Show me them doing that in the wild.

Post #337,793 by static 12/28/10 5:39:06 PM Reply	Show me them doing that in the wild. Bonobos are known to be amongst the smartest of primates outside of humans and thus can be taught things like that. You could probably teach orangutans to cook, too. Besides, the claim was made by that program. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #337,794 by boxley 12/28/10 6:19:57 PM Reply	you and greg are starting your new years resolutions early? giving up sly humor for a year? Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
Post #337,808 by static 12/29/10 4:05:51 AM Reply	You're attributing sly humour to me? I'm flattered. :-) Actually, regardless of how humans discovered cooking (a point the program completely avoids), I thought it would be an interesting documentary to you lot. I was a bit disappointed they didn't spend much time examining how cooking changed food, though. They showed just one scientist who showed that cooking breaks down cell walls in potato. On the other hand, they had a fascinating excerpt from a successful hunt from some bushmen in Namibia. They caught a porcupine in its burrow. It took more than four hours to get it out so they could kill it. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #337,799 by drook 12/28/10 8:14:35 PM Reply	Take an average population of humans ... Think they'd figure out cooking on their own? In how many generations? I don't know anyone who independently invented the concept of cooking. We all learned it from someone else who already knew it. -- Drew
Post #337,844 by jake123 12/29/10 10:16:55 PM Reply	You cannot speak of a human being without speaking of its culture. And cooking is always part of it. We cooked before we were human. I suspect we're wired for it.
Post #337,850 by mhuber 12/30/10 1:13:03 AM Reply	More than wired Apparently we evolved a gut that takes less resources (allowing more for brains) but doesn't actually run on raw food. Homo sap on raw food diets survive but are not able to reproduce. --------------------------------------- I think it's perfectly clear we're in the wrong band. (Tori Amos)
Post #337,852 by Andrew Grygus 12/30/10 1:27:08 AM Reply	You mean all those "raw foods" nutters . . . . . are going to go extinct all on their own? I find it highly amusing that "raw foods" enthusiasts import their cashews from Indonesia where there is one company that claims they do not use heat to detoxify them. The pulp around a cashew kernel is extremely toxic, causing serious blistering, etc., so most processors use moderate heat to see to it their "raw" cashews are non-toxic. This, of course, means they do not pass the litmus test for "truly raw". Of course Indonesians are Asians, and many are even of Chinese descent, so what are the chances this vendor is actually doing what he claims to be doing? For every predator there is a rightful prey.
Post #337,853 by mhuber 12/30/10 2:18:10 AM Reply	Yeah, but more or less on purpose The few I've met consider reproduction a crime against nature. So having the monthly cycle shut down isn't exactly a disaster... --------------------------------------- I think it's perfectly clear we're in the wrong band. (Tori Amos)
Post #337,856 by static 12/30/10 3:55:53 AM Reply	The documentary covers this. They had a group of volunteers eat raw fruit and vegetables like the apes do for two weeks. All of them lost weight because none of them could get enough nutrition from the ancient diet. Many of them could not get through the required quantities, either! It turns out our teeth are shaped wrong and our gut is too small for a diet of raw fruit and vegetables. Our teeth are shaped for mincing and pulping cooked food. They also had an artifical stomach for experimenting with how ours processed different foods. Raw food was much harder to process than cooked food. I've already mentioned the brief experiment in what happens to food as it is cooked: it destroys the structures we can't digest so we can get to the nutrients locked inside. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #337,851 by Andrew Grygus 12/30/10 1:14:31 AM Reply	Cooking food made possible a larger or . . . . . more resilient human population, because the process detoxifies many plant foods. Non-human primates are very reluctant to move from feeding on one tree to another because even within the same species toxicity varies significantly. Usually the more marginal members of the clan are "encouraged" to try out a new tree before the main group moves to it. Particularly cyanide toxins (a common plant biological defense) are driven off by cooking, but many others as well. Also, relatively indigestible plant materials are rendered digestible and nutritious by cooking. Of course overcooking vegetables (see England and Germany) has a deleterious effect on both flavor and nutrition.
Post #337,854 by mhuber 12/30/10 2:19:16 AM Reply	Makes grain almost food-like --------------------------------------- I think it's perfectly clear we're in the wrong band. (Tori Amos)

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