^Rather than divine sadism, it's got more to do with evolutionary advantage. We're attracted to three major categories of taste: sugar, salt, and fat. Essential for survival, especially when you're a hunter-gatherer living in a harsh pre-civilisation wilderness. Meat can provide massive amounts of many of the chemicals that are essential to living and functioning.
I wasnt really being serious there, but good post.

Btw, meat is high in protein and sometimes fat right? Arent we attracted to protein as well? Anyway, what we are attracted to aint always healthy *stares at sweeties*
Even in recorded history, meat consumption is by no means universal. Medieval Europe, for instance, was nearly unique in that its peasant classes regularly ate meat, whereas their Chinese counterparts were wholly vegetarian.
I remember hearing that peasants generally tend to eat more vegetables than meat because they need to get the most food out of their plot of land. And by shortening the food chain they were able to eat more food.