Years ago I read a book that proposed a theory that the human brain went from a more typical ape-like brain to the bigger human-type brain when humans started eating cooked meat.

It seems the amino acids are easier to digest and more bio-available after the meat has been cooked.

Of course it was a theory, but the book made a convincing case.

And even when cooked meat isn't in the equation, when you look at the intelligence of the typical herbivore and the typical predator animal on this planet, the meat eaters seem to be much smarter.

Of course that proves nothing, but it's food for thought.

I've never eaten a veggie meat substitute, and have no intention of trying one.

I have some vegan friends. We go out to dinner together and eat our own separate ways off the same menu, no proselytizing from either. I bond with them because on my diet, I'm a picky eater too.

In conversation the wife said at first they ate the veggie burgers and then thought to themselves, "What are we doing? We're trying to avoid meat so why use a crutch?"

That's a good question.

Plus I've read the ingredients of some of those things out of curiosity. It seems they are loaded with onions and other spices. I suppose that is to hide the taste of the non-burger.

I generally eat burgers with only a bit of ketchup and a slice of cheese. I don't want it to taste like onions, I want it to taste like burger.

I'll keep with grass-fed beef, and to the best of my knowledge, ethically raised pork.

I don't do chicken because it bothers arthritis, and I have an injured finger that chicken inflames. Regular eggs bother it, but the pasture-raised ones do not.

Unless I am very hungry and a veggie burger stands between me and starvation, I doubt that I'll ever eat one.

Bob