The Cooking Hypothesis
Richard Wrangham is a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University and the author of “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.” Wrangham presents a relatively new theory on human evolution called the "cooking hypothesis." This theory proposes that our brain became significantly larger than our ancestor's because of cooking with fire. This change occurred with Homo erectus at 1.8 million years ago, as they were the first to learn how to tame and cook with fire.
Cooking had a profound evolutionary effect because it allowed our human ancestors the ability to process food more efficiently. This allowed for less time spent on foraging, chewing, and processing foods. Wrangham states that “The extra energy gave the first cooks biological advantages. They survived and reproduced better than before. Their genes spread. Their bodies responded by biologically adapting to cooked food, shaped by natural selection to take maximum advantage of the new diet. There were changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology and society.” Put simply, cooking allowed for predigesting foods. This made eating easier and quicker for our guts to absorb calories due to the fact that eating cooked meat instead of raw meat, takes less energy to digest. Cooked meat increased energy that would have been otherwise used to chew raw foods throughout the day and allowed for a smaller more efficient digestive tract. Considering this change, less energy was spent in digesting foods and instead was diverted toward the expansion of the brain.
Cooking had a profound evolutionary effect because it allowed our human ancestors the ability to process food more efficiently. This allowed for less time spent on foraging, chewing, and processing foods. Wrangham states that “The extra energy gave the first cooks biological advantages. They survived and reproduced better than before. Their genes spread. Their bodies responded by biologically adapting to cooked food, shaped by natural selection to take maximum advantage of the new diet. There were changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology and society.” Put simply, cooking allowed for predigesting foods. This made eating easier and quicker for our guts to absorb calories due to the fact that eating cooked meat instead of raw meat, takes less energy to digest. Cooked meat increased energy that would have been otherwise used to chew raw foods throughout the day and allowed for a smaller more efficient digestive tract. Considering this change, less energy was spent in digesting foods and instead was diverted toward the expansion of the brain.
Sources
Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. New York: Basic Books.
Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. New York: Basic Books.
