The biological basis for that is evident when we consider that the brain is only 2 percent of our body weight but uses 20 percent of our caloric intake. Meat provides a calorie dense way to acquire the diverse nutrition we need.
If you raise your toddler on a vegan diet even now, you are likely going to end up in jail. Yet even in adults it is not healthy unless you offset the nutrition loss with supplements, a study shows. You can't get creatine, carnosine, taurine, omega-3, haem iron and vitamins B12 and D3 from a vegan diet.
That's far different than the imagery they sell.
![](https://www.science20.com/files/images/salads_are_hilarious_2.jpg)
Good luck functioning at full brain power without B12. And yet half of recent participants in a vegan analysis lacked B12 even though supplements are a $35 billion market just in the US. Half of the people who actually need them because of their diet fad don't take them.
Read more: "How a vegan diet could affect your intelligence" By Zaria Gorvett, BBC
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