Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human- on NPR

[jwoodin84]

http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/06/cooking-and-human-evolution

Just wondering if anyone else heard this or maybe has read the book and has any thoughts on it.

Jeffrey

[Green_Woman]

I don't ascribe to the Theory. ;)

ETA/ of Evolution of humankind from primitive to "modern"...

[Gaius]

Ah, NPR. The left-wing misinformation equivalent of Fox News. Even us lefties get propaganda aimed at us.

[Green_Woman]

Tee hee hee.

Agreed.

What I do enjoy from NPR is their cultural profiles... I love listening to the sounds of a foreign city and picturing the colors. :)

[Ilse W.]

Ignorant comments don't answer the poster's question. It sounds like a fascinating book by an intelligent author/Harvard professor. Unfortunately, I have neither listened to it nor read the book, but as an anthropology major I'm interested enough to find it in the NPR archives and take a listen.
Thanks for the link.

[T-Bird]

I'm with Emma......

Cooking may have played a key part in the development of civilization. People like to eat complex cooked food, who knew?:D I haven't read up on it, but seems like an interesting topic. Every culture has their cuisine of 100's - 1000's of years. It's the giving up of my vegan versions of my grandmother's recipes that hurt the most honestly.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Cooking is not a dirty word. We are just choosing a new cuisine for the future. No one speaks latin as their primary language anymore - yet it has left an indelible print on human history and is worthy of study.

[katacykls]

"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Cooking is not a dirty word. We are just choosing a new cuisine for the future. No one speaks latin as their primary language anymore - yet it has left an indelible print on human history and is worthy of study."-Beautifully said !:p

[Green_Woman]

I apologize.

I didn't comment further because my opinion is not in-line with the mainstream theories, not because I am ignorant. :) I have spent many a semester studying the science of our planet and humanity, and as I said - I enjoy much of NPR's offerings... but I do not accept as fact all that they present, as they are a steeped-in-bias news organization.

I think even the folks at NPR would understand that, as they are, as I have been in the past, journalists. ;)

I would argue that, based on historic records, cultures that cook their food have been somewhat less healthy than cultures that eat mostly raw, whole foods.

A certain island peoples of Japan who subsist on vegetables, rice, and fish springs to mind as #1 in Health, and a certain European culture indulgent in cooked meats springs to mind as #....certainly not 1.

[Green_Woman]

P.S. By saying "I don't ascribe to the theory", I am referring to the simple belief I hold that we were created human, from Day#1, and cooking and apes had nothing to do with it. ;)

[Ilse W.]

Green Woman - your "beef" should be with the author of the book, not NPR. And your other argument is a religious one, which (in my opinion) has nothing to do with reality, but your individual way of dealing with your fears. I guess you subscribe to the idea that the universe was created a few thousand years ago? Well, why then do you eat raw food? All through "biblical times" people ate their food cooked.

[gabriele]

I'm with you Emma.

I believe that humans evolved from apes and ate all raw foods.

I believe that someone discovered fire by accident and discovered cooked foods by accident also. I can't think of another animal that cooks it's food. Or drinks the milk of another species. I also can't think of another animal that doesn't instinctively know exactly what to eat, every day. We don't, we have to read books and have internet blogs to learn what's good for our bodies.

I also believe that the first "humans" were HUNTED, not hunters, as they don't have claws, fangs or even speed when running, and spent considerable time being chased by predators (and eaten!). I think they started hunting out of desperation when they left their place of origin and had to eat meat to survive places that didn't have the vegetation their bodies were evolved to eat originally.

I'm not against cooking rice or bread or grains, if you want to, i just think that the best diet is probably the one that most closely resembles what early "humans" would have eaten before they started altering their food so much that today it is not even recognizable. Just because people have been charbroiling their meat for hundreds of years of more doesn't make it something that is good for human bodies.

i don't know if i said any of this articulately...... :(

[RawYorkCity]

I suppose I'll read this book, because I'm skeptical of this theory. If I don't eat cooked food will I become nonhuman? I think cooking "makes" us human not biologically, but in a sense that it is part of our culture and traditions.

[DeborahB]

I believe that cooking had a huge part to play in human evolution. It meant that food could be stored and eaten at a later date, rather than eating it there and then. Which would have led to numbers of humans increasing.
Cooking meat meant that the bones could be cooked and the bone marrow more easily eaten (brain food). Which would have led to greater brain growth.
Fire meant that humans could socialise, which formed communities, which led to greater intelligence (I always believe that intelligence breeds intelligence). And humans socialising together in larger groups would have had a greater impact upon their intelligence than small social groups of humans.
The above things combined probably created a "tipping point" for human development, all the factors worked together.

HOWEVER

I do believe that we live in an intellectually advanced society today and we have the intelligence and knowledge to know where to get nutrients from alternative sources to cooking bones.
Also, I believe that eating raw helps to form communities in a society where people don't feel comfortable or don't want to be part of a community. Eating raw makes people more socially open.

Perhaps human evolution is a cycle. It is older than any one of us and who knows what eating methods we will use in the future?

[HolyGuacamole]

I would think this would be of interest to anyone in the raw food community, and to anyone with even a passing interest in anthropology. I'll be reading it. Thanks for posting.

[TeaRose]

I heard this on NPR the other day and thought it was fascinating. I'm just getting into eating raw, so I was very interested in hearing what this gentleman had to say. It seemed like he had some good points. If you believe in evolution, it seems to make sense that learning to cook food(among other things) aided humans in becoming what we are today. That being said, it doesn't seem to me like there's currently any reason we need to cook our food.

Either way, I found the interview to be very interesting.

[RawHeaven]

fascinating article and something interesting to contemplate. I believe it's true tapping into the information contained in the DNA of my cells and my sixth sense. However, I believe the way people "cooked" let's say 3000 years ago varies tremendously from the way humans cook their food in 2009. their food was prepared differently and with more of a connection to nature and the animals. similar to how the native americans are in communion with the animals before they are slaughtered. they have a ceremony and ask the animal's spirit if they may prepare them for food. whereas today it's straight up vicious murder. they (most indigenous peoples of the world) were also consuming much more greens, raw foods, vegetables, fruit, growing their own food, etc. processed food and chemical additives to prepare food did not exist ~ this has to account for something.

I also think we're in the midst of another evolution right now with regard to the food we're consuming collectively and based on how our bodies have evolved. perhaps we are in a place where it's no longer necessary to eat meat and other foods. it could attest for the epidemic cancer, heart disease, diabetes issues we're experiencing right now. in other words, perhaps there was a time when we were okay eating meat and the other foods that had no impact on the human body. it seems going back to the basics and eating raw foods seems to be what is opening up in collective consciousness. certainly by how i'm feeling in my body is speaking volumes to me. ahh the beauty of life...history...cultural & physical anthropology and all of that good stuff. seems to be a circle that continually unfolds upon itself. always something great to look forward to...human beings rock and the human body is quite fascinating in and of itself.

I also concur with green woman that if you look at history, it's clear that those cultures and societies that have eaten more raw foods, sea foods etc appear to be the most healthy and with the most longevity. that coupled with how they treated one another and the community connection.

[RawHeaven]

just for clarities sake....irregardless of when we started cooking, even if it helped us "evolve", i don't personally believe we're supposed to be eating raw or cooked flesh...then or now. human beings are not carnivorous. i believe the love of meat is more emotionally based than anything else and a true addiction. just my opinion.

[Green_Woman]

Green Woman - your "beef" should be with the author of the book, not NPR. And your other argument is a religious one, which (in my opinion) has nothing to do with reality, but your individual way of dealing with your fears. I guess you subscribe to the idea that the universe was created a few thousand years ago? Well, why then do you eat raw food? All through "biblical times" people ate their food cooked.


I have no beef - I'm a vegan. ;)

I eat raw food because it's my path to wellness and wholeness. Why do you eat raw foods? :)

P.S. I didn't attack you, or your beliefs. Show me the same respect, human to human, regardless your personal take on history and the origin of Man. And even if you don't, that's fine. I'll still show you respect. :)

[annavon]

P.S. By saying "I don't ascribe to the theory", I am referring to the simple belief I hold that we were created human, from Day#1, and cooking and apes had nothing to do with it. ;)

I agree with you. That was exactly my thought when I read the subtitle of the book.