Food and drinks

Food and drinks

Food isn’t just a necessity: it is one of our greatest sources of pleasure. Treats like champagne, chocolate and chips all give your brain a big “pleasure hit” that keeps us coming back for more. And preparation is as important as the ingredients: food with a browned crust generally tastes better than food without it – as users of microwaves will attest.

In recent years, food, science and technology have become more closely linked than ever. Scientifically minded chefs like Harold McGee, Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adrià harness science to develop sometimes startling new dishes.

Mouth to stomach

The human digestive system works in stages. Some digestion takes place in the mouth, but the process begins in earnest in the stomach and is concluded as the food passes through the intestines to the rectum. Our guts rely on a thriving cocktail of bacteria to help them digest the food.

Depending on what they eat, other animals organise their digestive systems differently. Herbivores like cows have the rumen – an extra chamber before the stomach that helps break down the tough grass they eat – while alligators can divert extra blood to their stomachs to cope with their huge meals.

Food in human evolution

Humans began as hunter-gatherers, before developing agriculture and domesticating animals for farming. Sheep were probably the first animals to be farmed, followed by cattle and pigs.

We are still unsure what our earliest ancestors ate, in particular how much of their diet was meat, although Ötzi the iceman had consumed Ibex, deer, vegetables and possibly grains (see gallery).

It has been argued, controversially, that the invention of cooking was a key factor in human evolution (as well as us our chaotic teeth) – a question that partly hangs on when humans discovered fire.

Like us, apes also prefer cooked food to raw – possibly because cooked food gives you more energy than raw.