Cooking Stimulated Cognitive Spurt In Humans

Cooking Stimulated Cognitive Spurt In Humans: "Prehistoric man's invention of cooking could be a major factor in us getting smarter, according to Live Science. About two million years ago, the human brain rapidly doubled in size from other primate brains and researcher Philipp Khaitovich of the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai thinks it's 'because we started to eat better food' like 'more meat.'

'For a long time, we were pretty dumb,' he says. But about 150,000 years ago, 'our big brains suddenly got smart.' Why did we start experimenting with bone and invent new tools like needles for beadwork? Because of an increased access to calories, explains Khaitovich. 'Eating (mostly) cooked meals would have lessened the energy needs of our digestion systems, thereby freeing up calories for our brains.' Khaitovich and colleagues thank the emergence of prehistoric 'Iron Chefs' who developed the first hearths about 200,000 years ago.

Since this research doesn't really back the raw food movement, you should probably put down that celery stalk if you want future generations to be smarter."