I've been adhering to a strict plant based diet, zero meat, zero animal products, for about 6 months now and have been noticing many benefits: weight loss, higher energy, clearer mental focus, etc. Just reporting my experience and not saying others would experience same. Anyway, at work the other day, I overheard a co-worker talking about how protein from meat which our ancestors consumed contributed to brain development and modern man wouldn't be what it is today if we didn't eat meat. I thought he was going a little off the rails here and wanted to interject, but I thought better of it. Even if there is truth to this, once we reach the point of higher development/evolution/modern society where we are making conscious decisions about what we put into our bodies, we can simply choose to "do the least harm", as another member here eloquently put it, to ourselves, to the planet, to other sentient beings, etc. My co-worker's comments did make me want to look into it a little further and here's an interesting article on the subject.
http://www.npr.org/2010/08/02/128849908/food-for-thought-meat-based-diet-made-us-smarter
