{"id":259,"date":"2020-10-22T14:40:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T14:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preprod.cookingenie.com\/content\/?p=259"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:43:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T13:13:54","slug":"made-to-cook-the-cooking-hypothesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qa.cookingenie.com\/content\/blog\/made-to-cook-the-cooking-hypothesis\/","title":{"rendered":"Made to Cook: The Cooking Hypothesis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What makes us human? Some would argue<\/span> that<\/span> it\u2019s<\/span> the act of<\/span> cooking \u2014<\/span> whether it\u2019s boiling, broiling, roasting, baking, or barbecuing \u2014 that separates us from every other species on Earth.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/span>In 1999, Harvard professor of biological anthropology Richard Wrangham published a<\/span>n article in <\/span>the <\/span>Current Anthropology <\/span><\/i>journal c<\/span>alled \u201cThe Raw <\/span>and <\/span>the Stolen: Cooking and the Ecology of Human Origins<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d<\/span> Known as \u201cthe cooking hypothesis,\u201d Wrangham\u2019s <\/span>groundbreaking new <\/span>theory <\/span>of human evolution <\/span>proposed that <\/span>taming fire to cook food <\/span>changed the course of human evolution.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/span>In his article and his 2009 book <\/span>Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, <\/span><\/i>Wrangham argued that cooking allowed our human ancestors to process food more efficiently \u2014 and <\/span>this change <\/span>had a profound impact on <\/span>evolution. While all other animals eat raw foods,<\/span> Wrangham theorize<\/span>d<\/span> that<\/span> our ancestors<\/span> <\/span><\/i>began cooking their food <\/span>some 1.8<\/span> million years ago, a change that gave early man the ability to process food more efficiently.<\/span> It takes a long time, and a very large jaw and teeth, to grind down raw meat and plant matter.<\/span> <\/span>Before our ancestors learned how to cook, Wrangham estimate<\/span>d<\/span> that half of their waking hours were spent simply chewing<\/span> enough food to subsi<\/span>st<\/span>, leaving little time for anything else. Cooking alters the chemical structure of food, <\/span>breaking down the connective tissues in meat, and soften<\/span>ing<\/span> the cells of plants to release their starches and fats. This makes cooked food <\/span>easier to chew and digest<\/span>. This also<\/span> <\/span>help<\/span>s <\/span>the body to use <\/span>less energy <\/span>to convert<\/span> food into calories. Once the cooking was introduced, he estimate<\/span>d<\/span> that our ancestors had an extra four hours in their day \u2014 time that could be spent hunting<\/span>, <\/span>foraging<\/span>, and <\/span>slowly beginning to <\/span>organiz<\/span>e <\/span>into societies<\/span>. <\/span>W<\/span>rangham <\/span>explained<\/span>, \u201c<\/span>The extra energy gave the first cooks biological advantages. They survived and reproduced better than before. Their genes spread. Their bodies responded by biologically adapting to cooked food, shaped by natural selection to take maximum advantage of the new diet<\/a>. There were changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology, and society.\u201d<\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This<\/span> higher calorie, higher-quality diet lead to the <\/span>evolution <\/span>of bigger brains<\/span> and bodies<\/span>, and smaller jaws and teeth<\/span>\u2014a transformation that <\/span>gradually <\/span>resulted in modern man. <\/span>From the control of fire<\/span> and the growth in brain size<\/span>, it\u2019s not such a large leap to the development of dedicated hearths, the introduction of pottery and other tools for cooking, and the domestication of plants and animals. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Also Read<\/strong> – What eating healthy looks like)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/span>Wrangham\u2019s theory is, of course, just that: a theory. <\/span>Archaeological history to support control of fire <\/span>1.8 million years ago has<\/span> not yet been found<\/span>, but the recent discovery of ash in a South African cave suggests that <\/span>our ancestors<\/span> were controlling fire at least 1 million years ago \u2014\u202ffar earlier than previous evidence suggest<\/span>ed<\/span>. It may be just a matter of time before definitive evidence that proves Wrangham\u2019s theory is found. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/span>And I<\/span>f<\/span> Wrangham\u2019s theory is correct, we truly are what we eat. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 If cooking is so fundamental to our evolution as people, it is a wonder that we don\u2019t have time to make home-cooked meals with wholesome ingredients. Modern life has created many barriers to our ability to prepare home-cooked meals. What do we do if we don\u2019t have time for home cooking? Businesses like CookinGenie<\/a> can help you bring cooking where it belongs\u2014in your own kitchen\u2014even when you don’t have time to cook yourself. Check out our <\/span>menus<\/span><\/a>, and book your Genie today for building healthy eating habits in the family.  <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes us human? Some would argue that it\u2019s the act of cooking \u2014 whether it\u2019s boiling, broiling, roasting, baking, or barbecuing \u2014 that separates us from every other species on Earth.   In 1999, Harvard professor of biological anthropology Richard Wrangham published an article in the Current Anthropology journal called \u201cThe Raw and the Stolen: Cooking and the Ecology of Human Origins.\u201d Known as \u201cthe cooking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,16,17,18],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-cookingenie","tag-catching-fire","tag-cooking-hypothesis","tag-what-made-us-human"],"yoast_head":"\nMade to Cook: The Cooking Hypothesis - CookinGenie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If\u00a0cooking is so fundamental to our evolution as people,\u00a0it is a wonder that we don\u2019t have time to make\u00a0home-cooked meals\u00a0with\u00a0wholesome ingredients.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Made to Cook: The Cooking Hypothesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If\u00a0cooking is so fundamental to our evolution as people,\u00a0it is a wonder that we don\u2019t have time to make\u00a0home-cooked meals\u00a0with\u00a0wholesome ingredients.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/qa.cookingenie.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CookinGenie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cookingenie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-22T14:40:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-17T13:13:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/qa.cookingenie.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Made-to-Cook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"772\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"444\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sabah Drabu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sabah Drabu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Made to Cook: The Cooking Hypothesis - 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