Humans Are Herbivores,
Not Carnivores!!
The truth is that humans are herbivores...
One of the funniest arguments I've heard against veganism is the, "humans were made to eat animals" theory. People tell me this quite seriously and I think they truly believe that our bodies are designed to devour other animals.
In fact, we were not made to eat animals. Animals that are made to eat animals, better known as carnivores, have body parts that help to do this. We can handle a little bit of animal, but humans are herbivores in body shape and chemisty.
1. Carnivores have claws to rip their prey apart.
Omnivores, and herbivores, have flat feet or fingers with blunt nails to protect their fingers, no claws. Sound familiar?
Humans have soft hands with thin nails that protect our fingertips. Nothing like the talons and claws used to grip and tear at flesh...
2. Carnivores have sharp teeth used to tear flesh, often with extra layers of teeth, like lions, tigers, and sharks.
Omnivores and herbivores have flat teeth used to grind food and no sharp incisors.
Do your teeth look like this guy's?
Here's a sample picture if you don't have a mirror...
Or are they more like this guy below?
Here's another example of a herbivore. Does he look like he can do much tearing and ripping with those blunt teeth?
Here are two more examples of carnivore teeth...
Hmmm. The jury's still out, but from this angle it looks like our teeth are more like those of the herbivores above.
3. Carnivores have short digestive tracts which allows meat to escape the body before rotting inside.
Omnivores and herbivores have long digestive tracts which allow the body to break down protein, fats, and carbohydrates.
4. Carnivores have high acidity in their stomachs and in their saliva, which helps to break down animal food.
Herbivores have alkaline saliva and stomach acidity to help process plant matter.
5. Carnivores have smooth digestive tracts which allows meat to get processed quickly.
There are no bumps in the tract that could trap the meat. Also, no fiber is needed to help process the food, it just slides through the digestive tract.
Herbivores have bumpy digestive tracts with pockets which allows plant matter to get caught and further digested. Fiber is necessary to help push the food matter through the tract.
If you want to learn more about what separates our species from the others, check out this cool
taxonomy chart that shows the difference between carnivores and herbivores. (opens new window)
Humans actually have adapted to be able to eat both meat and plants, making us omnivores, even though our bodies are much more similar to herbivores. Now, in the wild, this would mean that we would eat mostly plant matter and would eat a very small amount of meat matter. In today's society, this is completely flip-flopped in the other direction.
Most people eat mostly meat products. You may think I am exaggerating, but think of all the milk, eggs, and meat that you actually eat. Usually it's a breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snack thing. We eat tons of it without even realizing it. And, we don't eat nearly enough plant matter.
Because humans are herbivores, our bodies simply crave more of the plant matter. Without it we develop diseases and die at younger ages.
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