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The Comparative Anatomy of Eating
i thought that herbivores are animals that eat grasses, such as buffalo. while frugivores are more like primates such as chimps or bonobos, who eat mostly fruits and greens. and certainly it seems that humans do are not grass eaters. i think the author of this article is wanting to suggest that we are frugivores. which may very well be true. but let us not forget that both bonobos and chimps do occasionally eat meat.
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The Comparative Anatomy of Eating
Bonobos have been observed hunting and eating meat (and also other bonobos) in the wild. It is not known how frequently they do this, simply because they have not been studied enough. Marmosets eat a variety of food from both plant and animal sources, and howler monkeys, while they mainly specialise in leaves, have been observed eating eggs. Geladas (which have been included twice in the list) despite being mainly grazers will eat insects if they are available.
While people like to try to classify things tidily into categories, there are not that many species who have evolved to specialise in only animal or plant sources of food, and rather more who fall somewhere between these two extremes. The argument in the original post uses data that doesn't really mean anything in order to impart an appearance of scientific credulity. I've seen the same argument on dog food advertising to claim that dogs and wolves are carnivores (which technically they aren't as they are observed to eat plant material in the wild). The lines dividing them are not that clear.
The Comparative Anatomy of Eating
Everyone on here trying to talk about the history of man's diet needs to do some serious fact checking! For thousands of years around the world the biggest component of our diet as been starch based PLANTS! Rice in Asia, barley in the Middle East, Wheat in Egypt, millet in Africa, maize in the Americas ect.. The only people who ate meat were royalty and they were just as diseased as the rest of you omnivores, they've found hardened arteries in most of the mummies in Egypt because they were wealthy and powerful enough to have a meat based diet! If you want to be really strong and healthy take a page out of the history books roman legionnaires, gladiators, the infantry men of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Alexander the Great all lived and thrived on a starch based diet.
The Comparative Anatomy of Eating
Hello,
I think your article is excellent and feel it proves via one method of analysis that humans are not carnivores. However, I do not feel it proves we are meant to consume a vegan diet. In other words, it still does not prove we are meant for no animal food at all, just that we are not necessarily meant to consume animal foods in the way carnivores do, and also that much of our animal-related nutrient should come from the types of animals that do no require the anatomical features of say a lion to consume them. My point is this- one would be hard-pressed to find a logical, clinically oriented physician recommending a vegan diet, who does not also recommend a B-12 supplement. Even T. Colin Campbell takes B-12. Why? We need it and can't get it from a vegan diet. Some vegans argue that we would get it all if our food wasn't sterile and still ate the bugs that came along with food when procured in nature. What is a bug? An animal. Does eating a bug require massive temporalis muscles, etc? No. The second part of my argument is that even though we are not designed to eat meat the way a carnivore does, it does not prove we are designed to NOT eat meat, just to NOT eat meat that way. In essence, we are designed to eat bugs and....cooked meat. Humans are adapted to eating cooked food. We do not share exact anatomical features of an omnivore, a carnivore or an herbivore in the wild, we are completely unique. Why? Because we are the ONLY animals on the planet adapted to eating cooked foods. Our need to consume B-12 proves our need to consume foods that contain it, ie animal foods. Our lack of exact correlation to omnivores, carnivores and herbivores proves we are not exactly like any of them. Our closeness in design to omnivores and herbivores proves we are designed for that type of food, but not ONLY that type of food.
The Comparative Anatomy of Eating
Isn't it funny how you can use information to get whatever results you like. The website www.second-opinions.co.uk/carn_herb_comparison4.html also uses anatomical features to compare man, dog and sheep to conclude that we are carnivores and shouldn't eat any veggies! But when you read down the list, some of the evidence includes that we don't need to chew our food and that it is impossible to survive without animal protein. No wonder they had putrefactive bacteria and small firm faeces (sorry, have to look at that site to know what i am talking about)
I like the conclusions on this site much better because they promote vegetarianism, but it would be great if there was a link to some of the raw data- like the actual lengths of the intestines of different animals, their stomach pH etc.
Nearly always when I hear about evolution it is from the past to the present, but doesn't consider the future. Even if humans were meat eaters in the past or present, we are still in the process of evolution. Just look around and compare the "meat head" mentality and intelligence level with the radiance of people who eat a balanced plant based diet with plenty of raw foods. Which direction to we want to be heading in? I think the yogis were onto something when they categorized foods according to their effect on the mind.
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i thought that herbivores are animals that eat grasses, such as buffalo. while frugivores are more like primates such as chimps or bonobos, who eat mostly fruits and greens. and certainly it seems that humans do are not grass eaters. i think the author of this article is wanting to suggest that we are frugivores. which may very well be true. but let us not forget that both bonobos and chimps do occasionally eat meat.