It looks like we are eternally indebted to our ancestors for discovering the practice of cooking! A new theory by Richard Wrangham of Harvard University suggests that our evolution is actually because of the first cook amongst our ancestors.

According to his theory it is the practice of cooking with fire almost 1.8 million years ago that was the turning point of human evolution! In his recent book  “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human” , Richard Wrangham, suggests that the change in activities from foraging for raw food to cooking it lead to the evolution of humas starting with smaller guts  as well as smaller jaws and teeth which in turn allowed space for an expanding brain.

The biological evidence that he put forward was the smaller digestive tract found in Homoeructus around 1.8 million years ago. According to him this meant that they were have soft, energy rich food. This, according to this evolution theory obviously hints at the practice of cooking and consumption of cooked food. In support of his theory of evolution, Wrangham also sites the fact that it is cooking that makes humans stand apart from our closest ancestors, the apes.

According to the theory, time that was once spent on foraging for and chewing food was suddenly used for cooking. So naturally there was time for  the building of a social structure! Thus, we can also blame the same ancestor who discovered cooking for the process of pairing up or marriage and ensuing typecasting of household roles! I am not so sure about the marriage and household roles but I sure am glad some body figured we could cook. Thanks to cooking and evolution I can intelligently cook and enjoy my chicken casserole!!

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