Which Is Better? Meat or Vegetables?

Depends what the question is. However, in terms of human brain evolution…….meat wins hands down.

Back in August of 2011 I shared some scientific news that what makes humans human, what sets us apart from other animals is cooking. Cooking food softened it making it easier to digest and thus gave humans more time to do other things, like read, think, and build.

But it did more for humans than just give us more time. It made our brains grow bigger and more complex.

What specifically caused our brains to become more complex?

Meat.

Protein.

Reporting on a study from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, according to Christopher Wanjek of the Washington Post, “Eating meat and cooking food made us human, the studies suggest, enabling the brains of our prehuman ancestors to grow dramatically over a few million years.”

And not just grow in size……but to grow complex systems of neurons giving humans the most complex brain in the animal kingdom.

The vegetable or plant diet of animals simply does not provide enough calories to support the complex neurons of the human brain. Again from Wanjek:

“For gorillas to evolve a human like brain, they would need an additional 733 calories a day, which would require two more hours of feeding, …….. A gorilla already spends as much as 80 percent of the tropics’ 12 hours of daylight eating.”

As anthropologist Richard Wrangham in a NPR article explains, “It’s not as if raw food isn’t nutritious; it’s just harder for the body to get at the nutrition.”

Over at the Center for Consumer Freedom we are reminded that, “multiple studies have shown that brain health is improved by Vitamin B12, which the National Institutes of Health helpfully tells us is found in red meat and fish.”

Even more intriguing, again from the Washington Post article cited above, another study published by the magazine PLos ONE shows that humans were eating meat more than 1.5 million years ago; way before cooking was “discovered.” The remains of a prehuman toddler were studied and it was determined he died of malnutrition. The bone was lacking in iron, B6 and B12, the result of a lack of animal protein.

So the next time you dive into a juicy steak don’t feel guilty. Know that you are feeding your brain what it needs to survive.

Of course today with rising grocery prices, higher gasoline prices, and almost double-digit inflation who can afford steak?

We must begin a campaign to ‘Save the Humans.’

Let Us Eat Steak

Featured Recipe Lime Sweet Potato Chips

On a day when I extol the benefits of steak I should share a steak recipe. Right? For me, like for may of you, steak is so expensive it is a rare treat.

However, the recipe I do share is a good side dish for steak or a tasty treat any time including just something to snack on. It makes a quick and tasty after school snack!

This is what you will need for 1-2 servings:

2 sweet potato

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

2 limes

Salt to taste

Here is what you do:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Wash and then zest both limes and get the juice of 1 lime.

Pour the olive oil into a small bowl, add about 1-2 teaspoons of lime juice and whisk until it emulsifies. Reserve any left over lime juice.

Peel the potatoes, and cut into thin slices.

Place on a baking sheet and add the lime juice, olive oil and salt. Toss with your fingers till the potato slices are coated on both sides with the lime oil mixture.

Spread them out in a single layer without over crowding on the baking sheet. You may have to cook in batches or if you have two, on two separate baking sheets.