This is probably old news to some of you but i heard an interesting tid bit on a public radio show (it was actually about pigs) which mentioned there is some evidence to suggest that omnivores have evolved with greater intelligence due to a broader diet. If anyone has a link to a comprehensive study on this id be greatly appreciated...since google took over my searching skills are worthless...1,453,776,098 results in .007 seconds and yet nothing is relevant...
In my opinion speaking from only anicdotal evidence: i am quite cautious when trying new foods reguardless if its plant or animal because i have no idea what it will do to me. One food allergy and that could potentially be my last meal. Or possibly a certain type of bacteria/virus found only in one type of animal could be life threatening. I would think that sticking to a more narrow diet would ensure a guarantee of saftey, health and survival. I guess i could go on but i wont
Here is similar article it was info from a book. (http://www.wired.com/2015/05/pigs-may-eat-crap-shouldnt-treat-like/). It wasn't about a direct correlation of diet = intelligence but that for omnivores like swine being clever was a good survival skill (learning to forage and what to eat or not eat takes intelligence that grazing doesn't) and the clever pigs are more likely survive and pass on their genes. In the short run specialized diets can be a benifit, it's often a niche role where an animal eats what no other animals want but in the long run specialized diets can be more risky (a specialist is in trouble if there is something that reduces or kills off their limited food choices).
Evolution not an individual scale thing, I'm sure countless pigs made poor choices for food and died but the ones who didn't, or only got sick and survived are the ones who add their genes to the next generation.
Actually the author of that book is who was interviewed on the public radio show i refered to Thanks for that link. If anyone has other recommendations ill take them too.
So far it sounds like a case of "chicken vs egg" was it a natural evolution to branch out to other food sources or was it a case of eat whats around and if you survive you pass on that knowledge.