Should We Be Putting the Deli in Delicious?

Author: Michael Celejewski

When a friend says, “I am so hungry, let's grab a quick bite to eat,” what comes to mind? You might picture a big neon sign outlining the shape of a staple of fast food, the burger. Online and on billboards, you might often see flashy advertisements of steak, chicken wings, and hotdogs, among many other mouth-watering meats. Never have we seen a garden salad with the same media presence.

However, it may be surprising to learn that meat wasn’t always a major food source for our evolutionary ancestors, the great apes. ^1,2 Eventually they realized that meats (like seafood, pork, beef, and chicken), could not only be eaten raw, but could be chewed easier after cooking them with fire. There is even evidence that by 2.5 million years ago, the great apes had been using stone tools to carve their meat, much like a butcher does today in the deli. Moving away from a strictly plant-based diet, the great apes developed quite the taste for meat, allowing for their health to improve.³ More importantly, the sizes of their brains increased, resulting in the evolution of us humans. We became our own species with the brainpower to build more and more advanced technology. Our kitchens now have shiny new cutlery and fancy stovetops, and our taste for meat continues to stay strong.

Today, we recognize the value of meat in our diets, but we have also started to see some “red flags” in terms of how meat can negatively affect human health. Did our ancestors actually doom us by discovering the potential that meat holds?

Frequently, you may find yourself wondering what to eat. While food guides aren’t meant to dictate exactly what you eat for a healthy and happy lifestyle, they can help to understand where to start. In Canada’s food guide for example, meat is highlighted as a major source of protein (and we need protein to survive).⁴ There is also a lesser known but crucial benefit for those that eat animal meat—it contains vitamin B12, which is almost exclusively found in animals. Foods can be artificially fortified (built with) vitamin B12, but meat is both a natural and effective source of it, keeping us healthy by preventing detrimental effects on our blood and brain.⁵ It would seem that our ancestors struck a gold mine of taste and nutrition with meat, but it seems we are now facing some new challenges of our own.

As much as we appreciate the benefits of physical activity, we just aren’t pushed to our limits like the great apes before us. There were no UberEats deliveries back then to immediately satisfy cravings. It wasn’t easy to consume too much of any nutrient when plenty of physical activity through hunting and gathering was necessary to get the next meal, so they would’ve digested their food like it was nothing. Today, you might pick up your food at your doorstep before you head to the couch for several hours of binge watching TV, or to the computer for some hard work at the keyboard.

As if lengthy sittings weren’t bad enough for digesting food, consider how your delivered food was prepared. ⁶ Buttering and/or oil-cooking of meat can bring about more saturated fats in your cuisine. These are one of the more unhealthy types of fats that tend to stick around in our bodies for longer, and can increase the risk of health issues like heart disease. ^7,8 To limit saturated fat consumption in a diet, it’s recommended to use cooking methods that limit the use of oils and butter, like baking. To help limit negative health effects from saturated fats, you can choose meats with less saturated fats like fish, as well as plant-based sources of protein (like nuts, seeds, beans, and lentils). It’s also important to consider which meat is starring in your takeout container as compared to chicken and fish, frequent consumption of red meats like beef and pork have also been found to be associated with higher risk for heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. ^9,10

Clearly, the type and quantity of meat products and foods we consume can affect ourselves for better or worse, so we can at least try to eat meat in moderation, choose less grease and red meat, and stay physically active! Only then will we truly capture the potential that the great apes once discovered.

1. Domínguez-Rodrigo, Manuel, Travis Rayne Pickering, Sileshi Semaw, and Michael J. Rogers. 2005. “Cutmarked Bones from Pliocene Archaeological Sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia: Implications for the Function of the World’s Oldest Stone Tools.” Journal of Human Evolution 48 (2): 109–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.09.004.

2. Pontzer, Herman. 2012. “Overview of Hominin Evolution | Learn Science at Scitable.” Nature. 2012. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/overview-of-hominin-evolution-89010983/.

3. Gowlett, J. A. J. 2016. “The Discovery of Fire by Humans: A Long and Convoluted Process.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371 (1696): 20150164. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164.

4. Canada. 2020. “Eat Protein Foods.” Canada Food Guide. July 3, 2020. https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-eating-recommendations/make-it-a-habit-to-eat-vegetables-fruit-whole-grains-and-protein-foods/eat-protein-foods/.

5. Ankar, Alex, and Anil Kumar. 2024. “Vitamin B12 Deficiency.” In StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441923/.

6. Health, Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Diet and, Catherine E. Woteki, and Paul R. Thomas. 1992. “Fats, Cholesterol, And Chronic Diseases.” In Eat for Life: The Food and Nutrition Board’s Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235018/.

7. Canada, “Protein Foods”.

8. Health, Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Diet, “Fats, Cholesterol, And Chronic”.

9. Battaglia Richi, Evelyne, Beatrice Baumer, Beatrice Conrad, Roger Darioli, Alexandra Schmid, and Ulrich Keller. 2015. “Health Risks Associated with Meat Consumption: A Review of Epidemiological Studies.” International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research. Internationale Zeitschrift Fur Vitamin- Und Ernahrungsforschung. Journal International De Vitaminologie Et De Nutrition 85 (1–2): 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1024/0300-9831/a000224.

10. Bernstein, Adam M., Qi Sun, Frank B. Hu, Meir J. Stampfer, JoAnn E. Manson, and Walter C. Willett. 2010. “Major Dietary Protein Sources and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women.” Circulation 122 (9): 876–83. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.915165.