Are humans omnivores?
Question:
Common Sense – Humans are not natural carnivores
Many believe humans are omnivores and perfectly adapted to eating meat. To think so is not using our good sense of reason. Humans, as Harvey Diamond explains, are not natural carnivores:
"A carnivore's teeth are long sharp and pointed - all of them! But we have molars for crushing and grinding. A carnivore's jaws move up and down only, for tearing and biting flesh. Ours can move from side to side for grinding as all other vegetarian animals. A carnivore's saliva is acid and geared to the digestion of animal protein; it lacks ptyalin, a chemical that digests starches.
Our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starch. A carnivore's stomach is a simple, round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non-carnivore. Our stomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure and convoluted with a duodenum.
A carnivore's intestines are three times the length of its trunk, designed for rapid expulsion of animal proteins that quickly rot in the colon. Our intestines are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them until all plant-based nutrients are extracted. When humans eat meat, bad gas, bloating, and bad breath are the results of rotting meat inside.
The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a non-carnivore. Our livers have the capacity to eliminate only a small amount of uric acid. Uric acid is an extremely dangerous and toxic substance that can wreak havoc in our bodies. All meat consumption releases large quantities of uric acid into the system, eventually causing health disorders like arthritis and gout in the joints. Unlike most carnivores and omnivores, humans do not have the enzyme uricase to break down the uric acid.
Human hands are perfectly designed for plucking fruit from a tree and for harvesting, not for tearing the guts out of a dead animal as are a carnivore's claws. A carnivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores. We do sweat through the skin and have pores. A carnivore's urine is very acidic, ours is alkaline. A carnivore's tongue is rough, ours is smooth.
Nutritional value of meat
Meat is touted as ‘a source of protein', but what kind of protein? Animal-based protein!
Did you know, humans cannot create protein directly from animal protein? Our bodies have to break down the animal flesh into its constituent amino acids and then reconstruct human protein from these building blocks. Proteins are formed from chains that can range anywhere from 50 to 200,000 amino acid links. These chains have to be deconstructed and recombined into human links, a procedure extremely laborious to the human, not to mention remarkably inefficient for manufacturing protein.
Flesh foods have very little going for them in terms of their nutritive value. They come with a whole slug of dietary cholesterol and fat which thickens the blood for up to five hours after consumption. Even if you are eating meat for protein you aren't, since the meat is almost always cooked, charbroiled, fried, boiled, or roasted, which destroys much of its enzyme and amino acid content, resulting in toxic, acidic gunk the body will later have to eliminate. A true carnivore chomps its beef, chicken, and ducks RAW to maximize the protection of the meat's amino acid and enzyme structure.
If the above doesn't convince you humans are not natural carnivores, then trust to instinct. What do you think you are psychologically programmed to eat, an apple or raw flesh? Next time you pass over some roadkill, screech to a halt, leap out of the car with your juices flowing, and go back and get stuck into the blood and guts. Tear that deer apart and delight as the blood flows down your throat. Feel the satisfying crunch of its bones and the slippery visceral sensation of its organs in your mouth. Well, why not? You're a meat-eater by instinct, aren't you? Any of your brothers and sisters-in-kin, like a fox, dog, or a crow, would likely beat you to it. Don't be the runt of the pack! Get your muzzle in there, barge aside the competition, and chow on down.
All carnivores eat raw flesh, and this is their natural design. But when all is said and done, if you are an eater of cooked animal protein and cooked fat, many health problems, including obesity and premature death are possibly coming your way.
Answer:
You start out claiming that humans are not omnivores (consumers of both plants and meat), but proceed to argue that humans are not like carnivores (consumers of mostly meat). All you proved is that our system is not optimally designed to handle a diet that is exclusively meat-based. You did not prove that it cannot handle meat. Since it is God who said, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs" (Genesis 9:3), your point is basically absurd. I could just as easily point out that the human digestive system doesn't process cellulose like herbivores, so does that mean we are not meant to eat plants?
As most people know, vegetarians have to be careful to eat a balanced diet. They cannot get a complete set of amino acids from one vegetable source. This is different when meat is in the diet because meats do provide a complete set of amino acids. The argument that humans don't absorb animal proteins directly is another sleight-of-hand trick. We don't absorb plant proteins directly either but have to break the proteins down into amino acids and build up the proteins that the human body needs.
