Red meat in anthropogeny: From a blessing to a curse?

We humans are unusual in comparison to our primate cousins, regarding our penchant for consuming meat from large animals. Archaeological evidence of stone tools useful for butchery and cut marks on bone fossils indicate that this dietary shift predated the origin of the genus Homo about 2 million years ago.  Such foods are also rich in essential amino acids, certain vitamins like B12 (not made by plants) and trace elements. Iron is essential for almost all life forms, but it is also toxic in excess.  However, Iron is particularly important for women of child-bearing age, and the demands are even greater during pregnancy and lactation.  Elemental iron and iron present in plants are poorly absorbed. In contrast “red meat”, eponymously defined by its rich content of heme iron associated with myoglobin, is much more efficiently utilized, because of the presence of specific heme receptors in the gut––increasing the likelihood of successful pregnancies and breast-feeding in ancestral populations.  However, with the onset of agriculture, animal domestication and major increase in production and consumption, red meat is associated with major diseases such as cancer, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Given that red meat is now sought after as prestigious food in most societies, its increasing large-scale production contributes substantially to environmental degradation and climate destabilization. This presentation (including some of our own work) discusses how “red meat”, once a valuable resource—has, in modern times, been partially transformed from “blessing” to a ‘curse”.