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> We had big brains before we discovered fire. Homo Erectus had a much smaller brain than us. And the cooking theory seems fairly well accepted these days. S
by grondilu 9y ago
> We had big brains before we discovered fire.
Homo Erectus had a much smaller brain than us. And the cooking theory seems fairly well accepted these days.
Someone once made the calculus that if you had to grow and sustain your brain with just raw food, you'd have to eat like 18 hours a day or something (can't recall the exact number). That would not give you much time to actually use that brain. It's hard not to conclude on the importance of cooking in the evolution of our brain.
There's a TED conf on the subject, if you want:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_XH1CBzGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_XH1CBzGw
- srtjstjsj 9y agoHow to raw-food diet people survive? A diet of raw eggs would easily sustain, for a few minutes eating per day.
- grondilu 9y agoOf course it depends on what you eat. If you eat protein-rich food like eggs, I guess you can eat them raw and get what you need in short time. The calculus I was mentioning was based on assumptions regarding the kind of aliments you'd typically eat in paleolithical time or something. I believe it was in BBC's the origin of us[1], but I'm not sure. They took the example of carrots but I vaguely recall they generalize to a bunch of aliments. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_Us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_Us
- pixl97 9y agoA diet of eggs from what farm? I don't belive you have any idea how much work it is to gather eggs when birds go to great lengths to hide them from predators. Also, eggs are very seasonal in most places. They are not a reliable food source.