It is not argued among paleolithic nutritionists that a high intake of meat
foods is necessary for health.  Nor is it argued by most modern paleolithic
nutritionists that man evolved for "injesting <sic> huge amounts of animal
flesh with occasional vegitable <sic> matter." It is only generally
asserted (1) that there is a clear need for regular meat intake in humans,
and (2) the belief that eating large quantities of meat is unhealthy is
totally unfounded.

The vast, overwhelming bulk of the paleontological data to date shows quite
clearly that humans have -always- eaten at least some meat.  This goes all
the way back to the very earliest human ancestor (the australophithicines)
and continues even back before that to our earlier ancestors, which appear
to have been small mammals that ate insects and eggs.

There is absolutely -no- evidence in the paleontological record to support
the contention that humans or their ancestors were ever vegetarian or "near
vegetarian" in any way. Furthermore, there is great support for the idea
that humans have always treasured meat and eaten as much as they could get
their hands on.  Published analyses of hunter/gatherer diets shows a mean
average intake worldwide of roughly 55% animal food products in the daily
diet, with considerable variation among individual groups, from as high as
about 96% of daily intake to as low as maybe 15% or so--but the group
average stands at over 50%.

Meat also happens to be the only food which has been demonstrated
repeatedly both empirically and in the lab to be the only food -- the
-only- food -- which humans can subsist on exclusively for very long
periods of time with no ill effects or signs of malnutrition whatsoever.
In fact some peoples in the world who eat this way are astonishingly
healthy, with good lifespans and vanishingly small incidence of heart
disease, diabetes, or cancer.  None who eat this way are unhealthy.

It is certainly the case that man evolved as an omnivore; it appears to
have been one of our most amazing evolutionary traits, this ability to eat
so many different foods and survive and even prosper.  No other animal eats
and thrives on such a highly diverse set of regimens as humans.  And yet
there is much reason to question whether many foods we have adapted in the
last few century--or the last few thousand years--are what most humans
walking around on the planet right now are best adapted to eat.