Why Do We Cook?
There are various reasons to cook food, but essentially our very existence pivots on our ability to cook. Cooking makes food more edible and, in so doing, cuts down on the time it takes to digest it. Great apes, our primate ancestors, spend 80 percent of their day chewing food. Learning to grind, puree, dry or preserve food helped us to digest it more speedily, but it was the advent of cooking, at least one million years ago, that enabled us to spend less time chewing and digesting food and more time thinking and focusing on other pursuits. Today, we spend just five percent of our day eating.
So how else does food benefit us?
It makes food safe
Flavours multiply
Cooking helps digestion
Starches are softened
Nutrients are released
It helps us socialize
Check out this video to learn more:
Source(s):
The Science of Cooking