Meat is Good. No meat, not so good. Brain, and Mind, of humans is linked to this eating habit as glue. Why? Our bodies need vitamin B12.

If there is something that characterizes strictly vegetarian diets (those that are not ovo-lacto-vegetarian) it is the risk of a lack of vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 or cobalamin is crucial to our development and plays a very important role in the development of the brain, the nervous system and the formation of blood.

It also affects the synthesis and regulation of DNA in cells. B12 deficiency can have irreversible consequences for the nervous system and the brain, but its detection is very complex. Its lack has also been associated with states of psychosis or manias.
Whether directly or indirectly, bacteria are organisms capable of synthesizing B12. Thus, herbivores, obtain B12, through the fermentation that bacteria make in the rumen, and from there passes to the rest of the food chain to carnivores. Although some vitamin B12 can be obtained from strictly plant sources, according to the UK Vegan Society, its bioavailability is very low.

In general, strict vegan diets should be supplemented with yeast or laboratory-synthesized sources of vitamin B12. You may be wondering, if this element is so crucial to our survival, how have we not been able to create it ourselves? After all, some of our close relatives, like gorillas, are vegetarians and do not need meat to get it. Well, the truth is that gorillas also lack B12.

You could also ask how they are managed by ruminant mammals that do not eat meat. Cows eat grass, and really their bacteria feeds on grass. The cows are limited to letting the grass well chewed (ruminated) and to drink the soup of bacteria, which are responsible for synthesizing the B12.

In our case, the moment we changed our predominantly vegetable diet to a more carnivorous diet, we became dependent on animal proteins as a source of vitamin B12. Like everything in the development of humans beings evolution is a matter of cost benefit. We acceded to a dense nutritional source, which allowed us to shorten our digestive system, and to derive this energy towards our greatest consumer, our brain.

This phenomenon is known as Kleiber's Law, which shows the relationship between size of the digestive system and size of the brain. The larger one, the smaller the other. That is, less energy we must dedicate to digestion, and more we can dedicate to "thinking". Of course, to achieve this, you need access to more condensed nutritional sources such as meats and fats. In addition, the control of the fire allowed us to make them more digestible and our greater brain allowed us to design our own teeth to hunt, in the form of axes and spears.

Many argue that the proof that we are not carnivorous is that we have no canines teeth. The reality is that, it was not necessary to develop canines, because our spears were our canines. Nature is very austere, and if you can spare one more tooth it does. In the same way, the domain of fire allowed us to make digestible parts of other animals, such as lean meat or fat, while shortening our digestive systems in length. In fact, it is more than likely that during the periods of the great glaciations, our access to plant food sources was very limited or zero. Our diet in that case should have been very like that of the present Eskimos.

The reality is that quite possibly, we would have lost our ability to synthesize B12 much earlier. If you look, something that differentiates us radically from our cousins gorillas, is that they have a considerable gut, while, while ours (at least those that are not like Obelix) are flat. Where did all that volume end up. To the brain. You can say that we change guts per head, and we became smarter than our relatives, although sometimes it does not look like it.

We get meat vitamin B12 ... well gorillas look for their bacteria and through coprophagy (the eating of faeces or dung). Yes, I'm sorry, it's very eschatological (the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.), but nature is very wise. Since they can synthesize it by themselves, and do not eat meat, except small invertebrates, when they feel lacking in B12, they resort to their own feces, which, being composed of bacteria, do have a certain amount of B12.

If you are vegetarian or vegan, you will be thinking that it is not true, that you have no deficiencies of this type etc ... If you really do not have deficiencies is because you will be taking supplement. If you're not doing it, it is recommend by specialist in this area of studies you look at your B12 levels by a medic. It is not meant to scare anyone, but a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that in 174 healthy individuals in Germany and the Netherlands, 92% of those on a strict vegan diet had B12 deficiency. Among ovo-lacto-vegetarians 2 out of 3 and only 5% of those consuming animal proteins had this deficiency.

It is not intended nor is the subject of this post questioning vegetarianism or veganism; there is no question about the perfectly respectable moral or environmental reasons that can make a person make the decision to opt for a type of diet as a way of life.

However, it would lack the truth, if this post did not share with you the anthropological, evolutionary and biological data that are behind our need to eat animal proteins. In fact, it can help people with special diets to adjust them better. For example, taking vitamin supplements or incorporating some extra sources of animal vitamin B12 or perhaps fermented foods such as miso or Tempe, even if only to stay in good health, and continue to claim with all energy, those environmental causes or ethics they deem appropriate.

I like the best of both "worlds".

The development of humans beings has chosen the route of eating meat or animal products. As for quantity and quality, it is impossible to know for sure if there are ways to consume animals, not only healthy but respectful with the environment and animals, which not only help to maintain it, but improve it.

References:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/
https://universe-review.ca/R10-35-metabolic.htm
http://www.easy-immune-health.com/vitamin-b-12-deficiency-symptoms.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://www.vegansociety.com/
http://www.afmfc.com/meal-planning-the-plate-method/

---

Are you into this type of topics, plus others like science, technology, human state, politics? Keep the conversation alive …. UPVOTE & perhaps, RESTEEM, and in addition you might want to click on the FOLLOW for further interesting posts. I do appreciate your comments,

@indepthstory