The answer to this question is actually subjective.  It depends on the man we are referencing.  There are those individuals such as athletes, body builders and manual laborers that can justify the need for a much heavier meat diet.  However, the average person who doesn’t continuously exert considerable physical effort in their daily lives wouldn’t require such a heavy diet.  Most people become sluggish from a heavy meat diet if they aren’t physically active on the regular.  Just look at the number of obese people we are creating each day.  However, essentially anyone can see and feel the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables.

To truly come to a clearer understanding on this debate on what is the best diet, we need to first examine exactly “what is food”?  Food is essentially any external substance the body ingests in efforts to convert it internally to provide energy for the body.  Depending upon one’s culture, various regions consider what is edible very different from other regions.  Americans favor cows, pigs, fish and chicken while others find eating snakes, frogs, dogs and cats appropriate.  Other cultures such as India may consider the cow sacred. Others have no problem eating horses and perhaps whatever they can get their hands on.  And some cultures, believe it or not, even make food by eating dirt!   Clearly, the various races of man depending on their cultural history and geographical location will have development certain physical characteristics and traits that make them more subjective to specific diets.  The question is “what is truly the benefit of a particular food when it comes to being converted into energy”?

The historical argument for meat has always been for its protein.  Of course, a well balanced diet that includes nuts, grains and green-leaf plants can also provide this protein.  In truth, most people simply eat meat because they like the way it tastes.  Or at least that’s what we tell ourselves. But how many people actually like the taste of any meat if it isn’t disguised with seasonings? There is some truth to the characteristics of man’s teeth, saliva, digestive system being more similar to herbivorous animals but what significant difference that is hard to refute is man’s reaction to actually killing an animal, skinning it, bleeding it, portioning it, handling it, cooking it and ultimately eating it.  The vast majority of mankind doesn’t have the stomach to do these actions ourselves.  Organized society has made it easy for us not to have to do the “dirty work” that goes into actually enjoying that steak.  Most people naturally have a hard time even killing an insect or small animal much less a very large animal.  We cringe at the sight of blood and sympathize with any animal in pain.

In fact, there are those that suggest whenever an animal senses death that the fear in their nervous system causes certain toxins to be released into their blood streams. These poisonous substances cannot be washed out, extracted or cooked out and thus remain in the animal’s flesh even when it finally hits your plate. Energy cannot be created nor destroy just altered in form.  Part of the rationale along these lines is that the more advanced or evolved the animal is then the more potentially dangerous it may be for man to eat.  Most of us would agree that cannibalism, eating other humans, is a frightening idea.  Similarly, dogs, horses, cows and similar animals have a greater karmic effect on man’s digestive system and body.  This doesn’t even address the various hormones, antibiotics and drugs that are injected oftentimes into these animals to either make their flesh softer or to protect them against infections or diseases.  These facts are not meant to scare people from eating meat but at the same time we should know what we’re eating and not delude ourselves.  Ignoring reality doesn’t change it.

On the other hand fruit & vegetables are for the most part universally digestible by anyone.  Unless a person has an allergic sensitivity to a particular item there is hardly any suggestion that a fruit or vegetable can actually be bad for you.  It may be true that the way fruit and vegetables are delivered to us today that they may have been grown with pesticides but it is the pesticide that may be harmful and not the fruit itself.  With that said, the true purpose of any food is to allow an easy way for man (and every other animal) to simply harness the energy of the sun.  All herbivorous and carnivorous animals ultimately need the energy from the sun to function.  Plants have the unique ability to convert the energy of the sun directly thus even carnivorous animals are in truth simply eating animals that the majority of times have a diet which consists of plants!