You and me both
. While the body can digest meat, it doesn't do it as well as a true carnivore such as a tiger does. Still, we handle saturated fats and cholesterol better than any other primate species. I think it is very likely that our distant ancestors were vegetarian but began eating meat more often as the ancient African plains started to dry out when the climate began shifting. It may have been more a matter of necessity than choice. I won't bore anyone by reciting the tale of human evolution here, but I do think that the enviromental conditions of the time favored individuals that, by some quirk of fate, were better able to digest meat than others.
One thing I'm not clear on is why we cook meat, or any other food. I mean, no other species does this, nor does one ever encounter cooked food in nature, except near forest fires and active volcanoes. Why did we start doing that? Just to improve the flavor and texture? True, cooking kills bacteria and neutralizes some plant toxins, but because the body hasn't had to deal with those things for so long it seems that we've lost the ability to do so. Hence we have
e. coli scares now and then from undercooked foods, mostly meat, while other species seem to get by fine on a diet that's 100% raw. Any thoughts?