Why Humans are NOT carnivores (OR "omnivores")

Why humans are definitely NOT flesh-eating animals

You probably have heard often enough the conscience-quieting phrase when eating steak, eggs, fish or whatever: “we’re omnivores, we must eat all kinds of “food” if we want to stay healthy”. Some even simply state humans are actually carnivores…

If we took a closer look at ourselves, we’d find hundreds of clues telling us we’re basically frugivores (fruit eaters) –actually, we’re not even true herbivores; our ideal diet is fruit-based, just like all other primates...

Take a look at your kids

Let’s observe the natural tendency in a human being with little external influences, who acts basically on instinct: a very young child who can hardly stand up. What do kids like? What do they reach out for instinctively? Candy, sweets, cookies, pastries… in other words: CARBOHYDRATES. Our metabolism basically works on glucose, unlike carnivores, where it works on fat and protein. So what’s rich in “carbs” in nature? Most carbohydrates come from plants (flesh (“meat”) has way less carbohydrates in proportion). What kids love best is anything that tastes sweet, and that is an instinct we’re born with. But what that instinct requires is not white refined sugar, which does not exist in nature, and can become very addictive; but the natural “primitive” foodstuffs that attract all primates: FRUITS, which are easily found hanging from trees and can be gathered and eaten using our hands. 

Addiction to animal “products” surfaces much later, after weaning, by “cultural” influence: children of vegan parents never develop a desire for meat, unlike many children of “omnivorous” parents who actually hate meat. Interesting, isn’t it?

Human Anatomy: how we’re built

Our teeth

Our set of teeth clearly reveals their purpose: to chew vegetables. Some argue that “we have canine teeth” and so it’s “natural for us to eat flesh”. Let’s take a closer look: any primate has much longer canine teeth than us but most of them never eat meat, and the few that occasionally do, do so in minimal amounts.

Digestive organs

Many other details in our body make-up show our vegan nature. For example, our salivary glands, large and bulky like in all frugivores (fruit-eaters). In vegan animals, saliva plays a very important part in the predigestion process. Carnivores, on the other hand, swallow their food just partially torn into small pieces, not chewed at all. Human saliva and urine are alkali, unlike acid “carnivore” saliva and urine. Human jaws move not only up and down (like carnivores’) but sideways (like herbivores’) to enable us to grind down our food.

Cooking

Another usually missed detail is cooking. Humans are the only animals that artificially transform some of their food before eating it. In this way humans actually disguise the real disgusting taste (for humans, of course) of raw animal flesh and organs. Although some human cultures eat raw flesh (steak tartare, or sushi and other forms of raw fish), it is well known that these are sources of parasite infections (like Anisakis worm larvae in sushi and other raw fish preparations), which can be quite dangerous for humans, but not at all for a normal “carnivores”. Isn’t this a clear message from Mother Nature?

Body Chemistry

The amount of hydrochloric acid present in our stomach is insufficient to decompose flesh (“meat”) to the extent it won’t be harmful to us; however, it is just the exact amount to digest vegetables. We humans don’t produce a key enzyme called uricase (urate oxidase) which would oxidise not only the uric acid present in “meat” and “meat products”, but also the uric acid produced while attempting to metabolize “meat” proteins. This enzyme, by the way, is present in many organisms, including bacteria. Another good reason we are definitely not meant to be flesh-eaters.

Long intestines

Human intestines are long with plenty of folds (as is the case in all other vegan animals), thus increasing the active absorption surface we need to feed on fruits, vegetables and grains (cereals, legumes, nuts and seeds).

Any other flesh-eating animal couldn’t survive with such a long intestine, since they require a short, smooth and fairly straight intestinal tract that can eliminate the unwanted matter rapidly before it starts to rot and putrefy. And indeed all true meat-eating animals have just such a short, smooth and straight intestinal tract, exactly the opposite of what we are equipped with.

The Big Meany: Cholesterol

So many people fear this one little word: cholesterol. Millions take drugs for years to try to control their unnaturally high cholesterol levels. No need to say that only humans, with their crazy eating habits, are prey to this condition. We can produce for ourselves (with no outside “help”) all the cholesterol we need and will ever need, and in fact we do. Cholesterol is in no way a “bad thing”, it is in fact an essential structural component of cell membranes in all mammals.

People who eat non-vegan food take in huge amounts of animal cholesterol, and luckily enough for them, most manage to eliminate around 80% of the cholesterol they eat along with their meats, eggs, milk, etc. (what a useless waste of time and energy…) Plant foods contain cholesterol as well, but in infinitely smaller amounts and besides, plant products such as flax seeds and peanuts contain cholesterol-like compounds called phytosterols, which actually help lower potentially high cholesterol levels.

It’s almost impossible to induce arteriosclerosis in true carnivores by feeding them a cholesterol-rich diet, since their metabolisms are perfectly equipped for the task. However, rabbits, strictly vegan animals, easily get the condition under the same cholesterol-rich diet, just like humans. Neither of them is designed by nature to feed on cholesterol-rich foods.