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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology
Cooking and grinding reduces the cost of meat digestion
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - A Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Volume 148, No. 3, Year 2007
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Description
The cooking of food is hypothesized to have played a major role in human evolution partly by providing an increase in net energy gain. For meat, cooking compromises the structural integrity of the tissue by gelatinizing the collagen. Hence, cooked meat should take less effort to digest compared to raw meat. Likewise, less energy would be expended digesting ground meat compared to intact meat. We tested these hypotheses by assessing how the cooking and/or grinding of meat influences the energy expended on its digestion, absorption, and assimilation (i.e., specific dynamic action, SDA) using the Burmese python, Python molurus. Pythons were fed one of four experimental diets each weighing 25% of the snake's body mass: intact raw beef, intact cooked beef, ground raw beef, and ground cooked beef. We measured oxygen consumption rates of snakes prior to and up to 14 days following feeding and calculated SDA from the extra oxygen consumed above standard metabolic rate. Postprandial peak in oxygen consumption, the scope of peak rates, and SDA varied significantly among meal treatments. Pythons digesting raw or intact meals exhibited significantly larger postprandial metabolic responses than snakes digesting the cooked ground meals. We found cooking to decrease SDA by 12.7%, grinding to decrease SDA by 12.4%, and the combination of the two (cooking and grinding) to have an additive effect, decreasing SDA by 23.4%. These results support the hypothesis that the consumption of cooked meat provides an energetic benefit over the consumption of raw meat. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Carmody, Rachel N.
United States, Salem
Peabody Essex Museum
Wrangham, Richard W.
United States, Salem
Peabody Essex Museum
Secor, Stephen M.
United States, Tuscaloosa
The University of Alabama
Statistics
Citations: 84
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/j.cbpa.2007.08.014
ISSN:
10956433
Research Areas
Food Security
Noncommunicable Diseases