although people can carry the prions for several years (and even decades) prior to contracting the disease. 

Kuru disappeared among the Fore once the custom of consuming the dead was banned, but the notion of consuming the dead leading to negative health outcomes continues.  While the Fore/kuru example is a very real consequence of eating the dead it only occurred when the Fore consumed infected brains, meaning the disease was passed on by consuming individuals who had previously died of or carried kuru (prions).  But is there evidence of this happening widespread?  The short answer is no, but that is because when incidences of cannibalism have occurred (e.g. the Franklin Expedition, the Donner Party, the soccer team of the Andes) no one has really stopped to consider the health consequences of such acts.  Typically, the horrors that led to such acts precluded the study of that aspect of the situation, or in the case of the Franklin Expedition there were too few survivors to ask about it.  So ultimately, we do not really know if consuming human flesh will cause any negative health outcomes if one consumes a healthy individual.

Figure 2: Normal (left) versus Kuru infected (right) brain cells

 

There are, however, other reasons why one should not consume human flesh.  In pursuit of the answers to why our hominid ancestors consumed each other scholars considered if there was a nutritional necessity to eat human flesh.  Ultimately, it was discovered that while eating human flesh does happen it is not a great idea because humans are nutritionally poor, meaning you are not getting enough calories.  If one were to consume only human flesh they run the risk of starving to death due to lack of caloric intake and nutritional values of the flesh. 

Now the purpose of this post is not to encourage readers to go out and Hannibal Lector (eat) the mail man or anyone else who may seem appetizing.  It does ultimately answer the question about whether or not it is a healthy idea, which it is not.  In this day and age when there are several fad diets and crazy ideas about staying healthy do not buy into the idea eating human flesh will make you healthier, younger, or stronger because there is not any evidence to support any of those notions.  Therefore, in the event of a zombie apocalypse our zombie brethren would ultimately die of starvation or a prion disease for eating human flesh or brains.

Bibliography

Akpan, N. (2017, April 6). If you had to eat a human, which body part should you pick first? Retrieved from PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/served-archaeologist-considers-nutritional-value-humans

Bichell, R. E. (2016, September 6). When People Ate People, A Strange Disease Emerged. Retrieved from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/06/482952588/when-people-ate-people-a-strange-disease-emerged

Engelhaupt, E. (2017, April 6). Cannibalism Study Finds People Are Not That Nutritious. Retrieved from National Geographic: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/human-cannibalism-nutrition-archaeology-science/

Hayes, J. (2012, July 26). Spotlight: Why Cannibalism is Bad for You. Retrieved from The Disease Daily: http://www.healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/spotlight-why-cannibalism-bad-you-72612

Medline Plus. (2016, 11 14). Kuru. Retrieved from Medline Plus: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001379.htm

Stern, V. (2008, January 21). Not that I’m thinking about trying it, but is cannibalism unhealthy? Retrieved from Science Line: http://scienceline.org/2008/01/ask-stern-cannibal/