Fruit, honey and other naturally sweet foods may have helped fuel the evolution of the human brain, according to new research. The findings offer a different perspective on a longstanding scientific focus on meat consumption as a driver of human evolution. Adobe Stock Sugar Study suggests sugars played a bigger role in brain evolution than previously thought Adobe Stock“While animal foods were important, the brain’s need for glucose has largely received little attention from anthropologists,” Professor Brand-Miller said. Over a period of four million years, human brain size increased from around 300 grams in early hominins to about 1500 grams in modern humans. “The human brain is unusually large for our body size and requires substantial amounts of energy,” Professor Brand-Miller said.