How did early humans know what to eat?

Answer 1

Even if you were to receive no instruction about food from your parents or from human society in general, you still have a sense of taste. Young children like to put things in their mouths and find out what they taste like. When they find something that tastes good to them, they will want to eat it.

Of course, the experimental approach to eating does have its risks, and people can wind up making themselves sick, or even dying, by eating the wrong thing (or by failing to eat enough of the right things). But although some individuals die, the human race lives on.

Answer 2

Early humans likely learned about what to eat through trial and error, observation of animals, and cultural transmission from generation to generation. They likely relied on their senses, such as taste and smell, to determine whether a food was safe to eat or not. Over time, they developed knowledge of edible plants, animals, and other food sources.