Cooking hypothesis

Last month we were introduced to a book by Richard Wrangham, an evolutionary biologist.  Wrangham, now at Harvard, argues that humans are the first species to evolve as a direct consequence of technology.  He says that a human predecessor developed the ability to make fire on command and as a consequence homo habilis or one of our ancestors was able to vastly increase the available calories in the environment since meat and greens are more digestible cooked. We have neither the teeth nor the guts to survive on either without cooking.

I ordinarily scoff at the field of evolutionary biology because the theses advanced are based on untestable theorems.  Not so with Wrangham's.  At the moment I can't find a good source, but there must be one on the earliest evidence of a fire pit and flints.  When we find such evidence it will be a way to positively support Wrangham's very interesting thesis.

Comments

[researchpaper]

guide which shows hundreds of foods that have few or no human calories from eating raw and plenty after cooking.

[term paper writing]

The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.

[term paper writing]

The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.

[Alex]

Michael, I hate to tell you, but you've just replied to spam. These "online retailers" pay pennies to people in India with rudimentary English skills to pump out gazillions of silly little phrases in comment fields on blogs and media sites, expecting that a small percentage of readers will click on the username out of curiosity. In this instance, the username is "online pharmacy", a code name for viagra/levitra/etc.

[M. Phillips]

The simplest evidence I have access to is my Weight Watcher's guide which shows hundreds of foods that have few or no human calories from eating raw and plenty after cooking.

[Alex]

An interesting corollary to Wrangham's hypothesis on cooked food:

The RAW food diet is a fad.