After failing another fast after only 30 hours due to poor preperation and probably running too far at the start of the fast, it got me thinking. How did humans cope with no mineral supplements when they went without food for long periods of time? Would they be scavenging plant based foods to get some sort of nutrients?
They’re electrolytes in blood of an animal. Salt was used as a preservative. This would cause meat to have salt on it. There was a huge salt trade back in the day. The word salary is a Roman word meaning salt given to soldiers as a wage.
You’ll be amazed how long you can go on with just willpower. Also your life depends on it. There were no super markets in ancient times. People actually feared they would die. Which they did, a lot. Plus the food at this time was different. We’ve essentially degraded our environment for quantity.
Most early civilizations ate all the components of the animal which provided great balance of electrolytes. As civilization developed we started placing great importance on salt, and that became a currency due to its importance. Having a deficiency of electrolytes requires severe starvation or eating a low yield crop.
Humans don’t need to eat constantly. There are minerals present in plant based foods and by extension in meat and offal from animals who eat plants. You don’t need to eat every micro nutrient 3 times a day to get enough of them.
That said, we live a lot longer on average than earlier humans and better nutrition is one of the reasons.