Mankind's Anatomy Proves Humans to be Herbivores
Source Niki Papageorgiou
Although some historians and anthropologists say that man is historically
omnivorous, our anatomical equipment teeth, jaws, and digestive system
favors a fleshless diet. The American Dietetic Association notes that "most
of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or
near-vegetarian diets."
And much of the world still lives that way. Even on most industrialized
countries, the love affair with meat is less than a hundred years old. It
started with the refrigerator car and the twentieth-century consumer
society. But even with the twentieth century, man's body hasn't adapted to
eating meat. The prominent Swedish scientist Karl von Linne states, "Man's
structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals,
shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food." The
chart below compares the anatomy of man with that of carnivorous and
herbivorous animals.
When you look at the comparison between herbivores and humans, we compare
much more closely to herbivores than meat eating animals. Humans are clearly
not designed to digest and ingest meat.
Meat-eaters: have claws
Herbivores: no claws
Humans: no claws
Meat-eaters: have no skin pores and perspire through the tongue
Herbivores: perspire through skin pores
Humans: perspire through skin pores
Meat-eaters: have sharp front teeth for tearing, with no flat molar teeth
for grinding
Herbivores: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for grinding
Humans: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for grinding
Meat-eaters: have intestinal tract that is only 3 times their body length so
that rapidly decaying meat can pass through quickly
Herbivores: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.
Humans: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.
Meat-eaters: have strong hydrochloric acid in stomach to digest meat
Herbivores: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a
meat-eater
Humans: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a meat-eater
Meat-eaters: salivary glands in mouth not needed to pre-digest grains and
fruits.
Herbivores: well-developed salivary glands which are necessary to pre-digest
grains and fruits
Humans: well-developed salivary glands, which are necessary to pre-digest,
grains and fruits
Meat-eaters: have acid saliva with no enzyme ptyalin to pre-digest grains
Herbivores: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains
Humans: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains
Based on a chart by A.D. Andrews, Fit Food for Men, (Chicago: American
Hygiene Society, 1970)
Clearly if humans were meant to eat meat we wouldn't have so many crucial
ingestive/digestive similarities with animals that are herbivores.
Many people ask me, "If we weren't supposed to eat meat than why do we?". It
is because we are conditioned to eat meat. Also, the ADA (American Dietetic
Association) tells us that "most of mankind for most of human history has
lived on a vegetarian or Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.
A popular statement that meat eaters say is; "In the wild, animals kill
other animals for food. It's nature." First of all, we are not in the wild.
Secondly, we can easily live without eating meat and killing, not to mention
we'd be healthier. And finally, as I have already shown, we weren't meant to
eat meat. Meat and seafood putrefies within 4 hours after consumption and
the remnants cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines for 3-4 days
or longer than if a person is constipated. Furthermore, the reaction of
saliva in humans is more alkaline, whereas in the case of flesh-eating or
preying animals, it is clearly acidic. The alkaline saliva does not act
properly on meat.
The final point I would like to make on how we as humans were not meant to
eat meat is this. All omnivorous and carnivorous animals eat their meat raw.
When a lion kills an herbivore for food, it tears right into the stomach
area to eat the organs that are filled with blood (nutrients). While eating
the stomach, liver, intestine, etc., the lion laps the blood in the process
of eating the dead animals flesh. Even bears that are omnivores eat salmon
raw. However, eating raw or bloody meat disgust us as humans. Therefore, we
must cook it and season it to buffer the taste of flesh.
If a deer is burned in a forest fire, a carnivorous animal will NOT eat its
flesh. Even circus lions have to be feed raw meat so that they will not
starve to death. If humans were truly meant to eat meat, then we would eat
all of our meat raw and bloody. The thought of eating such meat makes one’s
stomach turn. This is my point on how we as humans are conditioned to
believe that animal flesh is good for us and that we were meant to consume
it for survival and health purposes. If we are true carnivores or omnivores,
cooking our meat and seasoning it with salt, ketchup, or tabasco sauce would
disguise and we as humans would refuse to eat our meat in this form.
Overall advantages of vegetarianism
You can indeed reap a lot of benefits by being a vegetarian and people have
become more aware of the health benefits of being a vegetarian. Animal
rights issues is only one of the reasons why people decide to go on a
vegetarian diet. People are beginning to care more about the environment.
However, the main reason why people go on vegetarian diet is because of
health benefits.
Meat is not good for you as it clogs your thinking. This is especially true
if you eat red meat; white meat has less fat compared to red meat. Excessive
intake of fats into your body can result in having a high level of
cholesterol. If you think that not eating meat is going to make you look
scrawny or unhealthy please think again. Just imagine that cows, goats,
gorillas, elephants, rhinoceroses and so on are all vegetarians (herbivores)
but look at how tough these animals are, not to mention their life span
which is longer compared to the carnivores (meat eating animals).
If you look at the chicken and vulture (carnivores), these animals eat just
about everything and notice how unhealthy these animals look. The Chinese
believe that the chi or life force in your body is less when you consume
meat and so do the Indians with their ancient yogic principles, their life
force was called prana.
The great Tai Chi masters of China were adept at preserving their chi, even
if some of the masters were not vegetarians, they still had a balanced diet.
It has now been scientifically proven that a balanced vegetarian diet is
better compared to a diet that is taken with meat.
There are a lot of misconceptions about being a vegetarian; protein is one
of the main topics of debate as a lot of people think that you can only get
protein from meat. Vegetarians get a lot of protein, if they eat a variety
of fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes. What vegetarians don't get is the
excess protein of traditional American diet, excess that leads to kidney
overload and mineral deficiency diseases.
A lot of people also think that a vegetarian diet is not a balanced diet.
Vegetarian diets have a proportion of three macronutrients, which are
complex carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Vegetarian food sources (plants)
tend to be higher sources of most micronutrients. Another myth that needs to
be clarified is the so-called lack of calcium among vegetarians. Many
vegetables, especially green, leafy ones, have a good supply of calcium. The
truth is that vegetarians suffer less from osteoporosis (a deficiency of
calcium that leads to weak bones).
It is not my intention to force people to become vegetarians. However,
vegetarianism is my answer to complete health and wholeness. The three
issues to consider in regard to vegetarianism are: spiritual, mental, and
physical (nutritional).
The spiritually aspiring person attempts to work on his/her self. The
purpose of spiritual growth is to move away from the animal nature into the
more human nature that God intended for us to have. Meat eating inhibits
this. Again, the same science that sometimes attempts to ignore the
existence of a force higher than man also has proved, in the laboratory,
that aggression levels are much higher in meat eaters than non-meat eaters!
The animal instincts become more powerful every time you eat meat. Another
spiritual aspect of being a meat eater is when one must question the
necessity and the method as well as the karma of killing animals. However,
everyone has their own mores which they must determine for themselves. It is
not the purpose of my dissertation to force a specific moral behavior on
anyone. Most spiritual people believe auras. Kirilian photography shows us
that a force field remains around dead or amputated tissue. You adopt that
animal aura when you eat a dead animal. Fruits and vegetables have a higher
vibrational aura than animal products. Is it not personal evolution that the
spiritual candidate is interested in? If so, meat eating is urgently
prohibited.
“You are what you eat”, is a slogan that I love to use to show the mental
aspect of vegetarianism. When animals are slaughtered, fear and aggression
enzymes are shot into their cells from their glands and other organs, just
as in humans, and are part of the dead carcass that goes on to the food
store. They remain in the meat until the consumer ingests those same
enzymes, which are molecularly very similar to those found in humans. Fruits
and vegetables do not have emotions; therefore, when they are picked they do
not release any emotions cells prior to digestion. The enzymes within fruits
and vegetables supply the body with sufficient nutrients that will always
uphold a healthy state of mind.
Fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients; the very thing the body needs
to live a long disease and pain free life. The same cannot be said for meat.
Nutritionally, the alkaline-based digestive system of humans will not
properly break down substantial acid substances, the greatest of which is
meat.
Colon cancer is rampant! This is caused by the slow evacuation and the
putrefaction in the colon of the remains of meat. Lifelong vegetarians never
suffer from such an illness. Many meat eaters believe that meat is the sole
source of protein. However, the quality of this protein is so poor that
little of it can ever be utilized by humans because it is incomplete and
lacks the correct combination of amino acids, the building blocks of
protein. Studies show that the average American gets five times the amount
of protein needed. It is a common medical fact that excess protein is
dangerous, the prime danger being that uric acid (the waste product produced
in the process of digesting protein) attacks the kidneys, breaking down the
kidney cells called nephrons. This condition is called nephritis; the prime
cause of it is overburdening the kidneys. More usable protein is found in
one tablespoon of tofu or soybeans than the average serving of meat!
Have you ever seen what happens to a piece of meat that stays in the sun for
three days? Meat can stay in the warmth of the intestine for at least four
days until it is digested. It does nothing but wait for passage. Often, it
usually stays there for much longer, traces remaining for up to several
months. Colonic therapists always see meat passing through in people who
have been vegetarians for several years, thus indicating that meat remains
undigested there for a long time. Occasionally this has been documented in
twenty-year vegetarians!
Some vegetarians claim they are more satisfied after they eat. The reason
for this is that there are fewer ketones (protein-digestive substances)
formed when vegetable protein is digested. For many, ketones cause a trace
amount of nausea which one normally interprets as a decreased desire for
food due to this uncomfortable and slight degree of queasiness. Although the
body calls for more food, the taste buds tolerate less. This is the danger
of the popular high-protein diet substances on the market. This abnormally
high level of ketones is called ketosis and refers to the state of
starvation that the body incurs due to the inability of the appetite to call
for nutrition. Most Americans who eat the wrong type of carbohydrates never
recognize the high amount of complex carbohydrates required to overthrow
this condition. Also, when the blood ketone level is too high, it results in
abnormally acidic blood, called acidosis.
Tigers or lions who eat meat and grow strong on it have acid-based digestive
systems. Our Hydrochloric Acid isn’t strong enough to fully digest meat.
Also, their intestines are in a straight run of about five feet long, not
twisted and turned, layer over layer, compacted into a small area like the
human intestine, which is twenty feet long.
Meats are frozen for a long period of times. Some meat (especially poultry)
is frozen up to two years. Cold temperatures do not kill all species of
bacteria. Worse than this, as it is shipped and stored, most frozen meat is
thawed and refrozen many times. This is almost unavoidable.
Meat eaters suffer more frequently from various types of food poisoning than
vegetarian eaters, so much so that statistics show that every American has
had food poisoning on at least one occasion. When you've felt ill,
out-of-sorts, had diarrhea, or were just a little sick to your stomach, no
doubt you had not the slightest idea that you had been poisoned by
scavengers living off the dead carcass you just ate.
Meat is costly and it is the most wasteful source of resources. When one
removes meat from his or her diet, a whole new world of eating opens up.
Cooking and preparing vegetarian style is no more time consuming than
cooking meat. It costs less than half as much to eat vegetarian as it does
to eat meat. There are excellent, nutritious, and easy to prepare vegetarian
dishes that are Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mid-Eastern, French, Spanish, etc.
Additionally, one can enjoy many other foods that he has never tasted
because of the meat craze. Most consumers have eaten no more than five or
six varieties of beans and legumes — less than 10% of what is available and
grains, including different appetizing types of wheat, nuts, and seeds. And
they can be prepared very creatively!
In my opinion, there are far more benefits to becoming a vegetarian then
there are becoming or staying a meat eater. Due to the fact that I was
raised on meat, I have the wonderful experiences from both worlds. As a meat
eater, I was constantly sick, tired, and overweight. As a vegetarian, I am
healthy, full of energy, and maintaining a perfect weight. I love being a
vegetarian and it shows. Because I wish the best for myself, it’s just
second nature to want the best for others. From my past experience and
research, going vegetarian is the best thing anyone can do for their mind,
body and spirit.
source: Niki Papageorgiou:
http://www.celestialhealing.net/physicalveg3.htm.
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