Nattō power: fermentation increases cranial capacity

[thomas]

Like it or not, according to a study released by the Harvard Gazette, fermentation, not fire, was the pivot point behind our ancestors' increasing cranial capacity.

The evolution of the large, sophisticated human brain from a smaller primate brain is a wonder of nature, yet the process remains enigmatic. Researchers can identify when our evolutionary forebears developed larger brains, which approximately tripled as humans evolved from the bipedal primates known as Australopithecines. However, the catalyst for this transformation — why it occurred when it did — is still unknown. Some have proposed that the advent of fire and the subsequent development of cooking provided sufficient nutrition for our ancestors with larger brains to thrive. However, a new theory suggests an alternative trigger: fermentation.

"Brain tissue is metabolically expensive," said Hecht, an assistant professor of human evolutionary biology. "It requires a lot of calories to keep it running, and in most animals, having enough energy just to survive is a constant problem." [...] For the larger-brained Australopithecus to survive, therefore, something must have changed in their diet. Theories put forward have included changes in what they consumed or, most popularly, that the discovery of cooking gave them more usable calories from whatever they ate. The problem with this theory is that the earliest evidence places the use of fire at approximately 1.5 million years ago — significantly later than the development of the hominid brain. "Our ancestors' cranial capacity began increasing 2.5 million years ago, which conservatively gives us about a 1-million-year gap in the timeline between brain size increasing and the possible emergence of cooking technology," said Katherine L. Bryant, another of the paper's co-authors and currently a researcher at the Institute for Language, Communication, and the Brain at Aix-Marseille Université in France. "Some other dietary change must have been releasing metabolic constraints on brain size, and fermentation seems like it could fit the bill."

Study links fermented foods with brain growth — Harvard Gazette

Researchers hypothesize it’s fermentation, not fire, that’s behind our ancestors’ increasing brain size.

news.harvard.edu

Client Challenge

 

[nice gaijin]

Nice try, but I'm still not eating natto. There are plenty of other fermented goods I actually enjoy!

I've heard the assertion that cooking played a role in our development, but if the timeline doesn't match up does that negate the hypothesis, or did cooking just play a different but still significant role, since it also "pre-digests" the food to make nutrients more readily available?

 

[mdchachi]

Nice try, but I'm still not eating natto. There are plenty of other fermented goods I actually enjoy!

I've heard the assertion that cooking played a role in our development, but if the timeline doesn't match up does that negate the hypothesis, or did cooking just play a different but still significant role, since it also "pre-digests" the food to make nutrients more readily available?

According to the article the timeline for fire doesn't match up to the brain size increase.

I'm skipping natto as well. I drink a lot of liquid bread though. Some people call it beer.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I've read that the invention of alcoholic beverages, including beer, was of tremendous importance to human civilization. For many thousands of years, drinks such as beer were some of the safest things to drink, as they were cleaner and clearer from microbes than most naturally occurring water.

So that's another score for fermentation! Natto was just an unfortunate byproduct of this technology.

 

[thomas]

I've read that the invention of alcoholic beverages, including beer, was of tremendous importance to human civilization.

Not for one moment have I ever had the slightest doubt about this.

To all those who so vehemently oppose the consumption of natto: can you eat mould cheese?

 

[mdchachi]

Not for one moment have I ever had the slightest doubt about this.

To all those who so vehemently oppose the consumption of natto: can you eat mould cheese?

I'm not against natto. In fact I'm happy my kids like it since it's healthy. But it just tastes bad and smells even worse.
I haven't had a huge variety of mouldy cheeses but I do like the standard blue cheese in salads or dressings.
And I like sauerkraut etc.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I agree with @mdchachi about natto. It smells bad and doesn't taste good. Much like a number of cheeses, which are also unfortunate. My mother, for example, loves limburger cheese. Looking back, I wonder whether this wasn't one of her methods to get us kids to play outside the house... lol