Europeans used to have dark skin

The white color of Europeans may have appeared about 5,500 years ago thanks to a change in eating habits.

In primitive times, humanity sought food by hunting and gathering. Natural foods are rich in vitamin D. About 5,500 years ago, the ancestors of Europeans moved to farming and breeding.

Foods that humans produce themselves are much less vitamin D than natural foods. Our ancestors can produce vitamin D when they are exposed to ultraviolet light in sunlight. But their dark skin appears to be ineffective.

Scientists from the University of Oslo (Norway) believe that the change in diet makes European skin color change . Specifically, eating foods that are poor in vitamin D causes skin to lighten over time.

Children with light skin need only exposure to sunlight for 10-20 minutes to produce vitamin D for the whole day (Photo: Daily mail)

The relationship between skin color and vitamin D caused by sunlight has been mentioned for a long time. Anthropologists believe that our ancestors used to live in areas near the equator before moving to the less sunlit areas to the north. During the settlement of the sunny areas, their skin color gradually fades to produce more vitamin D.

If the University of Oslo hypothesis is correct, we can say that the ancient inhabitants of Europe used to have dark skin.

Johan Moan, an expert at the British Institute of Physics, told Daily Mail: ' In the UK, about 5,200 to 5,500 years ago fish is no longer an important source of food. That situation makes the skin color brighten very fast . '

Richard Setlow, a biophysicist working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US, said: ' The high cold and latitude climate causes the amount of vitamin D in humans to decrease. So the skin must be less dark to produce more vitamin D. '

According to the Daily Mail , children with light skin need only exposure to sunlight for 10-20 minutes to produce vitamin D for the entire day. Meanwhile, sunscreen pigments in colored children take four times as long to produce enough vitamin D.

Milk, fish and some other foods are rich in vitamin D but they only account for a small percentage of our diet. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to bone, cancer, type 1 diabetes and even multiple sclerosis.