Hominid Dietary Selection Before Fire [and Comments and Reply]
@article{Stahl1984HominidDS,
title={Hominid Dietary Selection Before Fire [and Comments and Reply]},
author={Ann Brower Stahl and Robin I. M. Dunbar and Katherine Homewood and Fumiko Ikawa-Smith and Adriaan Kortlandt and William C. McGrew and Katharine Milton and James D. Paterson and Frank E. Poirier and Jito Sugardjito and Nancy Makepeace Tanner and Richard W. Wrangham},
journal={Current Anthropology},
year={1984},
volume={25},
pages={151 - 168}
}Control of fire was apparently acquired rather late in the course of hominid evolution. It is therefore necessary, in the study of dietary selection by early hominids, to consider the range of plants that would have proven inedible without cooking. Some plants contain toxins or digestibility-reducing compounds, and some plant constituents are indigestible. Cooking mitigates the impact of toxins and renders complex carbohydrates more digestible. Plant foods high in cellulose and/or starch are…
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