The human brain accounts for about 2% of the body’s weight, but it requires about 25% of our energy supplies. So a quarter of everything we eat is used to keep our brains working. Evolutionarily, that is sort of interesting. Our ancestors were able to develop their brains because they found a way to make their food gathering more efficient.
One of the ways they managed that was through the discovery of fire and the invention of cooked food. Cooking rendered many foods more easily digestible, so the supplies that primitive humans had were made more efficient without having to increase the actual food supply. This was probably the instigator. After that, it seems as though the escalation was inevitable. People get smarter, come up with a better way to raise food, more food allows their brains to develop more, and they invent another way raise food better.
So, in a very real way, the more food available, the smarter humans were able to become.
Fast forward to today. Food is more available now as it has ever been – everything is always in season somewhere. Markets carry goods now that were unimaginably exotic even ten years ago. Food is so available that obesity is becoming a “national health crisis” even.
So why don’t we seem to be getting any smarter?
No comments:
Post a Comment