throughout history have found this a morally unacceptable price for our own nourishment and pleasure The ethical argument against eating meat suggests that the same food that fueled the biological evolution of modern humans now holds us back from full humaneness But the biological and historical influences on our eating habits have their own force However culturally sophisticated we may be, humans are still omnivorous animals, and meat is a satisfying and nourishing food, an integral part of most food traditions Meat Fit and Unfit for Men and Gods Outside Troy, Greek priests sacrifice cattle to Apollo: first they lifted back the heads of the victims, slit their throats, skinned them and carved away the meat from the thighbones and wrapped them in fat, a double fold sliced clean and topped with strips of flesh And the old man burned these over dried split wood and over the quarters poured out glistening wine while young men at his side held five-pronged forks Once they had burned the bones and tasted the organs they cut the rest into pieces, pierced them with spits, roasted them to a turn and pulled them off the fire — Homer, Iliad, ca 700 BCE For neither is it proper that the altars of the gods should be defiled with murder, nor that food of this kind should be touched by men, as neither is it fit that men should eat one another — Porphyry, On Abstinence, ca 300 CE The structure of muscle tissue and meat A piece of meat is composed of many individual muscle cells, or fibers The fibers are in turn ... young men at his side held five-pronged forks Once they had burned the bones and tasted the organs they cut the rest into pieces, pierced them with spits, roasted them to a turn and pulled them off the fire — Homer, Iliad, ca... For neither is it proper that the altars of the gods should be defiled with murder, nor that food of this kind should be touched by men, as neither is it fit that men should eat one another — Porphyry, On Abstinence, ca... men, as neither is it fit that men should eat one another — Porphyry, On Abstinence, ca 300 CE The structure of muscle tissue and meat A piece of meat is composed of many individual muscle cells, or fibers The fibers are in turn