This technology made a very important impact on us. It changed the way our history developed. But it's a technology so pervasive, so invisible, that we, for a long time, forgot to take it into account when we talked about human evolution. But we see the results of this technology, still. So let's make a little test. So everyone of you turns to their neighbor please. Turn and face your neighbors. Please, also on the balcony. Smile. Smile. Open the mouths. Smile, friendly. (Laughter) Do you -- Do you see any Canine teeth? (Laughter) Count Dracula teeth in the mouths of your neighbors? Of course not. Because our dental anatomy is actually made, not for tearing down raw meat from bones or chewing fibrous leaves for hours. It is made for a diet which is soft, mushy, which is reduced in fibers, which is very easily chewable and digestible. Sounds like fast food, doesn't it.
Ova je tehnologija jako utjecala na nas. Promijenila je način na koji se naša povijest razvijala. Ali to je tako sveprisutna i tajna tehnologija da smo dugo vremena zaboravili računati na nju kada smo govorili o ljudskoj evoluciji. Ipak vidimo rezultate te tehnologije. Načinimo mali test. Neka se svatko od vas okrene prema svom susjedu. Okrenite se prema svom susjedu. Molim vas, i vi na balkonu. Nasmiješite se. Nasmiješite se. Otvorite usta. Prijateljski se nasmiješite. (Smijeh) Vidite li - Vidite li očnjake? (Smijeh) Zube grofa Drakule u ustima svojih susjeda? Naravno da ne. Zato što naša zubna anatomija nije namijenjena za kidanje sirovog mesa ili žvakanje vlaknastog lišća satima. Napravljena je za meku prehranu, kašastu, koja je reducirana na vlakna, koja se vrlo lako žvače i probavlja. Zvuči poput brze hrane, zar ne?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
It's for cooked food. We carry in our face the proof that cooking, food transformation, made us what we are. So I would suggest that we change how we classify ourselves. We talk about ourselves as omnivores. I would say, we should call ourselves coctivors -- (Laughter) from coquere, to cook. We are the animals who eat cooked food. No, no, no, no. Better -- to live of cooked food. So cooking is a very important technology. It's technology. I don't know how you feel, but I like to cook for entertainment. And you need some design to be successful. So, cooking is a very important technology, because it allowed us to acquire what brought you all here: the big brain, this wonderful cerebral cortex we have. Because brains are expensive. Those have to pay tuition fees know. (Laughter) But it's also, metabolically speaking, expensive. You now, our brain is two to three percent of the body mass, but actually it uses 25 percent of the total energy we use. It's very expensive. Where does the energy come from. Of course, from food. If we eat raw food, we cannot release really the energy. So this ingenuity of our ancestors, to invent this most marvelous technology. Invisible -- everyone of us does it every day, so to speak. Cooking made it possible that mutations, natural selections, our environment, could develop us.
Namijenjena je kuhanoj hrani. Na svojim licima nosimo dokaz da nas je kuhanje, preobrazba hrane, učinilo onima što jesmo. Predlažem da promijenimo svoju klasifikaciju. Sebe nazivamo svejedima. Kažem da se trebamo zvati coctivorima -- (Smijeh) od coquere, što znači kuhati. Životinje smo koje jedu kuhanu hranu. Ne, ne, ne, ne. Još bolje -- životinje smo koje žive od kuhane hrane. Kuhanje je vrlo važna tehnologija. To je tehnologija. Ne znam kako se vi osjećate, ali ja volim kuhati radi zabave. I trebate nešto dizajna da biste bili uspješni. Dakle, kuhanje je jako važna tehnologija zato što nam je omogućila da dobijemo ono što vas je dovelo sve ovamo: veliki mozak, ovu divnu moždanu koru koju imamo. Jer mozgovi su skupi. Tako da sada moramo plaćati školarine. (Smijeh) Ali oni su i metabolički skupi. Znate, naš mozak iznosi dva do tri posto naše mase, ali zapravo troši 25 posto ukupne energije koju koristimo. To je vrlo skupo. Odakle ta energija dolazi? Naravno, iz hrane. Ako jedemo sirovu hranu, ne možemo zapravo osloboditi energiju. To je domišljatost naših predaka, izumiti ovu predivnu tehnologiju. Nevidljivu -- svatko je od nas koristi svaki dan, tako reći. Kuhanje je omogućilo da nas mutacije, prirodni odabir i okoliš razviju.
So if we think about this unleashing human potential, which was possible by cooking and food, why do we talk so badly about food? Why is it always do and don'ts and it's good for you, it's not good for you? I think the good news for me would be if we could go back and talk about the unleashing, the continuation of the unleashing of human potential. Now, cooking allowed also that we became a migrant species. We walked out of Africa two times. We populated all the ecologies. If you can cook, nothing can happen to you, because whatever you find, you will try to transform it. It keeps also your brain working. Now the very easy and simple technology which was developed actually runs after this formula. Take something which looks like food, transform it, and it gives you a good, very easy, accessible energy.
Ako razmišljamo o ovome oslobođenom ljudskom potencijalu, koji je omogućen kuhanjem i hranom, zašto tako ružno govorimo o hrani? Zašto su to uvijek ono što se smije i što se ne smije i što je dobro za tebe i što nije dobro za tebe? Mislim da bi za mene dobra vijest bila kad bismo se mogli vratiti i govoriti o oslobađanju, nastavku oslobađanja ljudskog potencijala. Kuhanje nam je također omogućilo da postanemo migrirajuća vrsta. Izašli smo iz Afrike dva puta. Napučili smo sve oko sebe. Ako znaš kuhati, ništa ti se ne može dogoditi jer što god nađeš, probat ćeš to promijeniti. To čini i da vam mozak radi. Vrlo lagana i jednostavna tehnologija koja je razvijena radi po ovoj formuli. Uzmi nešto što izgleda kao hrana, transformiraj to i dobiješ dobru, vrlo lako dostupnu energiju.
This technology affected two organs, the brain and the gut, which it actually affected. The brain could grow, but the gut actually shrunk. Okay, it's not obvious to be honest. (Laughter) But it shrunk to 60 percent of primate gut of my body mass. So because of having cooked food, it's easier to digest. Now having a large brain, as you know, is a big advantage, because you can actually influence your environment. You can influence your own technologies you have invented. You can continue to innovate and invent. Now the big brain did this also with cooking. But how did it actually run this show? How did it actually interfere? What kind of criteria did it use? And this is actually taste reward and energy. You know we have up to five tastes, three of them sustain us. Sweet -- energy. Umami -- this is a meaty taste. You need proteins for muscles, recovery. Salty, because you need salt, otherwise your electric body will not work. And two tastes which protect you -- bitter and sour, which are against poisonous and rotten material. But of course, they are hard-wired but we use them still in a sophisticated way. Think about bittersweet chocolate; or think about the acidity of yogurt -- wonderful -- mixed with strawberry fruits.
Ova je tehnologija utjecala na dva organa, na mozak i na crijeva. Mozak je mogao rasti, ali se crijevo zapravo smanjilo. Dobro, to nije očito, da budem iskren. (Smijeh) Ali se smanjilo na 60 posto crijeva primata u odnosu na tjelesnu masu. Zbog kuhane hrane, lakše je probavljati. Imati velik mozak, kao što znate, je velika prednost jer zapravo možete utjecati na svoju okolinu. Možete utjecati na tehnologije koje ste izmislili. Možete nastaviti inovirati i izumljivati. Veliki je mozak isto napravio i s kuhanjem. Ali kako je zapravo to učinio? Kako se zapravo umiješao? Koji je kriterij koristio? To su zapravo nagrada za okus i energiju. Znate da imamo do pet okusa, tri nas održavaju. Slatko – energija. Umami – to je mesni okus. Trebate proteine za mišiće, oporavak. Slano, zato što trebate sol, inače vam električno tijelo neće raditi. I dva okusa koja nas štite – gorko i kiselo, koji su protiv otrovnih i pokvarenih tvari. Ali, naravno, stečeni su, ali ih ipak koristimo na sofisticiran način. Razmislite o gorkoslatkoj čokoladi. Ili razmislite o kiselosti jogurta -- predivno -- pomiješano s jagodama.
So we can make mixtures of all this kind of thing because we know that, in cooking, we can transform it to the form. Reward: this is a more complex and especially integrative form of our brain with various different elements -- the external states, our internal states, how do we feel, and so on are put together. And something which maybe you don't like but you are so hungry that you really will be satisfied to eat. So satisfaction was a very important part. And as I say, energy was necessary.
Možemo napraviti mješavine svih ovih stvari zato što znamo da to u kuhanju možemo preobraziti u oblik. Nagrada: ovo je složeniji i posebno integrativni oblik našeg mozga s različitim elementima – vanjskim stanjima, našim unutarnjim stanjima, kako se osjećamo i slično, koji su spojeni. I nešto što možda ne volite, ali ste toliko gladni da ćete biti sretni ako to pojedete. Zadovoljstvo je vrlo važan dio. I kao što rekoh, energija je bila nužna.
Now how did the gut actually participate in this development? And the gut is a silent voice -- it's going more for feelings. I use the euphemism digestive comfort -- actually -- it's a digestive discomfort, which the gut is concerned with. If you get a stomach ache, if you get a little bit bloated, was not the right food, was not the right cooking manipulation or maybe other things went wrong. So my story is a tale of two brains, because it might surprise you, our gut has a full-fledged brain. All the managers in the room say, "You don't tell me something new, because we know, gut feeling. This is what we are using." (Laughter) And actually you use it and it's actually useful. Because our gut is connected to our emotional limbic system, they do speak with each other and make decisions. But what it means to have a brain there is that, not only the big brain has to talk with the food, the food has to talk with the brain, because we have to learn actually how to talk to the brains.
Kako su zapravo crijeva sudjelovala u ovom razvoju? Crijeva su zapravo tihi glas. Više djeluju na osjećaje. Koristim eufemizam probavna ugoda. Zapravo, to je probavna neugoda koja muči crijeva. Ako vas boli trbuh, ako se pomalo napušete, nešto nije bilo u redu s hranom, ili s procesom kuhanja, ili je možda nešto drugo pošlo po krivu. Moja je priča priča o dva mozga, jer možda vas začudi da naša utroba ima pravi pravcati mozak. Svi menadžeri u sobi govore: „Nisi mi rekao ništa novo, znamo za „osjećaj u trbuhu“. Mi to koristimo.“ (Smijeh) To doista i koristite, i korisno je. Naša su crijeva povezana s našim emocionalnim limbičkim sustavom. Oni međusobno komuniciraju i donose odluke. Ali ono što znači da imamo mozak ondje je to da ne mora samo veliki mozak pričati s hranom, već da i hrana mora pričati s velikim mozgom zato što moramo naučiti zapravo kako pričati s mozgovima.
Now if there's a gut brain, we should also learn to talk with this brain. Now 150 years ago, anatomists described very, very carefully -- here is a model of a wall of a gut. I took the three elements -- stomach, small intestine and colon. And within this structure, you see these two pinkish layers, which are actually the muscle. And between this muscle, they found nervous tissues, a lot of nervous tissues, which penetrate actually the muscle -- penetrate the submucosa, where you have all the elements for the immune system. The gut is actually the largest immune system, defending your body. It penetrates the mucosa. This is the layer which actually touches the food you are swallowing and you digest, which is actually the lumen. Now if you think about the gut, the gut is -- if you could stretch it -- 40 meters long, the length of a tennis court. If we could unroll it, get out all the folds and so on, it would have 400 sq. meters of surface.
Ako postoji mozak u crijevima, moramo naučiti razgovarati s njim. Prije 150 godina, anatomi su vrlo, vrlo detaljno objasnili ovaj model stjenke crijeva. Uzeo sam tri elementa – želudac, tanko crijevo i debelo crijevo. I u ovim strukturama vidite ova dva ružičasta sloja koja su zapravo mišići. I između ovih su mišića pronašli živčano tkivo, mnogo živčanog tkiva, koje probija mišić, probija podsluznicu u kojoj imate sve elemente imunosnog sustava. Crijeva su zapravo najveći imunosni sustav koji štiti vaše tijelo. Probija i sluznicu. Ovo je sloj koji zapravo dodiruje hranu koju gutamo i probavljamo, a to je lumen. Ako razmislite o crijevima, ona su, kad bismo ih rastegli, duga 40 metara, to je dužina teniskog igrališta. Kad bismo ih mogli razviti, izravnati sve nabore i slično, imala bi 400 kvadratnih metara površine.
And now this brain takes care over this, to move it with the muscles and to do defend the surface and, of course, digest our food we cook. So if we give you a specification, this brain, which is autonomous, have 500 million nerve cells, 100 million neurons -- so around the size of a cat brain, so there sleeps a little cat -- thinks for itself, optimizes whatever it digests. It has 20 different neuron types. It's got the same diversity you find actually in a pig brain, where you have 100 billion neurons. It has autonomous organized microcircuits, has these programs which run. It senses the food; it knows exactly what to do. It senses it by chemical means and very importantly by mechanical means, because it has to move the food -- it has to mix all the various elements which we need for digestion. This control of muscle is very, very important, because, you know, there can be reflexes. If you don't like a food, especially if you're a child, you gag. It's this brain which makes this reflex. And then finally, it controls also the secretion of this molecular machinery, which actually digests the food we cook.
Taj se mozak brine o tome da taj sloj pomiče mišićima i da brani površinu, i naravno, da probavlja hranu koju skuhamo. Ako vam damo specifikacije, ovaj mozak, koji je autonoman, ima 500 milijuna živčanih stanica, 100 milijuna neurona, veličine je mozga mačke. Dakle, tu spava mala mačka -- razmišlja za sebe, optimizira što god probavlja. Ima 20 različitih tipova neurona. Ima jednaku raznolikost kao mozak svinje, gdje imamo 100 milijardi neurona. Ima autonomne mikrokrugove, ima programe koje izvršava. Osjeća hranu, točno zna što učiniti. Osjeća to pomoću kemije i, što je vrlo važno, pomoću mehanike, zato što mora pomicati hranu, mora pomiješati sve različite elemente koje trebamo za probavu. Ova kontrola mišića je jako, jako važna, zato što postoje refleksi. Ako ne volite neku hranu, posebno ako ste dijete, povratite. Ovaj mozak uvjetuje taj refleks. I konačno, on kontrolira sekreciju ovog molekularnog mehanizma koji zapravo probavlja hranu koju skuhamo.
Now how do the two brains work with each other? I took here a model from robotics -- it's called the Subsumption Architecture. What it means is that we have a layered control system. The lower layer, our gut brain, has its own goals -- digestion defense -- and we have the higher brain with the goal of integration and generating behaviors. Now both look -- and this is the blue arrows -- both look to the same food, which is in the lumen and in the area of your intestine. The big brain integrates signals, which come from the running programs of the lower brain, But subsumption means that the higher brain can interfere with the lower. It can replace, or it can inhibit actually, signals. So if we take two types of signals -- a hunger signal for example. If you have an empty stomach, your stomach produces a hormone called ghrelin. It's a very big signal; it's sent to the brain says, "Go and eat." You have stop signals -- we have up to eight stop signals. At least in my case, they are not listened to. (Laughter)
Kako ta dva mozga surađuju? Uzeo sam model iz robotike. Zove se Supsumcijska Arhitektura. To znači da imamo slojevit kontrolni sustav. Donji sloj, mozak naše utrobe, ima svoje ciljeve – probavnu obranu. Imamo i viši mozak s ciljem integracije i stvaranja ponašanja. Sad oba gledaju, to su plave strjelice, oba gledaju istu hranu, koja je u lumenu i u prostoru vašeg crijeva. Veliki mozak integrira signale, koji dolaze od programa koji rade u nižem mozgu. Ali supsumcija znači da viši mozak može interferirati s nižim. Može zamijeniti ili inhibirati signale. Ako uzmemo dvije vrste signala, na primjer signal za glad. Ako imate prazan želudac, vaš želudac luči hormon grelin. To je vrlo jak signal. Kad ode do mozga kaže: “Idi jesti.“ Imate i zaustavne signale. Imamo do osam zaustavnih signala. U mom ih slučaju nitko ne sluša. (Smijeh)
So what happens if the big brain in the integration overrides the signal? So if you override the hunger signal, you can have a disorder, which is called anorexia. Despite generating a healthy hunger signal, the big brain ignores it and activates different programs in the gut. The more usual case is overeating. It actually takes the signal and changes it, and we continue, even [though] our eight signals would say, "Stop, enough. We have transferred enough energy." Now the interesting thing is that, along this lower layer -- this gut -- the signal becomes stronger and stronger if undigested, but digestible, material could penetrate. This we found from bariatric surgery. That then the signal would be very, very high.
Što se dogodi kad veliki mozak pri integraciji zaobiđe signal? Ako zaobiđete signal za glad, imate poremećaj koji se zove anoreksija. Unatoč stvaranju zdravog signala za glad, veliki ga mozak ignorira i aktivira drugi program u crijevima. Češći slučaj je prejedanje. Ono uzme signal i promijeni ga i mi nastavimo iako naših osam signala govore: „Stani. Dosta. Prenijeli smo dovoljno energije.“ Zanimljivo je da u ovim nižim slojevima, signal postaje jači i jači ako neprobavljena, ali probavljiva hrana prođe. Ovo smo saznali tijekom barijatrične kirurgije. Da je onda signal jako, jako snažan.
So now back to the cooking question and back to the design. We have learned to talk to the big brain -- taste and reward, as you know. Now what would be the language we have to talk to the gut brain that its signals are so strong that the big brain cannot ignore it? Then we would generate something all of us would like to have -- a balance between the hunger and the satiation. Now I give you, from our research, a very short claim. This is fat digestion. You have on your left an olive oil droplet, and this olive oil droplet gets attacked by enzymes. This is an in vitro experiment. It's very difficult to work in the intestine. Now everyone would expect that when the degradation of the oil happens, when the constituents are liberated, they disappear, they go away because they [were] absorbed. Actually, what happens is that a very intricate structure appears. And I hope you can see that there are some ring-like structures in the middle image, which is water. This whole system generates a huge surface to allow more enzymes to attack the remaining oil. And finally, on your right side, you see a bubbly, cell-like structure appearing, from which the body will absorb the fat. Now if we could take this language -- and this is a language of structures -- and make it longer-lasting, that it can go through the passage of the intestine, it would generate stronger signals.
Vratimo se na pitanje kuhanja i dizajna. Naučili smo pričati s velikim mozgom – okus i nagrada, kako znate. Kojim bismo jezikom trebali pričali mozgu u crijevima da bi njegovi signali bili tako jaki da ih veliki mozak ne može ignorirati? Onda bismo stvorili nešto što bismo svi voljeli imati – ravnotežu između gladi i zasićenosti. Sad vam iznosim, iz našeg istraživanja, vrlo kratku tvrdnju. Ovo je probava masti. Na lijevo imate kap maslinova ulja i nju napadaju enzimi. Ovo je in vitro eksperiment. Vrlo je teško raditi u crijevima. Svi bismo očekivali da kad se dogodi degradacija ulja, kad se sastavnice oslobode, da nestanu, da odu zato što su upijene. Zapravo se dogodi to da se pojavi vrlo složena struktura. Nadam se da vidite da ovdje imamo neke prstenaste strukture u sredini slike, a to je voda. Ovaj cijeli sustav stvara ogromnu površinu da bi dopustio većem broju enzima da napadnu ostatak ulja. Konačno, na desnoj strani vidimo mjehuričastu strukturu sličnu stanici koja nastaje iz koje će tijelo upiti masnoću. Kad bismo mogli uzeti taj jezik, a to je jezik struktura, i učiniti ga dugotrajnijim, da može proći kroz crijevo, stvorio bi jači signal.
So our research -- and I think the research also at the universities -- are now fixing on these points to say: how can we actually -- and this might sound trivial now to you -- how can we change cooking? How can we cook that we have this language developed? So what we have actually, it's not an omnivore's dilemma. We have a coctivor's opportunity, because we have learned over the last two million years which taste and reward -- quite sophisticated to cook -- to please ourselves, to satisfy ourselves. If we add the matrix, if we add the structure language, which we have to learn, when we learn it, then we can put it back; and around energy, we could generate a balance, which comes out from our really primordial operation: cooking. So, to make cooking really a very important element, I would say even philosophers have to change and have to finally recognize that cooking is what made us.
Naše istraživanje, i mislim i istraživanje na fakultetima, dorađuju te točke kako bi rekli: kako možemo zapravo, a to sad može zvučati trivijalno, kako možemo promijeniti kuhanje? Kako možemo kuhati da imamo taj jezik razvijen? Mi zapravo nemamo dilemu svejeda. Imamo mogućnost coctivora, jer smo naučili tijekom dva milijuna godina kojim se okusima i nagradama, prilično sofisticirano za skuhati, možemo zadovoljiti, ugoditi si. Ako dodamo mrežu, ako dodamo strukturni jezik koji moramo naučiti, kad ga naučimo, tad ga možemo vratiti natrag, i oko energije, mogli bismo stvoriti ravnotežu koja proizlazi iz iskonske radnje: kuhanja. Da bih učinio kuhanje doista važnim elementom, rekao bih da se čak i filozofi moraju mijenjati i trebaju konačno priznati da nas je kuhanje stvorilo.
So I would say, coquo ergo sum: I cook, therefore I am. Thank you very much.
Rekao bih, coquo ergo sum: Kuham, dakle jesam. Puno vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)