Did Meat Make Our Brains Bigger?

“If my ancestors had to eat meat to survive, and give us the dense nutrition needed for our brains to grow, then surely we must continue eating meat today.”

I can’t quite see the logic initially here but intuitively feel that there’s something here to unpack. If as a species we’ve always eaten meat throughout our existence to get here, then why change how we’ve been eating? If it was necessary for our ancestors’ survival and brain development, then maybe it’s still necessary for us today?

Hunter vs Gatherer

The first claim to examine is that for our species to evolve larger brains, we had to go from a period of not eating meat to a meat-eating renaissance. Having this dense block of nutrition fuelled the growth of our brains.

Unfortunately, when it comes to theories about our caveman ancestors, theories are just what they are. I’ve seen plenty of compelling arguments from both sides. I don’t think there’s any doubt that humans did eat meat ~2 million years ago, but the extent to which it influenced our brain development is less conclusive.

We have this article saying it was crucial to get a “compact, high energy source that does not require a large intestinal system”. It also mentions that bipedalism or the social aspect of hunting potentially played a role. Then in this article, it discusses how it wasn’t meat but the cooking of it and other complex starches that was a primary role in brain development. Then again from this article, it suggests that it was actually sugar that was the key ingredient in driving early human brain growth.

So it’s not clear cut whether meat was the decisive factor in our brain development. I enjoyed this podcast episode which discusses both sides but suggests that our species got that big brain energy cause of all of it. After all we were omnivorous opportunistic scavengers. We ate anything, tried anything, hunted, gathered, and scavenged our way to to the top.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Let’s assume that it’s true that we discovered meat, managed to hunt it everyday beating all the other carnivores, whilst also not decimating the ecosystem, and then our brains grew three sizes that day.

As discussed in my look at the naturalistic fallacy, we don’t model our ethics, behaviour, or nutrition solely based on what our ancestors did.

Our ancestors didn’t give a fuck about ethics or nutrition when they were fighting for survival everyday. So they just ate whatever they could, sometimes even scavenging from the kills of other predators

Now days, I’m hardly battling a sabre-toothed tiger for my next meal. I’m literally walking two minutes to my local big Tescos to “scavenge” for whatever I want.

No Meat = Brain Small?

The thing I really wanted to know was whether not eating meat would shrink my brain. The answer is yes 🤯! If I don’t get enough nutrients like:

• B12 from supplements
• Omega-3 fatty acids from walnuts, flaxseeds, or algae-based supplements
• Iron from lentils, chickpeas, tofu, or spinach
• Zinc from pumpkin seeds, cashews, or chickpeas

I explore this in more detail here

Phew, eat good and balanced diet, avoid smol brain.

Wait, SpongeBob! We’re not cavemen, we have technology

Even if our ancestors relied on meat to fuel their brain development, we have reached a point that they could never have conceived. Knowing that our brains won’t shrivel up without a chicken breast, why can’t we then use our intelligence and technology to protect the environment and weak animals instead of relying on the lessons from our evolutionary past to justify exploiting them? We have the knowledge and tools to thrive without causing unnecessary harm, so let’s put our big brains to good use.