Early Humans Likely Ate Carbs and Sugary Foods
A new study suggests that early human brain evolution was driven significantly by the consumption of carbohydrates and sugars from fruits and honey. This challenges the traditional view that meat-eating and cooking were the primary drivers of brain growth.
Why it matters
Understanding the dietary foundations of human evolution provides critical insights into modern nutritional science and the biological requirements of the human brain.
Compared with other primates like chimpanzees and gorillas, humans have very big brains.
Nearly 4 million years ago, Lucy —a member of one of the earliest human species, Australopithecus afarensis —had a brain that weighed 380 grams, the same as an adult chimpanzee today. Modern Homo sapiens , however, which emerged around 300,000 years ago, boast a brain weighing a whopping 1,500 grams.
How did humans evolve to have such large and useful brains? A lot of attention has been given to meat-eating and the advent of cooking , which made meat far easier to chew and digest. Because animal proteins are so calorie-dense, the explanation goes, all of the excess energy from meat could be used to power our growing brains.
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