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Food is the body’s fuel. Now a study finds that the amount of energy in that fuel can depend not just on its calorie content—but on how it’s prepared. And the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could explain an ancient leap in human evolution. [Rachel N. Carmody, Gil S. Weintraub and Richard W. Wrangham, Energetic consequences of thermal and nonthermal food processing]我們能量的來源于食物。如今一項研究表明，食物中的能量不能僅看其含多少卡路里，而還要看這種食物是如何烹飪的。發表在“國家科學研究院學報”上的研究也許能解釋早期人類進化飛躍的原因。

Food’s energy value is usually measured before consumption. But Harvard scientists fed two groups of mice either meat or sweet potatoes and prepared the items differently: either whole or pounded, raw or cooked—to create a variety of diets.通常，我們衡量的是指吃下去之前食物的能量。但是哈佛的科學家們通過觀察兩組小白鼠，給它們分別喂食肉和紅薯。但是這兩組食物的烹飪方式不同：要么吃生的，要么是吃熟的。由此，造成了飲食上的不同。

The researchers then measured the mice. They found that pounded meat and potatoes caused more weight gain than raw food. And that cooking increased weight the most. 研究人員之后發現進食熟肉和熟紅薯的小白鼠更易發胖。得出烹飪是發胖的罪魁禍首。

The extra calories cooking makes available may have allowed the survival of humans with larger bodies and more complex brains, starting almost 2 million years ago. Those physical changes required more energy, and exposing food to fire may have provided that boost.正是這些多出來的卡路里，使人類能夠在兩百萬年前有能量支撐更大的肢體與更復雜的大腦，而存活下來。因為這些生理上的變化需要更多的能量，而把食物放在火里燒烤也許起到了助推的作用。

Of course, a legacy of evolution is that modern humans often gain too much weight. Which might be called a raw deal.當然，作為人類進化的遺產之一，現代人因而常容易發胖。也許一些人寧愿當初不要進化，用變胖換進化，這筆買賣貌似不值得啊。 

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