Suzana’s speech is both interesting and informative, but by the end it has raised many more questions than it has answered. I would agree with her ending conclusion; that our primary advantage over other animals stems from the higher concentration of neurons in our cerebral cortex, and that this advantage was made possible by the advent of cooked food over raw food as our source of calorie intake. Within this paper I hope to not only share what I have learned and my own reflections on this lecture, but to also begin to tentatively answer some of the questions she brings forth for the purpose of expanding my understanding of this topic through contextual information.
There are a number of key points to her lecture, the initial being that brain size does not correspond to cognitive ability as is commonly believed. Brains vary in the way that they develop from species to species. Furthermore, the specific function of neurons in the brain is far more important than the general presence of neurons. For example, a dog may have many more neurons devoted to processing olfactory sensory information than we do, but this does little to make the dog more intelligent. For the sake of increasing overall cognitive function there are several distinct areas in the brain that would benefit most from additional neurons. More neurons in the pre-frontal lobe would allow a larger short-term memory and thereby a larger working memory which would allow for faster and more complex problem
In Allan Jones’s presentation, A Map of the Brain, he explains his current project and why is essential to the modern day. Jones first starts off by giving the audience some background information about the brain. He states that the brain is a complex organ that receives around twenty percent of the blood from our hearts as well as twenty percent of the oxygen from our lungs. Jones explains that the brain is essential to the body because it controls everything we do. Even though the brain is very complex, it does not mean that it is not organized and structured. In the past century, scientists have created a blue stain that stains neuron bodies. This showed scientists that neurons were unevenly distributed throughout the brain depending on
When Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma was published, many readers began questioning him for advice on what they should eat in order to stay healthy. In his more recent book, In Defense of Food, he responds with three rules, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants"(Pollan 1). This seven word response seems too simple for a relatively complicated question, but as he further elaborates these rules into specific guidelines, this summary turns out to be surprisingly complete. Using inductive and deductive reasoning, he debunks the ideas behind nutritionism and food science, and proves that the western diet is the cause for food related diseases. Inductive reasoning is when a
In “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A natural history of four meals,” Michael Pollan examines American eating habits. The book is divided into three pieces. The first piece focuses on industrial farming, the second analyzes organic food, and the third discusses hunting and gathering of our own food.
An Edible History of Humanity is a book written by Tom Standage. It was first published on in 2009 by Walker & Co in the English language. The book is divided into six parts covering twelve chapters. It talks about the civilization of man from Old Stone Age during hunting and gathering all the way to present-day day. In this book, Standage describes how the development of food production has contributed to the civilization of humans (Standage, 113). He also outlines the role of food in the existence of humankind. The main theme in this text surrounds’ the history of man painting food as the tool in industrial evolution, civilization and how it impacts wars, as well as ecological competition. Standage concludes that food is the key cause of
Food dominates the lives of people. It is used as comfort and fuel. But the controversy is, what should people consume? Burkhard Bilger 's piece, Nature 's Spoils, explores the abnormal way of eating, which is the fermentation of food. It is usually a safe practice, and also produces vitamins in the making. The Omnivore 's Dilemma by Michael Pollan expresses the problem of how humans select food. In How Do We Choose What to Eat? by Susan Bowerman she points out the influences on people’s life that affects their eating habits. By using Bowerman’s article as the keystone, Nature’s Spoils and The Omnivore’s Dilemma can be compared and contrasted. Since the food that people consume daily can affect them in the future, it must be chosen carefully.
The unattributed article “You Can Grow Your Intelligence,” published in Health and Science magazine, reports that new research shows scientist have discovered that a brain can get stronger and people get smarter if they learn new things and practice. The brain is compared to a muscle in that if it is exercised, it will get
This quality that we as omnivores have is the reason there are so many of us in the world. For humans and other omnivores alike, if there is a natural disaster that causes one food source to be wiped out, we can simply find food elsewhere and eat something else. This is not the same though for animals that rely on a certain food, like eucalyptus trees for koalas. This “dietary flexibility” also relates to the size of our brains. Animals that heavily rely on certain foods have smaller brains, while omnivores who require nutrients from different food sources have larger ones. It is the omnivore’s larger brain that allowed it to create “a complicated set of sensory and mental tools to help” sort food. Our first tool that usually decides what food we eat is taste. Humans can distinguish between many flavors but the main two that help decided what we should and shouldn’t eat are sweetness and bitterness. The first is “a taste that signals a particularly rich source of carbohydrate energy in nature,” which supplies energy to our brain. The second is bitter tastes, “which is how many of the defensive toxins produced by plants tastes.” This sensitivity to bitterness has helped us avoid poisonous plants.
What am I exactly eating? Where does our food come from? Why should I care? “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” may forever change the way you think about food. I enjoyed Mr. Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and learned a great deal of information. Pollan’s book is a plea for us to stop and think for a moment about our whole process of eating. Pollan sets out to corn fields and natural farms, goes hunting and foraging, all in the name of coming to terms with where food really comes from in modern America and what the ramifications are for the eaters, the eaten, the economy and the environment. The results are far more than I expected them to be.
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What we eat and how we eat are imPortant both nutritionally and culturally. This selection suggests that how we get what we eat-through gathering and hunting versus agriculture, for example-has draThis seemspretty obvious.We all matic consequences. imagine what a struggle it must have been before the We developmentof agricu-lture. think of our ancestors spending their days searching for roots and berries to eat,or out at the crack of dawn, hunting wi.ld animals. isn't In fact, this was not quite the case.Nevertheless, it really better simply to go to the refrigerator, open the door, and reach for a container of milk to pour into a bowl of flaked grain for your regular
Firstly, it is important to understand the evolution and development of human brain. An interesting idea is that our human brains are becoming smaller in size through evolution of time. It is commonly believed that more content requires bigger space. Let 's take an example. A bowl that needs to fit ten identical objects needs to be bigger to a bowl that only needs to fit five identical objects. Likewise, our human brain has continued to develop through evolution and has much more complex capabilities as well as content to carry since the birth of our species in the Stone Age. Now
Throughout the years, our brain shape has changed in result of the nutrition received. The amount of nutrition received is the biggest factor with regard to the change in brain size. Therefore, the sufficient nutrition increased the size of the brain. In result, the increased brain size created advanced cognitive functions.
One of the most complex and fascinating things in the human body is the brain. The body is “capable of almost everything, but it would not be possible, without the brain receiving information, and analyzing the information.”
The nineteenth century saw the start of the scientific debate in which brain size was presumed to indicate intelligence. Which in turn lead some scientists to the conclusion that men, having on average a larger brain size than women, may be more intelligent.
One of the largest arguments against brain training is that the benefits of training are not applied to real life. Essentially, opponents to brain training are arguing that brain training is like teaching to the test. Participants do well on the “exams” because that was what they were trained for. Conversely, once participants are sent out into the real world, they are unable to apply what they learned to tasks that differ from those on the test. While intimal brain training studies failed to demonstrate real world application, more recent studies have proven