Herbivore , Omnivore or Carnivore

A herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat a diet consisting of plant matter. a human herbivore is a Vegan.

An omnivore is an animal who's diet depends on a mix of both animal and plant matter. Human omnivores can be separated in to two groups vegetarians and meat eaters.

A Carnivore is an animal that has a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of meat. There is no human equivalent or a carnivore.

So which group should Humans fall into ?

This is an interesting question, so lets start by exploring the evidence,

Humans aren't physiologically designed to eat a diet that consists exclusively of meat. Fact !
Carnivores have a short digestive tract which reaches about 3 times the length of its body.
Herbivores have a long digestive tract which reaches about 12 times the length of its body.
Humans fall at about 9 or 10 times the length of the body, so as you can see this is towards the herbivore end of the scale.
Both humans and herbivores get their vitamin c from their diet, carnivores make it internally.
Humans and herbivores sip water, carnivores lap water up with their tongues, humans and herbivores cool their bodies by sweating, carnivores pant.
Humans and herbivores have little mouths in relation to their head size, carnivores mouths are larger for seizing, killing and eating meat.
Both humans and herbivores extensively chew their food, Carnivores swallow food whole, or with little chewing.

 

Humans lack the raw abilities to be good hunters, we do however have a very large brain for the size of our bodies, this means that we can make and use tools to assist with hunting.      

our bodies are also very bad at processing dairy foods and although we exclusively drink milk for the first few months of our life we can not survive on a dairy diet much beyond this. It is believed that spinach or collard greens contain as much calcium as cows milk.

 

so from the evidence above it would appear that we are herbivorous, HOWEVER it is not quite as simple as that.   

 

As intriguing as these arguments may be, the idea that humans are natural vegetarians has no scientific basis in fact, the human anatomy proves that people are omnivores.    

 

We obviously are not carnivores, but we are equally obviously not strict vegetarians, if you carefully examine the anatomical and physiological evidence   

 

Several human physiological features clearly indicate a design for eating meat, including our stomach's production of hydrochloric acid, something not found in herbivores. Furthermore, the human pancreas manufactures a full range of digestive enzymes to handle a wide variety of foods, both animal and vegetable.

 

 While humans may have longer intestines than animal carnivores, they are not as long as herbivores'; we also have a single stomach many herbivores possess multiple stomachs.

Human physiology defiantly indicates an omnivore feeder.

 

If humans were designed to be herbivorous we would have a different colon design, different teeth and a stomach with a pH specific to the digestion of plant matter.

another indication of requiring a mixed diet is our bodies reliance on animal products for certain nutrients namely Vitamin B12 which is not naturally occurring in plant matter. Animal products are also our bodies preferred source of protein.

History also supports the omnivore argument, considering that humans have been eating meat for about 2.5 million years.    

     

So the question remains where do humans fall in the herbivore, omnivore carnivore argument ??

clearly we are not purely carnivore , neither are we Herbivore, in fact the only reason that people can live a Vegan lifestyle is through the use of processed foods or supplements.

So we are Omnivores, the ideal situation is to eat a balanced diet a mixture of vegetables, fruit, animal products and meat.

Being vegetarian or a meat eater has less to do with do we need to eat meat, than should we eat meat, meat consumption comes down to ethical or religious reasons and personal choice, but the overwhelming fact is we need to eat animal products in one form of another.