Jan 12, 2015
Title: 'Tasty': How Flavor Helped Make Us Human.
Author: NPR Staff
Website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/01/08/375932038/tasty-how-flavor-helped-makes-us-human
Date of Article's Publication: January 11, 2015
Summary:
It is true that in today's society, there seems to be an obsession with food. The term "foodie" is a popular term coined to describe all the food lovers out there. In a new book, The Art and Science of What We Eat, written by John McQuaid, the author describes how in an evolutionary standpoint, flavor has helped define who we are as a species. Billions of years ago when primitive life forms were roaming around the earth, and of course with the means of evolution, they had to compete with other primitive life forms in order to survive. To outcompete your fellow primitive creatures, you had to have sharper senses. If you had those sharper senses, that meant you would need a bigger, smarter brain for you to process those senses. For humans, bigger brains evolved after the beginnings of raw meat consumption, because raw meat had much more calories and fat opposed to fruits, nuts, veggies that were the main staples of their diet. It is an idea that the nutrients in the meat helped grow the brain. Another big part of the growth of the brain was cooking the meat, which allowed calories more easily available due to the meat being easier to chew and digest. As human's brains grew, so did their appreciation for food, therefore improving the taste of their food.
Analysis:
This article connects with our current study of evolution. This article discusses the hand in hand correspondence between the taste of food and human evolution. Along with that, came the evolution of food as well. As we humans began eating more complex foods, such as meat, it allowed our brains to grow supposedly. This allowed us to outcompete our competitors and also slowly change our diets, therefore the evolution of human diet. The "fittest" of the humans who are able to grow their brains and able to consume more calories are the ones who are able to pass on their "bigger brains" to offspring. This can get much more complex because once humans start eating meat, there is a new predator to animals, therefore more ways an animal can also evolve are introduced. My conclusion is that since we are a new predator, animals will now find ways to protect themselves and adapt to their new environment involving humans. Now the fittest for humans and animals and even plants will now survive. An example for plants are that plants can evolve to become more poisonous to fend from humans.
If bigger and smarter brains evolved after the beginnings of raw meat consumption, then, since there are other larger mammals that also consume raw meat, what led human to eat raw meat? And is there any other factors that led to the development of human brains, besides the consumption of better food?
ReplyDeleteMatthew,
DeleteI think what led humans to eat raw meat was its availability and the fact that humans were smart enough to learn how to hunt and gather. There is a hypothesis that says that after humans began to cook the meat, our brains started growing bigger. From that other features of our bodies began to evolve like our smaller stomachs and teeth.
Based on an article on live science, other factors that led to the development to human brains is climate change. The unpredictable weather may have increased the ability for primitive humans to think ahead and prepare. Moving away from the equator led to the discovery of less food and other resources which means humans had to think on their feet to survive the difference. Another idea is decreased rate of cell death which may have allowed more brain neurons to be synthesized. (http://www.livescience.com/5540-human-brains-big.html)
How long did it take for the human brain to develop the size it is today? Do you believe that the consumption of meat, both raw and cooked, could lead to other organisms to develop "bigger brains"?
ReplyDeleteSarah,
DeleteAcross seven million years, the human brain has tripled in its brain size and most of this growth has occurred in the past two million. For 2/3 of our human history, the size of our ancestors' brains have been that of an apes. According to this article I found, a professor has said that in the last 10,000 years human existence has shrank our brains..This is mostly due to limited nutrition in agricultural populations, but this is still different to industrial populations. The future is unknown though for brain size. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-has-human-brain-evolved/)
I think that human's got the advantage of bigger brains from eating cooked meat, because they learnt how to cook the meat. Then they began to cook other foods such as vegetables. The meat therefore being cooked effectively predigested the food, allowing easier/faster absorption of the calories. This is based solely on a hypothesis. Maybe humans began to cook their food after their brains grew. I believe cooked meat could possibly help other organisms grow their brains if their bodies are able to adapt to it. Our small teeth, weak jaws, and small stomach has made us dependent on cooked food.