Chanteyranger, I've seen Forks over Knives too, it's quite good - based strongly on The China Study book I believe. Every few months in the UK - or so it seems - some new study comes out that shows vegetarian lifestyles help to prevent pretty much all the major killers common to the modern West: such as heart disease, diabetes, some forms of cancer and so-on.

While it's true that like pigs, we are omnivorous and thereby *able* to consume pretty much anything we can find or scavenge, unlike cats say, we're not natural born carnivores; we are slow, we have no claws, no genuinely sharp teeth (try killing a rabbit in one swift bite with human 'canines'), we have to cook our meat to make it edible, we have long intestine more suited to plant foods and so on. As such I don't think the human body was designed to cope with the vast quantities of meat typical to the SAD (you could equally read that as 'Standard Western Diet' but SAD makes a better sounding acronym!) However it also seems clear, that are bodies do require *some* non-plant foods to keep us topped up with B12 which I believe is the only nutrient that we can't synthesise from plant sources. From what I've read, historical proto-humans being pretty smart, would do much as some tribes still do, and that is make use of 'found' animal foods; insects, grubs and worms - and also molluscs if near the sea - things you can dig out of the ground and forage for with nimble fingers that are able to grasp and manipulate (just check out that lovely gorilla carefully picking off her favourite bits to munch on!), all stuff we are good at and perfectly adapted for.

So I think there's certainly a case for arguing that we are adapted to have *some* animal products in our diet and that a couple of ounces say, may be fine and not harmful, but it really should be only a little for optimum health - a handful grubs as a little side dish! Certainly nothing like bacon and eggs for breakfast, ham sandwiches for lunch and beef stew for dinner, which some people seem to think is just fine, because 'protein.' Honestly, where did this obsession with protein originate, no-one seems to ask "where do you get your vitamins and minerals?"

Anyway sorry if I took your thread off on a tangent. As humans are pretty smart, we are able to make foods fortified with B12, so there's really no *need* in the modern world for any animal foods in the diet. I have nutritional yeast which is a great product if you haven't already found it, naturally high in B vits but usually can be found fortified with B12. Definitely try it, it's good stuff. I've made vegan pate with it (along with sunflower seeds, carrots and potatoes) super tasty!