Bite sized wisdom: forgetting to breathe










In the meantime, just keep swimming, just keep breathing.

Cheers to finding our inner Nemo!

Cooking made us human

Dear Readers,

I’ve missed you! It’s been some time since I’ve shared interesting stories, findings, experiences and facts about food. The stories we share on the site are pieces of information that help reveal a different side of something we’ve become so accustomed to seeing. Due to the abundance of food in grocery stores, restaurants and even trashcans, we stopped appreciating it as much as we once did.

Today I’d like to share a fascinating TED talk by Suzana Herculano-Houzel called “What is so special about the human brain?”.

The information she shared left me speechless. My brain was pouncing with adrenaline from so many thoughts firing in my head and my mouth swung open, as it gulped more air to keep me calm from the rising excitement.

Are you wondering what’s so special about her talk? Let me tell you: 1.5 million years ago primates discovered something that would change the course of our history – they discovered cooking. Yes, this small act by today’s standard is what helped us grow, evolve and turn into these ‘unique’ creatures we often think we are.

In the process of heating up food, combining flavors, and making produce easily consumed and absorbed by the body, our ancestors enabled us to extract more nutrients from what we consume. This cut time for eating, but still energizing the body, allowing our brains to grow. Without cooking and still on a raw diet, it would take us nine hours to look for food and consume enough calories to keep the body working. Cooking flung the door open to our evolution, helping us build different cultures and inventing agriculture to make the process of feeding more local and constant.

The human brain

Our brain is 2% of our body, but it uses up about 25% of all the energy consumed and stored by the cells to keep it properly running. Hence, of the 2,000 calories consumed 500 calories are used by our brain. Unfortunately, as our world became more stressful and jobs more demanding, family time and cooking have flown out the window. companies have solutions for us, they offer us ‘food like substances’ made from chemicals in the lab and claim that the time we save from not cooking we can use on other better things. Yet, by choosing processed and fast-food options we’re denying ourselves the fundamental feature of being human. To preserve what makes us truly unique and not rob ourselves of our history, we ought to look at cooking as a valuable investment and teach future generations to do the same.

Here, on this website, we share tips, stories, recipes, and inspirational quotes that reignite this million year old love for food and cooking, and show the effects it has on our bodies and the environment.

Did you enjoy reading this post? If so, let us know and share your thoughts/stories/recipes so that we can continue building this community of people who love food.

Let’s get cooking, friends!