Humans are naturally plant-eaters

*snip*

Sometimes I wonder why we slaughter other living creatures and eat their flesh, im thinking of stopping eating meat completely... sometimes when eating a tasty burger it hits me that im eating a corpse

michaelbluejay.com...

A fair look at the evidence shows that humans are optimized for eating plant foods, according to the best evidence: our bodies. We're most similar to other herbivores, and drastically different from carnivores and true omnivores.1,2,3 The science shows that the more meat we eat, the sicker we get -- heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and every other major degenerative disease. If eating meat were so natural, it wouldn't destroy our health.

Warning: The following video contains extremely graphic scenes.

* Our so-called "canine teeth" are "canine" in name only. Other plant-eaters (like gorillas, horses, and hippos) have "canines", and chimps, who are almost exclusively vegan, have massive canines compared to ours.

* Our early ancestors from at least four million years ago were almost exclusively vegetarian.

* Our omnivorism means we're capable of eating meat (useful from a survival standpoint if that's all that's available), but our bodies aren't geared for it to be a normal, significant part of our diets.

* The animals most similar to us, the other primates, eat an almost exclusively vegan diet (and their main non-plant food often isn't meat, it's termites). Our teeth, saliva, stomach acid, and intestines are most similar to other plant-eaters, and dissimilar to carnivores and true omnivores.

* Among animals, plant-eaters have the longest lifespans, and humans are certainly in that category (and yes, this was true even before modern medicine).

* We sleep about the same amount of time as other herbivores, and less than carnivores and true omnivores.

* The most common cause of choking deaths is eating meat. (source) Real carnivores and omnivores don't have that problem.

Kenneth G. Williams - Vegan Bodybuilder






Mod Edit: Removed extreme graphic image. Also added warning before video.

reply to post by Vandalour


My tummy would like to step outside and have some words with you

We isolate ourselves form nature so much in modern society we forget how cruel she really is.

Out of the hundreds of vegetarians I have met personally. Very few of them were healthy.

In fact, most of them were the fattest people I know.

Human beings are omnivores, the best diet for us is by observing what other omnivores such as bears are eating, which is everything in sight, that is our natural diet.

Moderation is the key to health.

Extremism will only lead to deficiency in the majority of people who try it.

Perhaps instead of denying the value of meat, we should be encouraging the practice of a balanced diet.

Not this again. Gorillas and hippo's eat meat. Humans were designed to eat almost everything they could get their hands on. So no, not naturally plant eaters only.

I once saw a documentary that claimed that eating cooked meat had a major role in human advancement. Being able to digest food high in energy quickly allowed us more time and strength to perform more tasks, hence it helped us develop quicker. Im not denying we are naturally plant eaters , but somewhere along the line we discovered the delights of cooked meat and used it to our advantage.

reply to post by Vandalour


Don't do it ! Your Brain will shrink to the Size of a Pea ! Meat Eaters Brains Evolve faster than Vegtable Brain People .

Lol'd hard at apes are vegan, and only meat products they eat are termites, one of the dumbest things i have ever read. Orangutans eat meat, you can even see on a tv show called "orangutan island", one orangutan learns to catch fish and the rest start to eat fish. And chimpanzees, holy crap do not get me started on chimpanzees, they are some of the most ruthless efficient hunters in the wild, they organize troops of chimps and go out and slaughter and eat animals like the colobus monkey, they have even been found to make and use crude spears to hunt. Gorillas are the only great apes that are herbivores.

Originally posted by locster
Not this again. Gorillas and hippo's eat meat. Humans were designed to eat almost everything they could get their hands on. So no, not naturally plant eaters only.

Various sources say that a chimp's diet is 95-99% plant foods, and the primary non-plant food isn't meat, it's termites. We also have to remember that primates are intelligent and can make choices outside of instinct, just like humans do, so the tiny amount of meat they might eat could simply be due to choice, not instinct. The idea that primates are a good example for why humans should eat meat evidently didn't impress the most famous primate researcher of all time, Jane Goodall -- Goodall is a vegetarian.

reply to post by Gradius Maximus


Sure you do, lots of fat vegetarians eh...

Well in all honesty alot of people do eat too much pasta and such and still drink alot of beer while not eating meat..

Of all the vegetarians i know NONE are unhealthy like you are saying.

The animals i eat are already dead.... so i guess this makes me a scavanger.

I dont really kill my food. I just use my social status to collect it.

reply to post by Vandalour


Although Jane goodall was a true pioneer, and payed for it with her life, there is newer research available.
Got some facts on hippo's for me too?

I have to agree to disagree. Man has hunted for thousands of years. It's even documented in cave drawings. As for the gorillas and chimpanzees, from everything I've read, they do eat quite a bit of meat and have even resorted to cannibalism. I believe that many of the illnesses stemming from eating meat, come from the hormones and chemicals added to them. If you choose to become a vegan, good for you and I wish you many happy/healthy years of it, I just don't believe it is "natural" for us humans.

You can get ALL the same vitamins by eating green stuff, yes ? but as with any diet, a poorly planned vegan diet can be deficient in nutrients

en.wikipedia.org...

Properly planned vegan diets are healthful and have been found to satisfy nutritional needs, and offer protection against obesity, heart and renal diseases, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis

reply to post by GrinchNoMore


Education is everything when running the road of extremist diet , but there are other forms of deficiency other then just carrying weight, Newly vegetarians should get blood tests to confirm what supplements they require as I can assure you none of them are extracting full nourishment from their food, at least right away.

The average human being cannot survive properly on vegetables alone unless gradually exposed to a 4 season diet of veggies. Basically when the SHTF and all your veggies stop coming in on the trucks, you will be between a rock and a hard place trying to eat seasonal local vegetables and nothing else.

Balanced is the only true healthy diet for a real world situation

Originally posted by chiefsmom
I have to agree to disagree. Man has hunted for thousands of years. It's even documented in cave drawings. As for the gorillas and chimpanzees, from everything I've read, they do eat quite a bit of meat and have even resorted to cannibalism. I believe that many of the illnesses stemming from eating meat, come from the hormones and chemicals added to them. If you choose to become a vegan, good for you and I wish you many happy/healthy years of it, I just don't believe it is "natural" for us humans.

just because we assume that humans have always eaten meat doesn't make it true. I'll provide evidence for this shortly. But what's more important is that unlike other animals, humans can act outside of instinct. That means that if early humans did eat meat, they were simply making an interesting choice

not doing what they were programmed to do. We really have to look at our digestive system to get the best evidence for what we're optimized for eating, not what some humans chose to eat. Otherwise, thousands of years from now anthropologists might conclude that eating McDonald's is natural because humans circa 2009 used to eat a lot of it.

If humans were "natural" plant eaters they would naturally know which ones to eat and which ones not to eat based on smell, taste, and other such factors. Instead, without knowing, we could very well be signing our death warrant if we went out grazing.

To prove this wrong, all you have to do is look at out teeth and digestive system.

Originally posted by SpearMint
To prove this wrong, all you have to do is look at out teeth and digestive system.

Our so-called "canine teeth" are "canine" in name only. Other plant-eaters (like gorillas, horses, and hippos) have "canines", and chimps, who are almost exclusively vegan, have massive canines compared to ours.

Originally posted by GrinchNoMore
reply to post by Gradius Maximus

 

Sure you do, lots of fat vegetarians eh...

Well in all honesty alot of people do eat too much pasta and such and still drink alot of beer while not eating meat..

Of all the vegetarians i know NONE are unhealthy like you are saying.

Exactly. Those people are probably carb-aterians, not vegetarians :-)

Otherwise, thousands of years from now anthropologists might conclude that eating McDonald's is natural because humans circa 2009 used to eat a lot of it.


Not really sure you can use that argument. Scientist have looked at thousands of year old remains, and determined the people to be "physically" fit. A thousand years from now? I really don't think that as a society, that can be said about us. They had to run/chase their prey. We don't even walk to get it.