Paleo diet: Big brains needed carbs

(University of Chicago Press Journals) Understanding how and why we evolved such large brains is one of the most puzzling issues in the study of human evolution. This new study argues that carbohydrate consumption, particularly in the form of starch, was critical for the accelerated expansion of the human brain over the last million years. Eating meat may have kick-started the evolution of bigger brains, but cooked starchy foods together with more salivary amylase genes made us smarter still. [...] sciencedaily.com


Journal Reference: Karen Hardy, Jennie Brand-Miller, Katherine D. Brown, Mark G. Thomas, Les Copeland. The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 2015; 90 (3): 251 DOI: 10.1086/682587