The evolutionary role of cooking

I learned from the article that cooking "denatures proteins." I happen to be very allergic to all raw produce except grapes, apples, onions, lettuce, and spinach. Everything else needs to be cooked. No crudités or fresh orange juice for me. People look at me funny and ask why cooking would make a difference. I say, "I dunno, but it must break down my allergy molecules so that I don't react to them." Then they (idiots all!) say, "No, that doesn't make sense." Now I can confidently snow people with "denatured proteins," whether or not that's the true reason for cooking solving my produce allergy problem. Confidently bowl people over with scientific jargon, and they believe you.

Stating cooking "underpins all other [human evolutionary changes]" sounds interesting if <i>corroborated</i>. I perused the web for some more information on Richard Wrangham's research. Wikipedia provided this:<p><a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=cooking-up-bigger-brains" rel="nofollow">http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=cooking-up-bigger-brains</a><p><a href="http://artsci.wustl.edu/~hpontzer/Courses/Wrangham&#38;Conklin-Britain2003CBP%20Cooking%20as%20a%20Biological%20Trait.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://artsci.wustl.edu/~hpontzer/Courses/Wrangham&#38;Conkl...</a><p>...and the evidence points against him. Fire doesn't appear to have been controlled until far after Wangham assests. Not only, but:<p><i>The mainstream view among anthropologists is that the increase in human brain-size was due to a shift away from the consumption of nuts and berries to the consumption of meat.</i><p>makes more sense. The transition from primitive food sources (nuts, berries -- chimp food now) may have catalyzed the transition to a regular high-calorie diet. Take this article with a juicy fliet mignon, topped with a generous helping of salt.

&#62;And the consumption of a cooked meal <i>in the evening</i>, usually in the company of family and friends, is normal in every known society.<p>In Germany peope have their cooked meal <i>at noon</i> (or at least most still have). Until recently (i.e. a few decades ago), this was also the case in Scandinavia.

"he thinks that cooking and other forms of preparing food are humanity’s “killer app"<p>Am I the only one that thought killer app was only used in reference to web/technology platforms :)