The Need for Meat Consumption

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Meat consumption was needed for the evolution of human kind.
1Eating meat in the early stages of mankind’s existence played a major role in how mankind has evolved into the race that is seen today. Cut marks found on bones found around 2.6 million years ago suggest that the early humans started eating meat around that time. When tools and weapons became available, it changed everything for human kind. The use of tools and weapons allowed humans to hunt their food, and the use of the animals was a huge change to their way of life. Hunting allowed early man shelter, clothing, and food. Adding protein to early man’s diet was a huge step in brain development. Scientists began to recognize butchery marks on early stone age fossils in the 1980’s. In a study by Leslie Aiello, an anthropologist and director of the Wenner-Gren Foundation in New York City, she says that early humans ate a lot of berries, and roots, and shrubbery. In order to get the nutrients that they needed for survival they had to consume large amounts of berries, and roots, and plant material. Because of this they had larger guts, but there was a drawback to having these large guts, the body would put more energy into the growth of the guts instead of into the brain. Eating Meat and marrow are calorie dense resources with essential amino acids and nutrients. Eating meat allowed early man’s body to devote more energy towards the development of the brain instead of the large gut that processed all the veggie material. Leslie Aiello quotes "you can't have a large brain and big guts at the same time."
2According to the National Cattleman’s Association there are 2 types of proteins. Lean meats, eggs and dairy products are considered complete high quality sources...

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...e Least Harm Principle May Require That Humans Consume a Diet Containing Large Herbivores, Not a Vegan Diet," Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 2003.
Hermann Wolfgang. et al., "Vitamin B-12 Status, Particularly Holotranscobalamin II and Methylmalonic Acid Concentrations, and Hyperhomocysteinemia in Vegetarians," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. July 2003.
Jensen Derrick. "The Plants Respond: An Interview with Cleve Backster." The Sun, July 1997.
Milton R. Mills, "The Comparative Anatomy of Eating," www.vegsource.com, Nov. 21, 2009
National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "The Environment and Cattle Production: Fact Sheet" (533 KB). www.explorebeef.org (accessed Jan. 13, 2011.)
Herman Pontzer (Dept. of Anthropology, Hunter College; New York Consortium for Evolutionary Primatology) © 2012 Nature Education
http://vegetarian.procon.org/#did_you_know

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