It is less an innate desire for meat in particular than for concentrated nutrition such as fats and proteins. Even in non-meat foods, we favour nutrient-rich items such as nuts, fruits, grains and tubers. Think of how appetising chocolate or halva is, compared with lettuce or grass. Herbivores generally must eat large quantities of low-grade plant foods, discarding most of the fibre and excess materials they contain. They also discard the toxins: plants are generally full of harmful chemicals that herbivores must tolerate, excrete or destroy, while concentrating the vitamins, proteins, fats and digestible carbohydrates.
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