Meat Myth Undone

Think humans needed meat in their diets in order to evolve? Best-selling author Kathy Freston of the Huffington Post says it isn’t so, and that you needn’t look further than your own hands for proof: “[O]ur hands are perfect for grabbing and picking fruits and vegetables,” she writes. There’s more, and it has to do with agriculture, the length of our intestines, and basic physiology. Her conclusion is that just because we choose to eat meat doesn’t necessarily mean that we have the physiological make-up to be omnivores. Numerous diet-related health problems—heart disease, obesity, cancer—should be enough evidence for that.