Scientists believe that the potato fueled the remarkable development in the evolution of the human brain. The movement towards consumption of meat previously said to be the main cause of this increase. But a new study says it is driven by the consumption of carbohydrates, particularly in the form of starch.
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| Big complex brains require lots of energy to develop and function properly. While synthesis of glucose from sources other than starch-rich tubers like potatoes is possible, it is not especially efficient, and such high glucose demands would not have been met on a low carbohydrate diet. (Picture from: http://dailym.ai/1hwUvpA) |
As reported by the Daily Mail, that starch is available for the population of our ancestors in the form of potatoes, grains, fruits and nuts. The discovery of how to control the fire makes the potatoes can be cooked, while the saliva protein evolution known senagai extra amylase gene makes humans could unravel calorie-rich starches into sugars to feed the brain.
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| The human brain uses up to 60 per cent of the body's blood glucose. It is thought that cooked starchy food like potatoes could have provided a glucose-rich diet necessary for this to develop in our early ancestors. (Picture from: http://dailym.ai/1hwUvpA) |
Dr. Karen Hardy, the lead investigator of Autonomous University of Barcelona, said that the brain uses 60 percent of our blood glucose and it seems not to be fulfilled if we are less intake of carbohydrates.
Extra amylase gene, combined with knowledge of cooking, increase the availability of glucose to the brain rations. That in turn enables the acceleration of brain size that occurred about 800,000 years ago onwards.
"Eating meat may be the beginning of the evolution of the enlargement of the brain, but the cooked food that has sat flour coupled with increasing saliva amylase genes make us more clever," said Dr. Karen in a study published in the journal The Quarterly Review of Biology. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | DAILYMAIL]
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