Does Evolution help those who help themselves?

[Fishstick]

There have been those that have proposed that better nutrition may have had an effect on brain growth, but I admit I haven't kept up with any of those speculations....
If you think about it, it sounds a little like Lamark...

I've heard/Read this more specifically that cooked food requires much less chewing, therefore requires less bulky chewing muscles and can support a smaller jaw, so leaving more room for the brain cage.

 

[Beerina]

There have been those that have proposed that better nutrition may have had an effect on brain growth, but I admit I haven't kept up with any of those speculations....
If you think about it, it sounds a little like Lamark...

We also assume full nutrition is a good thing, and it sure seems to be. But we didn't evolve in a world of plenty. We evolved on a world of struggle. Growing every body part to its max potential might not be a well-buffed and optimized configiration.

We know lots of food has health problems of its own, e.g. clogged arteries that evolution had rare opportunity to work on once breeding age was past.

We know the evolved desire to cram food into your mouth becomes a liability rather than bonus. This is in addition to the confounding factor of sedentary work lifestyle, stripping the need for about 1000 calories a day from people.