# Why do humans cook their food? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2023, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846 "2023-10-20T16:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/21 "2023-10-20T17:47:36Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > I’ve heard it said that we’re supposed to be vegetarians, since we can’t eat raw flesh. But I think that statement has many flaws. For one, humans can and do eat raw meat. Additionally, we do derive benefit from eating animal products, even if we cook them first. Humans can consume most raw fresh mammalian, ‘true’ fish, and shellfish that do not contain pathogenic bacteria or human-adaptive parasites without concern. Most concerns about consumption of raw food products is exogenous bacterial contamination during the butchering process or the growth of pathogenic bacteria during an excessive period of unfrozen storage. Raw fowl, reptile, many insects, and gastropods should not be consumed raw because of intracellular pathogens and parasites. Humans are inarguably evolved to consume some amount of meat as evidenced by the length of the colon, which at 20 feet is an intermediate ratio of body torso length as compared to herbivores and obligate carnivores, and also adapted to a microbiome that aids in the digestion of meat products as well as lacking the bacteria and/or features that aid pure herbivores in breaking down lignocellulosic material. If any thing, cooking is more critical for vegetable and some fungal matter that is difficult to break down (or even toxic in some cases) in the the raw state for humans. Prehistoric cooking would have been purely roasting/broiling or primitive baking in pit ‘ovens’; boiling, stewing, and other pot cooking came along with the development of crockery, and later frying, more sophisticated baking, and other modern methods of food cooking to break down indigestible structure, release nutrients, improve flavor and texture for human palates, et cetera. Anyone who has ever tried to subsist on a ‘raw food’ diet can attest to the limitations of what is available, and that is even considering how many fruit and tuber cultivars and processed foods that would not have been available to prehistoric humans and proto-human hominids. The fruits and vegetables found in the produce section of the grocery store are almost all highly modified by millennia of selective breeding and hybridization to provide high density of nutrients (particularly digestible carbohydrates and fats) and do not look or taste much like their naturally evolved antecedents. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/22 "2023-10-20T17:48:06Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Early humans didn’t eat the farm-raised, high-fat, tender meats that thousands of years of domestication have produced. They killed wild game, lean, muscle-filled, and tough to chew. Nor did they have the luxury of choosing just the best parts of the animals; they ate everything, including the parts we mostly throw away today. Good points, and I agree. However, I’m assuming Zimaane isn’t an early human so, by our modern standards, he just had some tough beef. Perhaps I should have taken into account that he was in Ethiopia and not the U.S., and it may be harder to get high quality beef there. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/23 "2023-10-20T18:04:30Z")
> [@](#): > > “It was morning when I awoke, and my first care was to visit the fire. I uncovered it, and a gentle breeze quickly fanned it into a flame. I observed this also and contrived a fan of branches, which roused the embers when they were nearly extinguished. When night came again I found, with pleasure, that the fire gave light as well as heat and that the discovery of this element was useful to me in my food, for I found some of the offals that the travellers had left had been roasted, and tasted much more savoury than the berries I gathered from the trees. I tried, therefore, to dress my food in the same manner, placing it on the live embers. I found that the berries were spoiled by this operation, and the nuts and roots much improved. Mary Shelley _Frankenstein_ Chapter 11 From the imagination of a teenage girl trying to see how a created being learns about the world. But I think she got this right – People found that even partially cooked food tasted better and, as noted above, was easier to chew and digest. (Without fire, things like the liver, brains, and bone marrow are easily chewed, but other muscle tissue would put up a fight. I just re-read _King Solomon’s Mines_, and it annoyed me that the starving heroes – who had no fire – deliberately ate the heart of an animal they killed, which has to be the toughest chewing they could have chosen, but say nothing about these easier-to-chew morsels.) In addition, his mentioning nuts is significant’ Not only does the taste change, but cooking nuts and grains will prevent them from sprouting. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/24 "2023-10-20T18:05:22Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > I posted before what sounds to me a reliable link saying that cooking increases the calories of meat. This would explain why cooking evolved for meat (while not proving whether the evolution is genetic, or just cultural, with meat-cooking cultures surviving). Interesting stuff. I’ve also read that cooking eggs improves the body’s ability to utilize its protein and other nutrients. > [@](#): > > Cooking eggs makes them safer to eat, and it also makes some of their nutrients easier to digest. > > One example of this is the [protein](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-per-day/) in eggs. > > Studies have shown it becomes more digestible when it’s heated ([3Trusted Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24584862)). > > In fact, one study found that the human body could use 91% of the protein in cooked eggs, compared to only 51% in [raw eggs](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eating-raw-eggs/) ([4Trusted Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9772141)). > > This change in digestibility is thought to occur because heat causes structural changes in the egg proteins. > > In raw eggs, the large protein compounds are separate from each other and curled up in complex, twisted structures. > > When the proteins are cooked, heat breaks the weak bonds that hold them in shape. > > The proteins then form new bonds with other proteins around them. These new bonds in the cooked egg are easier for your body to digest. > > You can see these changes occurring as the egg white and yolk change from a thick gel to rubbery and firm. > > The protein in raw eggs can also interfere with the availability of the micronutrient biotin. > > Eggs are a good source of biotin, which is an important nutrient used in fat and sugar metabolism. It’s also known as vitamin B7, or vitamin H. > > In raw eggs, a protein in the egg whites called avidin binds to biotin, making it unavailable for your body to use. > > However, when eggs are cooked, the heat causes structural changes to avidin, making it less effective at binding to biotin. This makes biotin easier to absorb. > **[What Is the Healthiest Way to Cook and Eat Eggs?](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eating-healthy-eggs)** > > Eggs are a superfood, but not all cooking methods are equal. Here are the healthiest ways to cook and eat eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/25 "2023-10-20T18:34:30Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Since then I googled to see if cooking changes the calories of fruit, vegetables, and grains – without finding clear and convincing results. It unarguably does for starchy vegetables like tubers by making those starches easier to digest. [Evidence suggests that it works for lipids as well.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4272645/). So proteins, carbohydrates and fats all become easier to digest with cooking. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/26 "2023-10-20T18:38:51Z")
It was actually in the United States. Iirc, it was the leg of a cow hanging on a hook, and someone with a sharp knife went up and removed small pieces that were passed around, with a dry rub of spices. There was also kitfo, raw marinated ground beef that was quite tender and much nicer to eat. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/27 "2023-10-20T18:39:42Z")
I’ve eaten plenty of raw beef in the form of tartare, as well as very rare (blue) steaks. If it’s a good cut of meat, it’s easy to chew and can be very tasty with good seasoning. I’ve also eaten a wide variety of raw fish sushi, nigiri, and sashimi. I find them very easy to chew, and delicious. I wonder if cooking was used partly to preserve fresh foods. Cooked food remaining edible for a time after cooking. > [@Jasmine](#): > > I guess that’s why I made that connection because most places, here in Chicagoland at least, are the same in that regard. That’s very surprising to me. They don’t have any vegetarian options? They don’t have any tempura shrimp, softshell crab, ebi nigiri, unagi nigiri, tamago nigiri, California roll, etc.? I’d be surprised by one sushi restaurant like that, and the idea that all of them in your area are is really unbelievable to me. ETA: looking at the menu online, assuming it’s the right place, there’s a variety of cooked things -tempura shrimp and softshell crab, crab, deep fried fish, and unagi. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/28 "2023-10-20T18:46:58Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > I’d be surprised by one sushi restaurant like that, and the idea that all of them in your area are is really unbelievable to me. I live in Chicago, and I’ve been to a reasonable number of sushi places around here, and they all have non raw-fish options. A sushi place that doesn’t serve, say, tamago (omelet/egg), I would not trust. And tempura shrimp or unagi is pretty standard for the folks who want cooked fish. It’s possible I’ve been to a place that didn’t have all three, but I can’t think of it. And, of course, vegetable rolls with no fish/meat in them. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/29 "2023-10-20T18:55:07Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > That’s very surprising to me. They don’t have any vegetarian options? They don’t have any tempura I didn’t say they didn’t have any, but I guess it was the dozen or so raw fish offerings that colored my view. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/30 "2023-10-20T18:55:15Z")
Honestly, my prejudice as someone who’s lived near an ocean all my life shows in that I’d expect the opposite – that sushi places in a deep inland area would be more likely to serve _more_ cooked options. But I’m know that fish that’s to be served raw is deep frozen, so really it could go anywhere. And yes, I would think a place without tamago and, to me, unagi, would be very unusual. It’s interesting in the context of the OP that, even in a cuisine where raw protein is common, there are also many cooked proteins. I wonder if there’s a difference in when they developed. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/31 "2023-10-20T18:57:46Z")
A leg?! Legs are very muscly because they are working almost constantly. No wonder it was tough! ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/32 "2023-10-20T19:00:52Z")
Below is a copy and paste from the Wu’s House I went to last night. Fish galore. Crab Stick Sushi $7.95 Shrimp Sushi $8.95 Red Snapper Sushi $8.95 Squid Sushi $8.95 Mackerel Sushi $9.25 Stripe Bass Sushi $9.25 Octopus Sushi $9.25 Tuna Sushi $9.50 Salmon Sushi $9.50 Yellowtail Sushi $9.50 White Tuna Sushi $9.50 Fluke Sushi $9.95 Smoked Salmon Sushi $9.95 Eel Sushi $9.95 Red Clam Sushi $9.95 Salmon Roe Sushi $9.95 Sweet Shrimp Sushi $15.95 Scallop Sushi $13.95 Spicy Scallop Sushi $14.95 Fatty Tuna [Toro] Sushi Ask available before order $16.95 Masago Sushi ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/33 "2023-10-20T19:00:53Z")
As I understand, the “Just So Story” of evolutionary cuisine goes something like this - early humans would come down from the trees into the nearby savannah to forage. One of the things they found was the carcasses of fresh kills abandoned by larger predators. After a day or so in the hot sun, the meat was breaking down, easier to chew. As humans evolved further, a gradual process - they learned to use fire to reproduce the same effect on fresh kills - so we’ve never heavily adapted to eating raw meat. We also figured out how to do the same to vegetables. (One example was that to extract sufficient nutrition from shoots and roots, herbivorous gorillas chew about 11 hours a day. We are faster eaters.) Also, the concentration of protein from meat eating helps feed our large brains, which use a third or so of the calories we consume. Bigger brains made us smarter hunters, and better tool users, making sharp-edged stone knives for turning carcasses into meals. Presumably, cooking veggies in the mix was a fortuitous discovery that they were easier to chew and digest also. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/34 "2023-10-20T19:08:16Z")
Crab stick, shrimp\*, smoked salmon, and eel are all cooked. And if you scroll down to the rolls, you’ll see the tempura, deep fried fish\*\*, and eel rolls. \*Shrimp can possibly be uncooked, but only if it is amaebi. ETA: \*\* I think I misinterpreted the 007 roll. The whole roll is deep fried, rather than it being made with deep fried white tuna. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/35 "2023-10-20T19:12:50Z")
From what I’ve read over the years, it seems sushi started out maybe in the 4th century with the Chinese, and was fish that was fermented (and thus preserved) in fermented rice. It wasn’t until the 19th century or so that the modern nigiri sushi started taking shape, with the raw fish and vinegared rice. So the food there went from a preserved form to a raw form. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/36 "2023-10-20T19:23:52Z")
That makes sense in a way, that more of a luxury or special occasion item developed from a very practical form. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/37 "2023-10-20T20:15:11Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > As I understand, the “Just So Story” of evolutionary cuisine goes something like this - early humans would come down from the trees into the nearby savannah to forage. One of the things they found was the carcasses of fresh kills abandoned by larger predators. After a day or so in the hot sun, the meat was breaking down, easier to chew. As humans evolved further, a gradual process - they learned to use fire to reproduce the same effect on fresh kills - so we’ve never heavily adapted to eating raw meat. Well, that is a “Just-So Story” alright. Unfortunately, it doesn’t match the available evidence. While hominids (and humans up to the advent of agriculture) are opportunistic scavengers, there is little evidence of routine secondary carrion consumption, and humans do not have any of the characteristics associated with carrion-eaters (sharp beaks and claws for tearing, regurgitation of food to aid in digestion and feeding of young, defensive measures to compete with other carrion-eaters, immunological resistance to pathgenic bacteria and the toxins they produce which are typically found in decaying bodies). Most paleoanthropologists believe that early hominids started getting more protein than ape cousins by collection shellfish and capturing sealife trapped in tide pools which could be eaten raw, then later moved onto deliberate harvesting and hunting going back to over 2 MYA. The breakdown and purification of meat by natural catabolism is not much like even primitive cooking, and pathogenic bacteria such as _Escherichia coli_ and _Clostridium botulinum_ are ever-present in entrails and the soil, and would have been just as harmful to early humans as they are to modern ones. It is debatable whether early humans would find the taste of moderately spoiled meat as objectionable as we do, but they certainly wouldn’t find meat that has become rancid and cadaverinous to be appetizing. Although the availability of protein is certainly a key contributor to human evolution and brain size, the human brain consumes between 350 and 450 calories per day but primarily in the form of glucose, which is one of the reasons we are naturally hungry for sweet foods and sugar. Large lipoprotein intake in terms of brain function is mostly an issue of natal and early childhood development, and the brain can function effectively on a relatively modest protein intake compared to protein needs for the haematopoietic system and tissue maintenance/regeneration. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/38 "2023-10-20T21:54:17Z")
Something to note is that you don’t need pots to boil foods as it’s possible to use an animal skin to do the job. It’s entirely possible our ancestors consumed some sort of rudimentary soup long before they invented the pot. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/39 "2023-10-20T23:30:48Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > you don’t need pots to boil foods as it’s possible to use an animal skin to do the job. I believe yogurt is credited as being made by Mongolians who would put milk in animal bladders and allow it to ferment. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846/40 "2023-10-20T23:53:46Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Something to note is that you don’t need pots to boil foods as it’s possible to use an animal skin to do the job. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O5yXTBGYbuM/maxresdefault.jpg "The Highlander: Haggis") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5yXTBGYbuM) While you could certainly bake food in an animal’s stomach and you might be able to get a stew simmering, any organic ‘vessel’ is going to break down pretty quickly under enough heat to boil water within it. This is why pottery for cooking, serving, and storing food was such a great technological advance in human evolution. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-cook-their-food/991846.md?page=3)