This title appears to be knowingly misleading. Towards the end it actually goes on to say 'And cooking is what he thinks really changed our modern body'. In fact it could just have easily been cooked starchy foods that had the biggest impact in supplying more calories. Either way it was the additional supply of calories that made the difference - not some magical ingredient of meat. I guess the diet Taliban are a ready audience for a journalist without any actual original research to report on.
Large-scale agriculture and cooking made us even smarter. A good pot of rice and beans will net you even more energy with less work than meat. It's also less likely to spoil and give you any number of diseases.
Organic meat may be good in small doses. However most of the meat today is not the same as it was centuries ago. The book "The China Study" does a good job at explaining the diseases caused by meat.
Perhaps the cooking is key, as stated in this article: <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/08/990810064914.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/08/990810064914.ht...</a><p>Digesting meat is a lengthy process, which I'd have thought would still tire us.<p>I thought it was pretty conclusive that our digestive systems weren't suited for meat, and that's why there is so much colon cancer.<p>The raw foodies suggest that cooked food, triggers an immune reaction. Though you'd have thought we might have gotten used to it by now.<p>You'd have thought the powers that be would have figured out optimal human nutrition by now!
What is this person suggesting?<p>I'm assuming that the size of a person's brain is based on two things. First, their genes. Second, the environment including diet.<p>If the researcher is suggesting that diet increases brain size, well that should be easy to measure on living people and will give a fairly definitive answer.<p>If the researcher is suggesting that eating meat changed our genes, well that needs to be explained.
The older I get the more I realize our biology has an agenda of its own. I wonder if people who smoke cigarettes are really unconsciously building up their immune systems for their great great great grand children for an unforeseen future where the atmosphere gets really bad and they need the immunity to live long lives.<p>These kinds of thoughts make for great sci-fi.