Are Vegetarians Healthier?

• “No”

  

  “Myth: The Human Body is Not Designed for Meat Consumption”

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Myth: The Human Body is Not Designed for Meat Consumption

Weston A. Price Foundation

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Some vegetarian groups claim that since humans possess grinding teeth like herbivorous animals and longer intestines than carnivorous animals, this proves the human body is better suited for vegetarianism. This argument fails to note several human physiological features which clearly indicate a design for animal product consumption.

First and foremost is our stomach's production of hydrochloric acid, something not found in herbivores. HCL activates protein-splitting enzymes. Further, the human pancreas manufactures a full range of digestive enzymes to handle a wide variety of foods, both animal and vegetable. Further, Dr. Walter Voegtlin's in-depth comparison of the human digestive system with that of the dog, a carnivore, and a sheep, a herbivore, clearly shows that we are closer in anatomy to the carnivorous dog than the herbivorous sheep.

While humans may have longer intestines than animal carnivores, they are not as long as herbivores; nor do we possess multiple stomachs like many herbivores, nor do we chew cud. Our physiology definitely indicates a mixed feeder, or an omnivore, much the same as our relatives, the mountain gorilla and chimpanzee who all have been observed eating small animals and, in some cases, other primates.

Evidence

Text

(a) Why Not Meat? (Part 2)

Down to Earth News, (Honolulu; HI), Dec/Jan 1998, 1-4; (b) Ralph Ballantine. Transition to Vegetarianism. (Himalayan Institute Press; PA), 1994.

Link

The Stone Age Diet

Text

(a) HL Abrams

A diachronic preview of wheat in homonid nutrition. J Appl Nutr, 1978, 30:41-55;(b) J Goodall. In the Shadow of Man. Boston: 1971.

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