I have a different approach that is supported by Sri Yukteswar in this comment;
What is natural living? To understand what natural living is it’ll be necessary to distinguish it from what is unnatural. Living depends upon the selections of food, dwelling and company. To live naturally, the lower animals can select these for themselves by the help of their instinct and the natural sentinels placed at the sensory entrances, the organs of site, hearing, touch, smell and taste. With men in general, however, these organs are so much perverted by unnatural living, from very infancy that little reliance can be placed on their judgments. To understand, therefore, what are natural needs are, we ought to depend upon observation, experiment and reason. ~ Sri Yukteswar
Very good strategy to quote Sri Yukteswar, since the Jnanavatar is the Jnanavatar, his wisdom is unsurpassable.
Sri Yukteswar cited empirical arguments why meat is not the ideal food for man. His logic is simple and indisputable.
The same Sri Yukteswar though would love us to use our God-given logic and discrimination to elaborate further and find what's best for us, stick to it, and forget about it. His own words. Forget about diet, there are more essential things, like meditation, Dharma, Karma, Yama, you name it.
I like the details and subtleties of modern science and try to apply them to prevent premature death. It is not easy since nutritional science today is chaos. My reasoning is guided by discrimination and the basic guidelines of Raja Yoga, as expounded by Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda. We have been very lucky in coming across these spiritual giants!
