A recent article published in The Harvard Gazette suggests that fermented foods may have played a vital role in increasing our ancestors' brain capacity.

Titled "Did Fermented Foods Fuel Brain Growth?", the theory postulates that for the ancestral brain to have evolved from a small primate brain into the complex highly-potent organ that it is today, a major change must have occurred in our ancestors' diet that enabled more nutrients to be absorbed from food than had ever been previously possible.

It is believed that spontaneous fermentation was the reason for this enhanced capacity, providing more energy to the brain and thus allowing it to grow.

Early humans did not intentionally ferment their food. It was most likely serendipity. Stored food started to decompose (break down), which made its nutrients more available. 

The researchers were encouraged by the potential role of fermented foods in nurturing a healthy microbiome.

Although the article does not specify the exact foods that may have contributed to the evolution of the human brain through fermentation, one can only wonder whether it was an ancient fruit concealed in a crevice within a cave that eventually yielded something akin to kvass, or if it was wild grains that became softer and more palatable when exposed to the damp cave environment and indigenous bacteria.

Read the full article here.

Source: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/02/did...