Fascinating theory that cooking "made us human"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s both a book and a BBC documentary, and for anthropology geeks it’s fascinating. For anthropology geeks who are also on some level food geeks, it’s a damn bonanza of fascination.

The fundamental idea is simple: cooking is an enormous advance because it makes far more calories available to the body, and having boatloads more calories available so easily leads to a number of changes that end with homo sapiens ruling the planet.

It’s also an interesting answer to raw food fans that amounts to: yeah, not so much.

2

This is not exactly a new or revolutionary idea.

3

The documentary looks interesting and worth a watch. Love BBC documentaries in general.

4

I’m only seeing a link for a 15 minute clip - is there a link to the entire documentary?

5

Here you go. The first of 4 (the rest are on the right).

6

Then it’s very likely you won’t find the book or documentary fascinating. I recommend you skip them.

7

Yep! Loves me some BBC Docs. X10 if it features Sir David. Indeed…

In the first part they talk about the experiment that was done awhile back that I heard about someplace else, where volunteers ate like apes: only fresh, raw fruits and vegetables for all their calories. The results are interesting, not least the rampant jaw pain from all the damn chewing!

8

Talk of the Nation “Science Friday” had him on back in 2009.