The Evolution of Food

You wake up hungry. You go to the fridge and make yourself a massive plate of eggs & hashbrowns. Or maybe today you’re feeling a greek yogurt bowl with granola & fruit. But no, what about that slice of pizza you didn’t finish last night? Is that against breakfast law?

What if you woke up and it was 1000 BC? I don’t think your prehistoric fridge will have any dinosaur eggs. And I imagine the Greeks were busy getting ready for their first Olympics rather than formulating their yogurt recipe we’ve all come to love. Food has undergone one of the greatest evolutions of resources since the first humans walked the Earth, not only in form & usage but also in symbolism. The evolution of food is one of the greatest indicators of the sheer achievement humans have experienced since our inception, and we are only at the beginning of it.

via Pinterest

Form

This one is probably the most obvious. For thousands of years, we were hunters & gatherers. We ate raw meat and chewed on tree bark (yes we did). Today, we still eat raw meat (ask our CFO about his choice of steak tartare) yet in much different circumstances. We eat well-processed foods that have dramatically less bacteria and much more oversight before they land on our dinner plates.

We have evolved from raw meat eaters, to stew makers, to farmers, and finally where we are today. Periods of time are marked by our food. We don’t drink mead and eat solely potatoes too often anymore, but if you grew up in the Medieval era or in Ireland hundreds of years ago, you probably did.

The evolution of food in its physical form is most clear in the fact that our appendix is no longer a necessary organ! Our appendix is well-regarded to have helped in our digestion when we were eating, yes you guessed it, raw meat and tree bark. However, with a more refined diet, humans have lost the necessity for it. In fact, many get it removed due to ruptures.

We went from hunting animals and eating them fresh, to scrolling on our phones for the best philly cheesesteak near us. One day, we should put a slab of moose down next to an Omakase dinner to really see the evolution of food in its most obvious light. Advancement in technology and more structured systems for manufacturing food have allowed for food to take on entirely new forms.

Usage

Cavemen left their shelter to hunt for sustenance. Food was the daily goal thousands of years ago with no way of preservation for tomorrow. Find food and live. Or don’t and, uh, yeah. Today, we don’t simply eat when we’re hungry. In fact, that’s a major issue I’m sure many of us have experienced. We eat because there’s food in our fridge, or we’re out with a friend, or that late night pizza just tastes sooo good.

I can’t imagine raw squirrel tastes too great. But dumplings? Yeah, why not get an appetizer of that. Food tastes incredible, and we eat it because we want that glorious goodness in our mouths. Yes, we eat when we’re hungry. But it goes far beyond that for the majority of us.

Food has no longer become the daily goal, the daily task for life. Food has become accessible all around us. We don’t have to go out and hunt for it, we simply have to walk or drive down the street to the local grocery store and decide what we want.

The evolution is food is strongly demonstrated in the advancement of its usage from sustenance and survival to that of luxury. Food is all around us

Image via Big Basket Co

Symbolism

Food is a statement. It has long been a way to express yourself through your status and culture. Chefs proudly cook their cultural delicacies to express their backgrounds through edible masterpieces. Food is a representation of all of us from everywhere in the world. From our financial status to our ethnicity, we all have ways of representing ourselves and we can do it through food. We are diverse so food is too.

People used to want to gain weight as a sign of royalty. Now, boasting about the new diet you’re on is the best sign of healthy living. From Keto to Vegan and everything else, we take pride in our own relationships with food and how they symbolize our goals.

Financially, when you show up to your friend's housewarming party, the presence of veggie sticks vs. high-end hors d'oeuvres will tell you a little more about their status. I imagine if you hunted the largest sabertooth in your cave, you’d have some kind of status too!

Food is a way to represent yourself, your background, your status, and everything in between. The evolution of food is clear in how its shown itself through the years. Our own reflection of food in our body images and the financial statuses it reflects have evolved as fast as food itself has changed.

The evolution of food has been present since the first humans walked this Earth and has only accelerated in recent years. Now, companies like Beyond Meat are now using plants to mimic the tastes and juices of real meat. We are only seeing the beginning stages of manipulating the contents of our food as we steamroll into the next chapter of this evolution. Food has come a long way, but it has plenty left to go. Come share how your own evolutions of food here on Pepper the App!