> (Our small stomachs evolved along with our ability
> > to >use fire and other techniques to predigest food. Fire may have been
> > essential to the evolution of a large brain as it released expensive
> > metabolic tissue in the stomach for our metabolically very expensive brain
> > tissue.)

Ellie:
> > I don't see how a connection can be made between these two developments
> in evolution. The body doesn't steal from Peter to pay Paul as far as I
> know. If man continued to eat raw food that contains it's own digestive
> enzymes and chewed it well the stomach would be spared some of the
> digestive work just as if the food had been cooked.

Correction to the above. Sorry, I didn't make clear what I meant about
the body not robbing Peter to pay Paul. I meant in an evolutionary sense.
The body does take from one system to help another system when needed,
but I think this results in what is called an 'acquired characteristic'
in an individual and would not be inherited. People with bigger brains
may have survived better, but I wouldn't think it was related to any
evolutionary changes in the stomach.

My best, Ellie