Is it in our nature (instinct) to eat meat or not?

When we think of the way people have eaten over thousands of years, we sometimes have a notion of cave-man type people doing nothing but hunting down mammoths.  The truth of course is people have throughout time (prior to our ability to mass produce foods of all types) been at first hunter/gatherers, with most of our food being gathered (berries, plants, roots, etc.), and then agricultural.  The truth is Americans eat way, way more meat products than any humans ever have in history.

If we look at our natural instinct, we can see some pretty interesting things. Consider that apples (for example) look good on the tree, look good when you slice them, and taste good when fresh. There's nothing off-putting about a piece of fruit or vegetable in it's natural state, or in how it is grown or prepared. The same is true for nuts, beans, all fruit, juices, lettuce, pasta, you name it. But think for a minute about meat products. You don't look at a cow and salivate like when you look at a strawberry on the vine. In fact a cow or sheep doesn't look (or smell) appetizing at all like it does to, for example, a wolf.  And think of all that happens to a cow before it ends up as a steak or a hamburger that tastes great. Much of it we don't want to see, and would be bad dinner conversation, even though we are putting it in our mouth. And if we cows or other animals raw, like tigers do, just ripping in with our teeth (which isn't even really possible), we could die from all kinds of bacteria.

So it's fair to conclude that meat products taste great when cooked at high temperatures for safety and seasoned with all the great stuff we all love, but you gotta admit, that's a lot of work to change it from it's natural state. Makes you wonder just how natural and instinct it is for us to eat it at all.