If you have ever struggled to gnaw your way through a fatty chunk of Aberdeen Angus or a forkful of fibrous kale, then take heart. It is your large brain which is causing the problem.

While other omnivores evolved powerful biting muscles as they increased in body size, humans instead poured their developmental resources into more cerebral matters.

In the space where muscles critical for hard biting should be housed, humans grew bigger brains and with the extra thinking capacity, invented cooking, which made food softer, further diminishing the need for bone-crushing jaws.

The new findings were uncovered by researchers at the universities of Reading and Lincoln who used computer analysis to study bite force data from 434 species, both extinct and living, including reptiles, birds and mammals.

Dr Manabu Sakamoto, biological scientist from Reading and lead author of the study, said: “Our study shows that the evolutionary lineage leading up to modern humans was associated with a rapid decrease in bite force.

“This fits with previous studies showing a similar rapid reduction in molar tooth size in ancient humans, but also coincides with the enlargement of the brain along with the invention of cooking.

“As the brain got larger, our ancestors lost the necessary space to house powerful jaw closing muscles - so we can say that we lost the ability to bite and chew hard as a trade-off for acquiring a bigger brain.”