Our Ancestor's Diet

Many believe that humans are “omnivores” and have “always been hunter-gatherers.” In reality, this is not true. Let’s break it down into two sections, the biological makeup of the human digestive system, and then the history of humans and eating animals and their secretions.

There are multiple variables that designate a species as a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. These come in the brain, digestive system, and physical structure of the animal in question. Humans, being animals, follow the same criteria as any other species. This is a biological breakdown of the human anatomy in comparison to other species.

The Teeth and Jaw Structure: The most brought up argument for eating meat is the claim that the human canines equate the ability to tear flesh apart and rip off bones. While the canines are equipped to do this in carnivorous and omnivorous species, in herbivorous species they are not. All mammals have incisors, canines, and molars. The fact they exist does not mean they necessitate the animal eats a certain food. It’s their size and position that does

The canines in omnivores and carnivores are massive, omnivores such as as bear teeth, canine teeth, chimpanzee teeth you can clearly see the structure of the canines. How long and sharp they are, while the incisors are tiny. The molars of these animals also are sharp and jagged. Not flat and smooth like human teeth. Carnivores have teeth such as lion teeth, shark teeth, and leopard seal teeth.

Now, look at Human teeth. Which animal do they look the most like? Do they look like any of the above animals? No, they resemble the teeth of horses, orangutans, and pacu fish. Which these animals are all herbivores. In fact, Orangutan teeth are almost identical in every way to human teeth. They even have the same outer coating that human teeth posses.

Large incisors are for eating plants, smaller canines for tougher fruits, and the broad, flat molars for breaking down plant material. These teeth are not for tearing off flesh or breaking bones. They are the teeth of a frugivore. What is a frugivore? A frugivore is a type of herbivore. There are two types of herbivores: The grazing herbivores and the fruit herbivores. Grazing herbivores, such as horses, bison, bovines, and deer eat grass, leaves, bark, and very chewy plant material. This is why their teeth always grow, they have much larger molars, and sometimes multiple stomachs. While the fruit herbivores eat mostly fruit, grains, nuts, legumes, and easier to process leaves, like spinach. Humans are not grazing herbivores. We don’t eat grass. We eat fruits, legumes, nuts, grains, and vegetables.

As for herbivores who do have large canines, such as gorillas, fanged deer, or pigs, this is due to how the animals fight. Large tusks help them battle, not so much with eating. A gorilla doesn’t eat with his canines, still relying on his large incisors and molars for the fruits he consumes. While pigs and fanged deer also are unable to properly use these massive teeth to do anything but as defense. Some species of pigs simply use their tusks to find mates. And then elephants, who tusks are actually giant teeth, use them to battle, carry trees, push trees over, and help support their babies when the young ones are tired.

Teeth can be used for more than just eating. But for humans, our teeth are for masticating plants.

Here is a good comparison:

But, the teeth are not the only part that makes us frugivores. There’s more to our bodies than just that.

Physical Aspects: The physical aspects besides teeth is the digestive system as a whole. Now since teeth have been covered, let’s move on to the rest of it. The jaws of herbivores rotate in a circular motion. Jaws on carnivores and omnivores only can move up and down. Humans rotate their jaws. This is due to plants requiring a circular grinding motion to tear apart while flesh is ripped out and swallowed.

The saliva of herbivores can break down starch. No carnivore nor omnivore’s saliva can break down starch. Human saliva can break down starch, which is only found in plants. The saliva of carnivores and omnivores also contain more bacteria to fight off the bacteria found in flesh. No herbivores have as many bacteria as flesh consuming animals. We also lack the inability to swallow large chunks of food. This is something only carnivores and omnivores posses due to the difficulty of tearing flesh apart. But before you think that you can break flesh apart easily, you can’t. When flesh is cooked the heat breaks down protein layers. This loosens up the muscle, which meat is, and therefore easier to break. But if you were to bite into the raw flesh of a freshly killed animal you would be unable to break it down with your teeth. If it rots for some time, that can also break it down some, which is not natural for an omnivore, but a scavenger. In fact, the number one food humans choke on is meat.

The liver of humans produces a weak enzyme that is unable to break down animal amino acids (animal protein). It also does not produce enzymes for breaking down lactose. Carnivores and omnivores produce very powerful enzymes for processing dead flesh, and this can also harm them if they go without eating for too long.

The stomach acids of carnivores and omnivores is incredibly powerful. If a carnivore goes too long without eating the stomach acids along with the enzymes can break down their own organs. If you have ever had a sick cat who doesn’t want to eat, your vet would have told you how paramount it is to ensure the cat eats. This is due to the digestive system being so powerful. While canines are omnivores so their stomach acids are not as powerful as a true carnivore, they still can’t go as long without food as herbivores in fear of their digestive system harming itself.

The intestines of herbivores are very long, and the walls are lumpy. This allow plant material to process slowly and as many nutrients absorbed as possible. While carnivores and omnivores have short, smooth walled intestines. This is because flesh needs to get out of the body as quickly as possible before it can start to rot. This complication occurs in humans who eat meat often, where the intestines get jammed with dead flesh causing intestinal clogging. Sometimes up to 16 pounds of dead flesh and other material is removed from a human during surgery.

The human small intestine is about 20 feet long. A lion’s is only 5 feet.

Humans also lack the taste buds for tasting meat. This is why it is bland and requires salt and plants to season it, or cooked to give it flavor. And due to our stomach acids being so weak meat takes forever to process in it, letting it rot inside of us. This is why people say they feel full when they eat meat, but always hungry when eating plants. But that doesn’t mean we are adequately fed. Humans naturally should be eating throughout the day, as is normal for all herbivores. Not gorging themselves on large meals two or three times a day. True carnivores often gorge on a meal once every 2-5 days, or even longer. But herbivores eat often.

Humans also lack claws and other physical attributes to enable us to hunt, catch prey, and tear it apart. We are designed for picking fruit and handling plants to easier consume it.

The Mentality: Another huge factor is the brain. All animals have instincts, even humans. Instincts are not a program that controls you and you just go with it. It’s the natural way your brain functions to help you survive. Instincts are very simple acts you perform without even realizing they are instincts. A baby nursing from their mother’s breast is an instinct. A baby “doggie-paddling” when in the water to swim is an instinct. Jumping when startled is an instinct.

And once instinct carnivores and omnivores have is a prey drive. No herbivore has this. And no human has this. No human sees a bunny and think “I need to chase it, catch it, and bite into it.” If you put a toddler in a crib with a rabbit and an apple the toddler will always play with the bunny and eat the apple.

It is due to this lack of a prey drive that humans get sick at gore and seeing animals die. Yes, some do love killing and gore, but this is due to years of brainwashing, exposure, and forcing change. Same reason a dog who naturally would never fight a bear can be trained to engage in bear baiting. Or any other type of mental illness can be instilled from abuse, brainwashing, and teaching hate rather than love. But naturally, every child cries when they see an animal being killed, and none want to harm an animal. Hatred is taught, no one is born with it.

Animal products also harm our bodies. 70% of illnesses have been linked to meat, dairy, and eggs as a primary or only cause. These illnesses include cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, eczema, IBS, etc. Obesity is also due to animal fat which the human body does not know how to process so simply stores it, leading to excess weight gain.

Even if humans were omnivores, they still don’t eat like one. True omnivores and carnivores eat flesh immediately after the prey animal has died, or while they are still alive. Humans eat it a week or more after death, resembling a scavenger, not a predator. By this time the flesh is already turning green, but the meat industry sprays it with carbon monoxide (a poison) to turn it red, when naturally dead flesh is brownish. And even if humans ate fresh flesh, the fact is they still don’t eat like an omnivore. Wolves in the wild eat 50% plant material while bears eat 80% or more plant material. The primary time bears eat meat is when preparing for hibernation since animal fat is slow to burn. Only polar bears are carnivorous bears.

Dr Milton Mills explains the full anatomy of the human body and what animal products do to us when we consume them in this wonderful lecture:

Okay, we see that the human body is naturally herbivorous, strongly more frugivorous rather than grazing herbivorous (like horses, bison, elephants, etc.), but then why did humans start to eat animals?

The first human to ever decide to eat an animal is a heavily debated topic. If you’re religious or not it will change who you believe was the first human to commit this unnatural act. Was it Noah’s family? Was it some early human? We don’t know as that’s an entirely different debate.

But what we do know is a lot of history of diets across the globe, many that haven’t changed at all.

Meat and dairy consumption throughout history is heavily concentrated in Eastern Europe, and spreads to other lands as Europeans colonized and enslaved other nationalities. Egg consumption is heavily located in Europe as well, with a few other cultures spread throughout the world eating eggs here and there, depending on scarcity. Farming chickens came from Europe and only spread to other lands with colonizing, so not all cultures had domesticated birds to lay eggs for them.

So we know meat and dairy consumption originated in Europe and spread during colonization, so what prompted Europeans to start animal agriculture in the first place?

Studying the books and history left to us from these time periods we know that meat and dairy consumption was for the rich, not something poor people participated in. It would be rare if any peasant ate meat, usually only during some huge celebration or event, such as a funeral, a wedding, etc. The reason only the rich, kinds, nobles, etc. ate animal products was due to the amount of resources it used. Not everyone could afford to grow so much grain to feed bovines only to eat the bulls and oxen. No, they needed their animals to live to pull the plows, pull the carts, carry logs of wood, etc. In many parts of the world still today people in rural areas eat strictly plant based diets because they need their buffalo, oxen, etc. alive to work.

Not everyone during ancient times had a horse as they were often expensive, so the bulls and oxen were the most common animals to have, and with their mild temperaments and easy going demeanor they are perfect for working long days especially with children around. Even horses are more likely to kick and complain than oxen or bovines, so they were the preferred working animal.

Thus begun the domestication of these animals rather than deer or other animals who might have ended up being labeled as “food” as some species are discriminated against today.

We all know African wild cats were domesticated to catch mice, and wolves domesticated to protect, but the domestication of oxen and bovines originated not for food but rather work.

Nutritionfacts.org: nutritionfacts.org/

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: www.pcrm.org/

Center for Nutrition Studies: https://nutritionstudies.org/

To Listen to Doctors Talk About Plant-Based Verse Meat-Based See these:

Dr. Greger: youtu.be/30gEiweaAVQ

Dr. Klaper: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvlaQJ…

Dr. Barnard: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnHYHj…

Dr. Kellner: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O40q8r…

Dr. Campbell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkQCe…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsklVx…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTf0z…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsT-q…