This morning I was on NPR's Weekend Edition with Rachel Martin, who covered quite a lot of ground in a short time. One of the most fascinating things about researching Tasty was exploring the evolution of the senses of taste and smell (the two biggest components of flavor), which originated way, way back at the dawn of life itself. Then at crucial evolutionary turning points, they grew sharper, and brains grew bigger with them.
"And so this is kind of a basic motivational hinge that drove evolution," he says, "because in order to out-compete your fellow primitive creatures, you needed sharper senses." And, "if you had sharper senses, you also needed a bigger brain in order to process those senses."
When it comes to humans, scientists have argued that those bigger brains emerged as we started eating meat – which is packed with calories and fat, compared with the fruit, leaves, tubers and other raw foods our earliest ancestors ate.
Check out the interview here.
"And so this is kind of a basic motivational hinge that drove evolution," he says, "because in order to out-compete your fellow primitive creatures, you needed sharper senses." And, "if you had sharper senses, you also needed a bigger brain in order to process those senses."
When it comes to humans, scientists have argued that those bigger brains emerged as we started eating meat – which is packed with calories and fat, compared with the fruit, leaves, tubers and other raw foods our earliest ancestors ate.
Check out the interview here.
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