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thicks92's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Great information, but not laid out in a very flowing or transitional way
farmermaria's review
4.0
Though a bit more scientific than I expected, it was thoughtfully and logically put together. I don't know if non Anthropology/Biology people would find it as interesting as I did, but it was a constant series of revelations to me. So many things that I had never considered about the evolution of humanity is explained in a completely novel way.
desorden's review
3.0
I had never read before a science book and I must say that, even though it took me literally years to finish it, I found it quite interesting.
I learned a lot of random facts about diets (here's where I first heard about rawist!) and cooking habits in different socities.
Being very much into cooking, I loved the idea of it being what made us humans, although I found the premises a tad repetitive through the book.
I learned a lot of random facts about diets (here's where I first heard about rawist!) and cooking habits in different socities.
Being very much into cooking, I loved the idea of it being what made us humans, although I found the premises a tad repetitive through the book.
unsweettea's review
4.0
You never think about cooking as having a big impact on evolution, but this book points out that humans are tremendously adapted to eating cooked foods, and that cooking has influenced us in quite a number of ways. It was fascinating to me how much more energy you can get out of cooked foods than raw foods. Other than people in industrialized countries with big supermarkets, it's actually very hard for humans to thrive on raw food; we have a much smaller digestive system (and much weaker jaw muscles) than other primates and hence can't absorb as many nutrients or calories from raw food (in other words, those dieters eating salads all the time are right: if you want to lose weight, stick with the raw foods- you just can't digest them as well). The other fascinating thing was that cooking also gave us more free time - chimpanzees (and other large primates) spend *6 hours* a day chewing their raw food (which I read while scarfing down my well-cooked lunch in ten minutes). The only problem I had with the book was that I kept wanting to eat things while I was reading it. All in all a very interesting book.
voraciousreader's review
3.0
I enjoy reading about the history of food - and this was good to add to those books
theultimatebookhoarder's review
4.0
This is a very interesting little book!
I learnt in Year 13 biology that Homo Sapiens developed large brains due to the "positive feedback loop".
Better diet means more energy used to meet the high energy costs of a large and well-developed brain, means better tools to obtain prey (and therefore meat) more efficiently, improved diet, more energy for brain, able to use/create fire due to increased intelligence, improved diet (v.i.a cooking), larger brain e.t.c.
However, we didn't go full depth about exactly HOW the brain got more energy. Thankfully, this book covered that! Turns out, cooking food with fire decreases the digestion cost, as it makes the food softer, so there's energy left over to use on the brain.
Mind = blown.
This lead to decreased digestion time, decreased molars and premolars, a delicate jaw e.t.c as natural selection selected Homo's that ate cooked food (as they were more intelligent and were more likely to survive and pass on their alleles/genes to offspring).
AMAZING.
So happy I picked up this book!
I learnt in Year 13 biology that Homo Sapiens developed large brains due to the "positive feedback loop".
Better diet means more energy used to meet the high energy costs of a large and well-developed brain, means better tools to obtain prey (and therefore meat) more efficiently, improved diet, more energy for brain, able to use/create fire due to increased intelligence, improved diet (v.i.a cooking), larger brain e.t.c.
However, we didn't go full depth about exactly HOW the brain got more energy. Thankfully, this book covered that! Turns out, cooking food with fire decreases the digestion cost, as it makes the food softer, so there's energy left over to use on the brain.
Mind = blown.
This lead to decreased digestion time, decreased molars and premolars, a delicate jaw e.t.c as natural selection selected Homo's that ate cooked food (as they were more intelligent and were more likely to survive and pass on their alleles/genes to offspring).
AMAZING.
So happy I picked up this book!
harmony's review
3.0
A cool history of how cooking shaped our evolution, although it feels almost as if Wrangham was trying to prove something to doubters. He'd go all the way down a rabbit hole of incorrect assumptions before bringing it around to his conclusion in an almost smug way, and as someone who almost immediately grasped the implications of the research he cited, that was damn annoying. You can get almost exactly the same information plus more in Consider the Fork, and it's better written.
alexctelander's review
3.0
From the professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University, as well as the co-author of Demonic Males and co-editor of Primate Societies, comes Catching Fire, a thoroughly researching book on the importance of the discovery of fire and how it changed Homo sapiens sapiens forever.
While initially thinking Catching Fire would be a in depth foray into our ancestral humanity, looking at different hominids and what it was that led to the discovery of fire and going on from there, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a book more in the style of Michael Pollan’s Omnivores Dilemma. While the origin of fire and cooking are certainly discussed in this book, the true story here is how humanity has benefited from cooking, and how it has aided us on the evolutionary path to making us the dominant species on the planet. Wrangham boils it down (pun intended!) to energy and how when foods (especially meats) are cooked, more energy is generated from consuming them. The author scientifically breaks this down by analyzing the energy gained from raw meats as opposed to cooked, as well as vegetables, revealing the problems that some vegetarians and vegans can have in needing to make sure they get enough energy from the foods they consume.
Reading Catching Fire will educate you in a number of ways: you will learn the importance of our ancestors learning to cook foods and further are evolutionary development, but you will also learn why it is we cook foods – on a biological level – and how it can change how we grow and develop, both physically and intellectually.
For more reviews, check out the BookBanter site.
While initially thinking Catching Fire would be a in depth foray into our ancestral humanity, looking at different hominids and what it was that led to the discovery of fire and going on from there, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a book more in the style of Michael Pollan’s Omnivores Dilemma. While the origin of fire and cooking are certainly discussed in this book, the true story here is how humanity has benefited from cooking, and how it has aided us on the evolutionary path to making us the dominant species on the planet. Wrangham boils it down (pun intended!) to energy and how when foods (especially meats) are cooked, more energy is generated from consuming them. The author scientifically breaks this down by analyzing the energy gained from raw meats as opposed to cooked, as well as vegetables, revealing the problems that some vegetarians and vegans can have in needing to make sure they get enough energy from the foods they consume.
Reading Catching Fire will educate you in a number of ways: you will learn the importance of our ancestors learning to cook foods and further are evolutionary development, but you will also learn why it is we cook foods – on a biological level – and how it can change how we grow and develop, both physically and intellectually.
For more reviews, check out the BookBanter site.
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