Mike i just wanted to say I found your channel three years ago and it just made so much sense to go vegan so I started to gradually cut back meat products and now I probably eat egg once a month but otherwise plant base. I struggled psychologically for so long time and was on handfuls of meds everyday now I take half a tablet of antidepressant (which i am hoping to be off eventually), my adult acne disappeared, my chronic fatigue and pain are significantly reduced, I eat to my hearts content yet maintaining healthy weight, sleep so much better and overall became healthy. I cannot thank you more for such scientifically informed contents you create and I am sharing your vids with others whenever they talk about diet changes and encourage people to eat more vegetables (because some people go eek when they hear the word "vegan"). Future is vegan!!

I made a few videos making this point exactly and got a lot of hate and trolling comments for it. Thank you for making this video and laying out the science so clearly!

Thanks, I was having a debate online today with a carnist on this very topic. Hilariously, the research they linked to said the opposite of what they were trying to prove - the advent of cooking rather than meat eating being the more likely catalyst for human brain growth - but of course they hadn't bothered to read them properly.

Thank you, Mic, for being a big part of the reason I went vegan in 2019! I wouldn't click on your videos because I assumed vegans were arrogant or snotty, but you've been anything but that. When I actually clicked your videos it brought light to a lot of areas I ignored before. - Dan from NJ

….but then I can’t use the indigenous hunting argument to justify buying “factory farmed” sentient beings’ body parts!

That is the same issue I had argued with a archeologists student. I believe it’s more likely that is because we started to cook and agriculture and having enough calories.

I've always thought the whole meat eating theory was nonsense, even before I went plant based. First off, challenge any hungry "meathead" to bypass his grocery store kill and procure an actual kill like any other carnivore or omnivore... with no weapon or tools, just using his native apparatus. Chances are the only meat they'd come home with is the carcass left behind by a true carnivore... which is probably where we got the idea in the first place. Unlike actual carnivores we can't use our jaws and claws to snag and to kill , rip raw muscle from bone swallowing huge hunks of flesh without gagging or choking, or even chew it properly without flesh shearing carnivore teeth. My little kitty cat can! He was born wired to hunt... and even as a kitten... put a bunny in his path and it's dinner! Human babies not so much? Also, if meat eating was so critical for brain growth and intelligence, than cats and other carnivores would be the smartest of all! It's so obvious the huge major difference between us and our closest ape relative is, we harnessed fire! Roots and tubers become much more edible and nutrient dense when cooked, and tough plant fibers break down so we no longer need those chimp facial muscles and dexterous lips, or have to spend all day grazing and chewing. We even developed extra copies of amylase to break down those starches, unlike most other apes. All that newly available glucose grew our big hungry brains! (Hmmm, with all this low carb BS no wonder we are regressing!!!) I'd consider us flaming starch-adapted herbivores! (ie opportunists?) www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2015/08/10/starchy-carbs--not-a-paleo-diet--advanced-the-human-race.html

You are a stud. Thanks for keeping us up to date on the science

This has already been put into considerable question with studies on starch and other resources and behavioural/survival factors that played a part in brain growth.

Have you ever thought about doing a podcast? You have a good voice for it and your information is always really well researched. Would be nice to listen to you on the go.

Hey, MIKE, my hypothesis that counters the "Humans as Long-Distance Chase Hunters," is, "Humans as Fire Followers." When our ancestors were forced to be savannah dwellers, with frequent grass fires, our ability to travel long distances wasn't because we were chasing herds of animals to exhaustion, but because we were following fires, picking up cooked animals who couldn't escape the fires, as well as recognised cooked vegetable foods, so, tubers and roots, cooked in the ground, toasted nuts and seeds (including grasses), roasted fruits, , small reptiles, birds, their nests of cooked eggs, etc.. Eventually, we learned to carry smouldering embers, and set fires intentionally, using fire as a tool, knowing we would get easy, cooked meals, while driving away predators.

This is huge, wish there was more news on this

Very useful discussion of these findings Mic. Makes it easier to see how it all fits together. Hope you have a great trip!

Fruit before the cooked starches is what I have seen/heard, for years, based upon a few things like the tartar on teeth.

Another theory is the controversial "aquatic ape" theory.... "The hypothesis was initially proposed by the marine biologist Alister Hardy in 1960, who argued that a branch of apes was forced by competition over terrestrial habitats to hunt for food such as shellfish on the sea shore and sea bed, leading to adaptations that explained distinctive characteristics of modern humans such as functional hairlessness and bipedalism"

00:45 That ''tavel with Mike'' thing is SO COOL! I wish MORE influencers would do this, so you could ACTUALLY meet them around the globe!

Fascinating. Thanks for making this video, Mic. Enjoy your trip. :)

If eating feces was critical at some point in our evolution, I wouldn't chow down on feces today because of it. We are not constrained by what got us here. Edit. 😀I wrote this comment as soon as I started the video. I didn't expect it to cover the same example.

Pretty sure fire made us human.

Just to say I'm back - not dead yet (lol); and TY so much for what you've been doing for us all, our planet, all these years! Heart, my mates!!

What our ancestors ate tells us next to nothing what an "optimal" diet for humans is in modern society anyway.

Great stuff! Thank you

"And 2. Aliens." 😄Thanks. I needed that laugh.

My roommate and I both love your videos. They have truly helped us debunk some of the misinformation that goes around in our city about veganism. I also noticed that we have the same exact cabinet as you in our home and it's also covered in plants. lol I just thought that was a funny coincidence.

I am picturing Shawn Bakers somnolent rebuttal to this as I watch . . . To me, it's been a no-brainer--heh!--since reading Wrangham's hypothesis that our brains got bigger from eating more bioavailable glucose-promoting foods because we're primates and primates are _lazy._ Like Shawn Baker, our ancestors engaged in short bursts of activity (escaping from apex predators or chasing offspring) and then leisurely dug in dirt for tubers or picked low hanging fruits at about the same pace of a lethargic YT vlogger. Thanks for posting!

What made us learn and think outside the box to become human and more advanced was mushrooms, microbes like probiotic rich foods keep us healthy

Wait, why would you be an 8 at a gay bar but 6.5 to women? Great video btw. So glad we now have some scientists delivering unbiased research on this issue.

Anything I think that you find contrary to what you believe you'll throw out. Confirmation bias is your theme.

the truth is we are omnivores. End of story. Choose how you wish to eat, and while a plant-based lifestyle is showing excellent results, we are not now or ever are/were herbivores.

I saw a study that hallucinagenic mushrooms increase and grow brain structures even to modern brains. There is no unusual brain growth while on a meat diet in modern humans so why is this even still a question. Mushrooms probably still work the same way they always did.

Great info as usual, thanks!

4:50 ''Clint Eastwood after loosing a fight'' - BAHAHAHAHAHAHA I SHIT MY PANTS!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

My theory is that the discovery of cooking led to an explosion of our general menu, but that the ability to digest more animal flesh inspired us to use our imaginations in the unprecedented manner of feeling magically more like them, meaning fire + animal = mythology. This possibly motivated us to wear skins and bones, mimic them and become better hunters, spurring technological advances.

This is super interesting to me too 🙂. Thanks for the info!

Super interesting! Thanks for this one

I loved that Noodles the Pug reference. haha. 🐕

Excellent video! Amazing that when the primary demands of the human brain are glucose people would devise an idiotic explanation like meat being a good source for that.

Man, I've always wanted to go to Iceland. Unfortunately, just found out I won the lottery to hike the John Muir Trail in July. It's either/or and since this is my 4th year to apply and just got it for the first time, I'd better do that instead. Iceland's on my bucket list, however. Would love a video on hiker food as a vegan. I make my own meals ahead of time to rehydrate, but would love to see what others on here do.

I just listened to this on SciFri and was going to message you about it, but looks like your on it ;)

I was LOL’ing when you noted that the lurkers can no longer give you a thumbs-down…! Excellent discussion!!

You know that the haters ie: meat eaters will say that the scientists will change their mind in a few weeks when they find 1,000,000 year old cookbook by Julia Child’s an ancestor with only beast recipes but also showing them using parsley on the side. That will make the vegans happy.

Oooh I got Iceland envy! Wish I could go but...

Chimpanzees and Bonobos eat some meat. While their diet is largely plant based, they eat about 5% animal products including eggs, insects, small monkeys, and wild pigs (per the Jane Goodall Institute).

Cooking isn’t the only other explanation/ hypothesis offered for human brain development over that time period.

I’d always guessed we ate a lot of entheogens e.g psychoactive plants and tripped our way to consciousness

Vegans make me want to eat more meat.

Thank you Mic for your work !

Awesome video Mic!

Thanks Mic!

How Grandmothers Saved Civilization 👵

This is a very common misunderstanding of "phase transitions". When the temperature drops below freezing the snow will start accumulate. The temperature does NOT need to keep dropping for the snow to grow. It just needs to stay there at a constant level. The same is with meat. As soon as meat was discovered as a rich source of nutrients, a constant level of meat supply was enough to keep growing the brain tissue at the expense of shrinking stomachs (the expensive tissue hypothesis). Of course, you don't expect archeologist to know their high school physics...

fascinating! Thank you Mic for another excellent break down of scientific research. I think I'll bite down a big Kale bone now, along with some cooked starch, my fav lunch!

Well there’s definitely no way the Joe Rogan is gonna figure this out. Ha ha ha ha way too complicated and nuanced. I appreciate the level of complexity you are able to handle in your explanations to us.

This is one of my fav podcasts from Mic so far.. packed with a good eclectic mix of scientific research.. thank you again for your lively presentation

Awesome video man!

The whole meat made us human narrative reminds me of the opening of 2001 Space Odyssey - chillin' eating roots and leaves - ancient alien black rectangle - meat and war.

Very good as always. Various aspects examined, quite convincing. Though strictly speaking possibly I'm biased: a vegan since decades, and having watched so many very good videos on this channel. But I think objectively speaking this seems right, good research, analysis and inferences. Thanks.

We don't want to live like them under any parameter but when it comes to diet suddenly we get that bullshit. That being said, it's interesting.

Love ya vids homie

The benefit of cooking meat would be to limit dangerous bacteria.

"believing a diet can make you intelligent only proves you stupid" - me

The appearance of Homo erectus, taller smarter, would indicate fire and its usage in cooking roots etc (and likely sometimes meat) had developed earlier. "There was no steak and shake". LOL. You have the best organised KZfaq channel... xx 6.5

Recently i been loving cooking mashed beans. Green beans spinach courgettes. Boiled potatoes. Cheaper n so much nicer n good for digestion.

Mic so wish I could join the Iceland trip in August. Enjoy!

This was an amazing study! Can't believe they finally put that nonsense argument to rest. lol

10:00 well considering this is the only way a vegan hind-gut fermenter can naturally get B12 in their diet, perhaps this is something vegans need to consider. only then can you truly emulate the rabbit diet.

Great video. Do you know of any studies about plant based diet helping with neuropathy?

Yay Mic. That answered some questions for me. And, I’d score you at least a 8 1/2.

Thanks Mic, you're kicking meats booty, lol. Keep up the passion and the research. Meat free for 46 years !!!

Cooking with 🔥 made us human. Hairless, small jaws, and living in the 🥶.

🇮🇸 Icelander here and long time subscriber. Let me know if you'd like any tips for the trip.

I died at the "haha screw you" part HHAHAHAHA

At this point eating less meat is going to make us more human. And as a female I give you a strong 8 1/2.😍

Thank you, Mic. Your videos encouraged me to cut down animal foods, more of that I am really thinking about going full or nearly full plant base. I love those videos about history of meat btw. :)

Great as always!👌👏

Ha... I've always brought up the point of why aren't lions and other carnivorous animals building planes and the internet? Lol🤣

"The lion will lay with the lamb" so the hard headed meat lovers will have to take on the lion in the future 😆

13:07-13:12 this guy😂; informative with good humor as always😏

03:20 HAHAHAHA, lovely!

Mic. I've been watching your videos and am sold. Could you please recommend some books to help me with the science of the vegan diet and help me to make sure I avoid any deficiencies. Thank you... and thank you for your videos. Jim

I dunno Mic. I think you’re at least a 9, and I don’t go to bars, gay OR otherwise. 😘

Imagine how damaging a narrative which says "violence and cruelty is what makes us human" is

9:50 I love this breakdown of the logic required for the pro meat diets.

Great video!

Access to more calories made us "human", not meat. Sure, some of that was from meat, but the vast majority was from getting more plants. Considering we're almost 99% apes, who evolved over millions of years to build a body that thrives on plants...but OH this last little relatively short period of time we started eating more meat, means that whole foundation of our engineering and digestive make up just magically shifted to be optimized for it...makes no sense. It's the biggest hole in the meat promoting culture - Ignoring what our core evolutionary form took to become what it is and clinging to a recent change that has only proven in study after study to be detrimental to our health.

Lol Mic the Vegan 6,5, but 8 in the gay club! :D Informative and entertaining as always, thanks! :)

I agree; cooking starch gave us more calories, this means less time looking for food and more time sitting by the fire developing languaje and culture.

Another great video 👌

can put subtitle please?

I like little green guys there vegan too! Welcome them! Thanks mic!!

13:25 The liver prioritizes alcohol for a reason. I guess I should give it booze as much as possible right? Maybe, just maybe the body prioritizes in order of least useful so that it can get rid of it.

The Clint Eastwood joke made me LOL. 😂

Many thanks sir for this imports and useful video! You are awesome! I want to add a point though, That perhaps many vegans already believe: are humans the most evolved? Perhaps we are not. What markers to use when judging “evolved”? (You know the vegan answer…we are a species that seems to live beyond the means of our natural habitat, we are needlessly violent and cruel, etc). Yet another argument to counter the carnists who claim they need to keep eating animals because it makes us this super breed.

It is not at all unlikely that members of Homo erectus, even in Africa, had somewhat light skin. There was huge geographical and phenotypic diversity in H. erectus, and I have no doubt they had extreme skin color diversity as well. Our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, who do retain some quantity of basal traits (though this is overly simplistic), have skin which ranges from extremely dark to a pale "peach". The most divergent living human population, the San of southern Africa, do not have very dark skin and can be fairly pale at times (this is evident on seeing them, but it has actually also been quantified in studies). TLDR: Homo erectus probably had many possible skin complexions, some very dark and some quite pale, although I think it is fairly safe to say the typical H. erectus was some shade of medium-brown.

The Australian aboriginals obtained significant dietary nutrients from insects at time of colonisation. In fact it shaped the culture and festivals …. Eg Bogong moth migration. Do you consider insects as meat? They always seem to be overlooked in this research.

You may want to check the work with Ian McGilchrist, his book on the “Emissary and his Master” also has influences noted for the development of the human brain-Not just from the sources of nutrition, but sources in social organization as well, music and other social patterns. Obviously the development of the human brain is complex and no single source could be overly attributed to such a developmental process alone.

Oh Mike, you are a ten in the eyes 👀 of the animals 😍

I'm curious why humans evolved to run long distances if hunting and meat was not such a major part of their diet. As far as I know the explanation that I have always come across is that we evolved to run long distances to chase and tire animals out so it would be easier to hunt. If someone else has an explanation for this I'd be curious to hear! This stuff is really fascinating!

04:33 That’s a pic of Whoopie Goldberg! Haha.

I think the most likely explanation is that the evolution of the enzyme amylase in our saliva that breaks down starches, the evolution of alcohol dehydrogenase which allowed us to metabolize ethanol, along with the invention of cooking starches with fire, meant that we had access to storable grains and fermented beverages which were able to provide a steady supply of calories year round.