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Been on both sides of this one. There was a period of time when I was a veggie, citing all the above reasons and more for why I was essentially a rabbit. That was then, now I eat meat as well. And while it's true I've been thinking of going veggie again, my biggest issue is people, usually folks who know better, who think "going green" or being eco-friendly equates with vegetarian. Bullbleep. I fail to see what you eat has anything to do the green living, environmental awareness or self-sufficiency. If I eat a hamburger or steak does this mean I hate the environment? Perish forbid! And please, if you are going to make statements that have a "sciencey" ring to them, by all means back them up.

Sorry if I have offended anyone, I just dislike folks trying to give the impression that to live and believe as I do, I must eat/dress/act a certain way. Peace out and take care.

I would like to point out Gorillas are not primarily on a veggie diet, like MANY primates, they will eat meat if its available. Like Pandas, you would never think a panda would enjoy eating birds, and eggs, but they do, they're just so slow to actually catch them but if they do find one they're eating it. And many primates EAT INSECTS AND BIRD EGGS. Insects is high protein just like meat too.

Humans and many primates are "Opportunistic Carnivores" meaning if presented the opportunity to eat meat, they will eat it.

Many primates are described as being "herbivores" but they have been observed eating meat, they do not often eat meat because the flora around them is much more abundant and much easier to obtain than say chase after a bird. Certain male primates have been observed also to chase down small animals or enemy juveniles and eat them, or even more present them to their favored female, which meat can be a very good ticket to sex.

And you've also left out the point that evolutionary history has shown that if there is more meat available, it factors in nutrients that allow the brain to grow. That is the reason why human brains are 'large' in the aspect of other primates.

For a brain to be larger other factors of our body must be compensated because the brain requires high amounts of energy like our digestive tract. For those with smaller brains there is a trend that their digestive tracts are longer and much energy is placed for digestion. For larger brains there is a trend that digestive tracts will be shorter. Our digestive tracks are 'shorter' in the sense of a herbivore, but not as short as a true carnivore.

Tools are a substitution for carnivore teeth.

And your focus is too hard on teeth, I counter that with the study of our jaw bones. Our primate relatives have rather strong jaws because they spend much of their time chewing fibrous items, like fruit, leaves, other plant material, their jaws are large, and their jaw muscles are very large and strong that's why you never sick your hand to a chimp, they will rip your fingers off. Further more our jaws are rather weak compared to them and smaller. AKA our wisdom teeth can not fit in many people's mouths. We have a smaller jaw. Our smaller jaw is a result of our tendency of cooking and softening many of our foods. Cooking meet softens it and will make it easier to eat and is much more savory, Cooking veggies you can but sometimes are still preferred to eaten raw.

And I also frown on the "You will be sicker if you eat too much meat" pitch.

I do believe many vegetarians recoil at me when I tell them "I can't eat your food I will literally SUFFOCATE AND DIE" because then they will tell me the benefits of all their foods, granted I love my leaves, but when much of the food is based on nuts, and soy, I CAN NOT EAT THAT. They have forgotten that many people have food allergies that are linked to plants. What I eat, I supplement my diet with meat, just like our ancestors did, meat is fast, meat is tricky, but we desire it, because of the satisfaction we get from it.

And if you look at the extremes of both diets in humans, heavy meat eaters will have many health problems, heavy veggie eaters will also have health problems. On both end of the spectrum both can be considered malnourished. Though many times heavy meat eaters will have an abundant of other issues so they need to take on medications to regulate blood and other factors, heavy veggie eaters often times take bottled pill supplements so they don't end up crashing as well. Other times some heavy veggie eaters will develop intestinal problems because of the stress extremely high fiber diets cause. You may have a very clean colon but your digestive track may be getting abused.

Now when you go back to the "you will be sicker", remember many people these days eat things in excess. Red meat vs White meat, meat is still meat, depends where you get it. AND we don't have to chase it down anymore so that's less energy, and so humans have become lazy and fat, or so to say.

Meat in general contains nutrients that the human body simply can not produce effectively. Like Doriinkingu, I too will be anemic if I don't have meat.

Menstruation is hard for many women they crave lots of food one of them being high protein and sugary things, and many are satisfied with a nice juicy steak or chicken.

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If you want to read more about our teeth, brain and gut relation ship look up:

"FOOD FOR THOUGHT" from science mag. volume 316 June 15 2007
Ann Gibbons Evolution: Solving the Brain's Energy Crisis, Science Mag, may 1998. vol. 280