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Man belongs to the primate family, all members of which are complete vegetarians. By and large primates were not created or suited to digest the dead flesh of another creature.
Indeed it is a rare but not unknown occurrence to see a gorilla or baboon in the wild dining off an animal carcass. Much of mankind and many great civilizations have remained vegetarian and indeed are often healthier than their meat eating counterparts.
For example the Buddhist people of the Far East and indeed 90 % of the population in India have been vegetarian for millennia. The Hunza people of South America, also vegetarians are renowned for their remarkable health and longevity, it is known that the vegetarian inhabitants of the Vilcababamba valley in Ecuador frequently live more than 100 years old and one inhabitant was recorded to be 142 years of age.
Again and again it is noted that the major degenerative diseases of Western society including cancer, heart disease and diabetes hardly if at all affect vegetarian populations. Indeed in vegetarian cultures these diseases, which are the mainstay of band aid treatment after the fact, are practically unknown and are very uncommon in these vegetarian cultures.
Compare the anatomy and physiology of man with that of a typical herbivore ( for example an ape) with that of a typical carnivore ( for example a lion) and you will notice that first of all that herbivores have jaws that move laterally and vertically , and teeth suited for grinding. Carnivore’s jaws move only vertically, and their teeth are only suited for ripping. Secondly carnivores have 15 times more hydrochloric acid in their stomachs than herbivores such as apes. Lastly carnivores such as lions have an average only three feet of intestine. This is done so that flesh can be expelled before the body before it has time to putrefy and go rotten. Whereas herbivores have over 22 feet of intestines. Mankind’s intestines generally range from 18 to 24 feet in that range of 22 feet.
Meat is not part of mankind’s natural diet. Mankind was not created to be a meat eater. It does not take much common sense or knowledge to see to whom we have more in common : it is apparent that mankind by virtue of his or her anatomy and physiology was never created for or intended to eat meat. It was noted by the renowned anthropologist Desmond Morris in his classic study – the book “Manwatching”, that “In origin, man is a fruit picking primate turned hunter”.
Mankind was created by nature to be a vegetation herbivore rather than a meat eating creature, For the sake of your health and longevity this should be considered in your choice of diet. It is now increasingly easy and indeed fashionable to have a vegetarian lifestyle. This even includes many restaurants and fast food chains and not only niche restaurants such as Indian restaurants.
Consider mankind’s evolutionary physiology, diet and history when considering your diet. Consider your health and longevity.
You were not “made to eat meat”.
About The Author: Margaret S. Mathews
http://www.mmedsolution.com
Photo: © Jenny Rollo
Sponzurz
There are a few errors in this post which I feel should be addressed- time constraints, however, will keep me to a few salient points. First: all primates are most certainly NOT complete vegetarians- in fact; none of them are, as all extant primates supplement their diets with insects at minimum and often more varied food sources. In particular our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, displays well-known and often-observed predatory behavior (primary prey: the Red Colobus Monkey).
I’m not sure where the “This is done so that flesh can be expelled before the body [sic] before it has time to putrefy and go rotten” idea came from either- I’ve always learned that carnivorous intestines are shorter because meat is simpler to digest than plant matter. If you have a source for this claim I’d love to see it. Indeed, there is evidence that hominid intestines have shortened significantly over evolutionary history, and many comparisons of gut morphology place humans either firmly in faunivore territory, or in the border between faunivore and frugivore classifications.
Finally, we are not gorillas or orangutans or chimpanzees, we are people. (Erroneous) comparisons to the supposed behavior and habits of our closest extant relatives ignore the behaviors of our even closer extinct relatives and our own prehistory. I’m having trouble grasping where the idea that “meat is not a part of mankind’s natural diet” comes from when palentological and anthropological evidence show that the hominid classification as a whole, not just Homo sapiens, shares amongst its species the common behavior of meat consumption (as evidenced by tools, tool marks on and the cracking of bones to get to marrow in hominid encampments, the composition of ancient hominid bones, the structure and patterns of wear on hominid teeth, etc). If that’s not “made to eat meat”, what is?
I do have peer-reviewed papers to back up my points, if you’d care for the links to some abstracts.
Thank you for your comments, however, had you read the whole thing instead of launching into this attack, you’d have noticed that this article is a guest article, written by a third-party who is clearly credited at the foot.
The article therefore was not written by me, neither would I have sources that you would “love to see”. The opinions contained therein, may or may not agree my own, however, as I clearly did not write the article, I cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies it may contain.
However, with regard to your point about the waste expulsion and intestine length: we may well have been trying to adapt over a long period, however the fact still remains that meat “hangs around” longer in the body and this can be undesirable. I can quote an example of someone known to me, with kidney disease and was told by their specialist doctor to “become a vegetarian” overnight, or die - literally, because his system was unable to deal with meat. The doctor explained how much longer meat stayed in the body as opposed to fiber and vegetable matter.
Our ancestors diet contained enough of the latter, unprocessed, to have expelled the smaller quantity of meat they ate. What humans are certainly not built for is a diet where meat is predominant; almost exclusive and the vegetable reduced to a slice of pickle on a burger!
I am also well aware that humans’ relatives have been eating meat for probably hundreds of thousands of years. Does that make it right / natural though? So, they learned to hunt / kill? Most likely from necessity because the forests and their environments changed. We did not have the tools for major league hunting and still subsisted predominantly on plant foods (fruit) and, we were certainly eating vegetable matter previously, before we jumped down out of our trees.
The studies on the chimps on the Ivory Coast were looking at how they collaborated to hunt in groups and also concluded that their environment affected their hunting patterns. It seems to follow logically that, at some point in history, they too may have taken up this predatory behavior for similar reasons of necessity.
All that said, what we need is balance and, in the fullness of time, I aim to show both sides of the argument.
I have considered, in rare occasions, become a vegetarian. I do love meat, especially chicken. I try to avoid red meat though.
I just came across your site and found it very interesting.
Would you be very kind to point me to the right direction to get more information about the benefits and/or risks of becoming vegetarian?
Thank you in advance and congratulations for this great site.