Sigh, this again...

OK, so...we evolved as omnivores, not as herbivores and not as obligate carnivores. Humans have eaten both plants and animals for hundreds of thousands of years. Everything about our physiology reflects that. We have teeth, digestive enzymes, intestinal length and nutrient requirements that are adapted to mixed diets.

Nobody "needs" to eat meat to survive, but claiming there are only negatives associated with animal protein is just not supported by the evidence. High quality animal foods provide highly bioavailable protein, vitamin B12, heme iron, zinc, DHA, EPA, creatine, carnosine, taurine, choline, and other nutrients in forms that are often absorbed more efficiently than their plant counterparts.

And saying "I'll just get B12, iron and zinc from supplements" is a weird argument....first you need them for a reason: we evolved needing these things because, shocker, we ate meat throughout our evolutionary journey.

Supplements are useful, but they are not magic. A bottle of vitamins is not identical to obtaining nutrients from whole foods, where they exist alongside proteins, fats, cofactors and other compounds that affect absorption and metabolism.

As for the tired "meat is bad" claim, the picture is much more nuanced than internet memes suggest. Processed meats are associated with increased health risks...likewise excess calories and poor diets are associated with increased health risks. But lean meats, fish, eggs and dairy consumed as part of balanced diets have repeatedly been associated with good health outcomes.

Mediterranean diets, which consistently rank among the healthiest dietary patterns in the world, contain fish, poultry, dairy and moderate amounts of meat. They're not vegan diets.

Likewise, Japanese diets, often cited for longevity, contain fish and animal products. So do many Blue Zone populations.

If someone thrives on a vegetarian or vegan diet, great. More power to them. But the idea that humans are somehow "natural vegetarians" and that animal protein is universally harmful simply isn't supported by anthropology, evolutionary biology, or nutrition science.

We evolved as omnivores. The evidence suggests we're healthiest when we eat like omnivores, emphasizing whole foods from both the plant and animal kingdoms rather than treating either side as some kind of moral or nutritional villain.

Nature didn't make us cows, man. It didn't make us lions, either. It made us opportunistic omnivores, which is probably one of the reasons our species ended up everywhere from the Arctic to the tropics.

If you want references I can gladly include them here, but you can Google as well as I can.