Ten thousand years ago many communities in western Asia stopped procuring food by hunting and gathering and began instead to cultivate food. Archaeological evidence reveals that compared to their hunter-gatherer forebears, the early agricultural peoples ate a poorly balanced diet and had diet-related health problems, yet these peoples never returned to hunting and gathering.
An increase in population density at the time required a higher food production rate than hunting and gathering could provide most helps to explain why the agricultural peoples of western Asia never returned to hunting and gathering.