The Joy of Cooking

It has been determined that, left to their own devices, humans and apes like their food cooked. A story in New India Press relates the following:

Scientists have shown that our ancestors had a natural liking for cooked meals, by finding that several great apes, like humans, seem to prefer cooked foods over raw.

The authors says that the findings indicate that our ancestors had an intrinsic preference for cooked meals, and most likely had a preference for cooked foods before controlled fire emerged.

According to the team, since that happened between one million and 1.6 million years ago, hominids probably began to cook their food not long thereafter.

It probably saved on food poisoning problems as well.