Sugar power: the full story of brain development in humans
A new study published in Science suggests that human brain expansion was fueled by a dual-fuel strategy of both meat and natural sugars. This challenges the traditional view that meat consumption was the sole driver of evolutionary brain growth.
Why it matters
This research provides a more nuanced understanding of human evolutionary history and the dietary requirements that shaped modern human biology.
Was it meat or glucose that fueled the growth of the human brain? If evolutionary science told us, hitherto, that human brain expansion relied on meat to grow, a new study has an interesting addition to this theory. Published in a recent issue of Science , the study posits a dual fuel strategy - sugar and meat - as having powered brain expansion in humans.
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