Why Humans Eat and Enjoy Food?

 Animals eat for survival that's a fact, but how come humans eat as a form of indulgence? Let's delve deeper by studying how primates eat their food. If you will notice, we have the same way of grinding and chewing food. This process is called mastication and is considered as the first step in food digestion. Primates has sense of smell and taste as humans do but we are gifted with elevated food sensors that enables us to see food as a luxury more than a form of survival. 

image from pixabay

Among other species, humans are the only ones capable of cooking their food. Why? According to studies, humans doesn't have to cook food (ever heard of steak or fish tartare?) Since the discovery of fire in prehistoric times, humans learned various ways to prepare their food. Aside from that, we need to cook our food to kill bacteria making it more sanitary, appetizing and healthy.

image from pixabay

Do you know that cooking and dicing our food will also cut our digestion time ? Imagine if we can't slice, chew and cook our food, it will take several days for us to digest a single fillet mignon (how's that for a python stomach huh?).

I do believe that eating is a sensual experience since we are able to use all of our Five Senses in one activity. We see how presentable the food is, we smell the aroma, we hear the sizzle, and we can learn its texture and taste using our tongue.  

For a much elaborated explanation on how cooking shaped humanity, you can watch Eat: The Story of Food brought to you by National Geographic Channel.