Throughout human evolution, gastronomy has defined humankind, its characteristics, its very evolution, its physiological attributes, its brain, and more.
The cooling of the climate and glacial and interglacial cycles were determining factors in the diet of the humans who adapted to live in the northern hemisphere. An important factor in this change is seasonality. Food products differed depending on the season.
The time limit of two and a half million years conditions human evolution and diet is a fundamental factor.
Hunting and gathering have been our method of survival until very recently. The arrival of agriculture and the domestication of animals took place in various parts of the planet less than 10,000 years ago. This age (Neolithic) already included the Americas that were colonised 14,000 years ago.
Extract from the article “Evolución de la dieta en la evolución Humana” [Transformation of diet throughout human evolution] by Jose María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of the Atapuerca archaeological sites.
The Neolithic age constituted another turning point in gastronomy. People started to cook food because at that time they had also invented earthenware vessels. Digesting food became much easier.
The latest research on the human genome, compared to the Neanderthal genome and the chimpanzee genome, shows substantial changes that have made digestibility, the sense of taste and even the physiognomy of our body possible. In other words, the phrase “we are what we eat” could not be more accurate.
Homo sapiens left Africa to expand across the planet 120 billion years ago. Genetic changes, coupled with the availability of resources and energy needs (climate) in each region, shaped an impressive culinary cultural diversity in our species.
