Tag: Cooking hypothesis

According to the 'expensive-tissue hypothesis,' the energy demands of a larger brain were offset by a reduction in the size of the digestive tract, a trade-off made possible by a shift to a more nutrient-dense diet. This illustrates precisely how does nutrition help in evolution, driving significant anatomical and physiological changes over millennia.

Recent archaeological evidence suggests that early hominins, like *Homo erectus*, may have controlled fire and cooked food as far back as 780,000 years ago, drastically reshaping their evolutionary path. The 'cooking hypothesis' argues this innovation was a pivotal turning point in human history, driving significant biological and social changes.