Are we evolved to gorge on meat?

 In his latest editorial, cookbook author turned food expert (I don't know how), Mark Bittman argues that our instinct to gorge on meat is what is causing people all over the world to eat too much meat. 

Once, we had to combine hunting skills and luck to eat meat, which could supply then-rare nutrients in large quantities. This progressed — or at least moved on — to a stage where a family could raise an annual pig and maybe keep a cow and some chickens. Quite suddenly (this development is no more than 50 years old, even in America), we can drive to our nearest burger shop and scarf down a patty — or two! — at will.

Because evolution is a slow process, this revolutionary change has had zero impact on the primal urge that screams, “Listen, dummy, if you can find meat you’d better eat it, because who knows when you’ll eat it again!” At some point our bodies may adapt to consuming unlimited quantities of meat or — a better alternative — our minds will crave less. Right now, primal urge and modern availability form a deadly combo.

We’re crack addicts with a steady supply. Beyond instinct and availability, there’s a third factor: marketing. When you add “It’s what’s for dinner” to the equation, you have a powerful combination: biology, economics and propaganda all pushing us in the same direction.

So do hunter-gatherers gorge on as much meat as they can possibly get their hands on? No. The human body is actually not very inclined to gorge on meat, at least lean meat. I made an impulse comment that got highlighted:

The narrative that humans are evolved to crave large quantities of meat is a false one. Hunter-gatherers regularly discard game that is too low in fat. When the Mbuti foragers are surrounded by large amounts of game, but they have no starch, they will say they "have no food." Anthropologist John Speth has written extensively on the false myth of protein. Protein in large amount is stressful for the human body to digest, to the point where it's possible for hunter-gatherers to die of rabbit starvation when they have only lean game. Human evolution is a continuous struggle for starch and fat, not protein.
 

I forgot to mention the other factor I think is the major one in the human struggle- water, which is important because protein also increases water requirements (so much for the idea that humans evolved to run for miles and miles on the hot arid savanna in pursuit of some lean antelope). In John D. Speth's magnum opus on the subject, he discusses this and in the end argues that hunter-gatherers that hunt this way like some San do it for cultural reasons, not to procure needed nutrients. It's more about sex than food. 

So why are people eating so much meat? It's interesting to think about what KIND of meat people are now eating so much of. I pulled up my beloved FAOSTAT, the friend to everyone who does agecon, and ran some data on food supply kcal per capita a day in the US:

Guess mutton and goat were never very popular. Total meat consumption has definitely increased, but it seems like it's mostly from the ultimate crap meat: chicken. I'm betting it isn't roast chicken with French herbs either. I'd love to get data on this, but I know that most of the dark meat is exported. If anyone thinks we are evolved to gorge on white chicken meat, I'd like you to try cooking some tonight with very little seasoning. I doubt you are going to have the desire to eat much of it. Fortunately, companies figured out that if you bread it and/or fry it, it's much better. I wonder what percentage of chicken consumed is breaded/fried? Either way, I don't think the meat part here has much to do with evolution. The desire for fat and carbs is what makes us gorge on fried chicken. 

China is interesting too: 

Seems like pork is the major engine of meat consumption there. At least they have taste. I could definitely gorge on pork. Unfortunately, much of it is probably factory farmed. 

These graphs are in calories, so it's quite amazing how poultry is above fat/pigmeat for the US considering that the latter is so much more calorically dense. 

Let me know if you find anything else interesting in FAOSTAT!