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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Jun-05-19, 00:41
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Demi Demi is offline
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Default Are Humans Designed To Be Carnivores Or Herbivores Based On Digestion Mechanism?

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From Medical Daily
June 5, 2019

Are Humans Designed To Be Carnivores Or Herbivores Based On Digestion Mechanism?

Amid the growing interest of people in vegetarian or vegan diet, some experts have raised questions if we are really fit for such zero meat approach. Did humans come from plant-loving primate species and are returning to what its ancestors previously loved to eat?

Nora Gedgaudas, a keto and ancestral nutrition specialist, provides a clear answer to that. In a recent article posted on Bulletproof, she explains the physiological makeup and nutritional requirements of early humans.

Comparing modern human physiology to its ape ancestors, Gedgaudas said chimps’ digestion heavily relied on bacterially-based, fermentative processing of plant-based diet. However, humans lack the ability to fully extract nutrients.

“The digestive systems of pure herbivores are simply different from ours,” she said. “We instead rely on the extraction of nutrients from the animals we consume.”

That’s the answer. Even the humans who first walked on Earth enjoyed the blood, meat and organs of animals.

“Our human digestive system much more closely resembles that of a carnivore than any herbivore,” Gedgaudas said. “Our very physiological design clearly indicates that animal products are an integral part of human health.”

Early humans also consumed plants. However, they were wild, largely fibrous and hard to digest. Human ancestors ate raw plant tubers and roots, which were not digestible and lacked proper nutrient content and essential fatty acids.

Gedgaudas said humans evolved by not relying on plant-based foods. She emphasized that “our species was never, ever even close to being vegetarian, much less vegan.”

Vegetarianism and veganism are modern-day experimental diet inventions. Such approach never existed even for humans’ most distant primate cousins.

“Vegetables were also a food having a far greater cost-to-benefit ratio on multiple levels, also taking into account the relative potential toxicity of wild plants and their comparatively poor digestibility, nutrient availability and caloric value — even cooked,” Gedgaudas said.

Plant-based food can only be considered as a secondary food source for early humans, Gedgaudas said. Honey used to be among the few natural organic food consumed on early Earth. Fruits were also much smaller and mostly seasonal during the time of human ancestors compared today.


https://www.medicaldaily.com/should...echanism-436126
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Jun-05-19, 04:53
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GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
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Makes complete sense based on the food N=1s to which I've responded most favorably. Plants have lately been minimized per portion and limited to greens, sprouts (broccoli), and unsweet, fatty fruit like avocado. When healthy fats and meats are the focal point of my eating, I do best.
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Old Wed, Jun-05-19, 06:41
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bkloots bkloots is offline
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How about Omnivores? Humanity would not have been able to spread itself all over the planet without accommodating all kinds of food opportunities. You won't find broccoli in the Arctic. Or blubber in the Sahara.

My opinion, of course.
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Old Thu, Jun-06-19, 10:47
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WereBear WereBear is offline
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I know people who are sensible vegetarians and thrive on it, while I am at the other end of the Bell Curve. Right in the middle of a standard population distribution are lots of people who can eat lots of things.

Look at the people who grew up with the Four Food Groups. They look like circus acrobats compared to us today. It was a small percentage shift which had huge implications.

And me, who spent years of the 90's struggling to take care of myself with low fat, high carb, and high exercise? If I have to eat very low to make up for the times I ate very high, I can do that.
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Old Fri, Jun-07-19, 17:38
M Levac M Levac is offline
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Pretty much all the same arguments I use. We could add the ETH, the expensive tissue hypothesis. But basically no argument required, just test for yourself. Eat some plant, check at the other end. If it's not starch, it comes out intact. If it comes out intact, there's little reason to believe we got anything out of that as it passed through our gut.

On a slightly different note, whenever I discuss diet with a veggy proponent, I try to turn the discussion toward supplementing with the things that are obviously lacking in such a diet, rather than merely mock them (which I used to do, but not anymore). So, fat, fat-solubles, B12, that kind of thing.
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Old Sun, Jun-09-19, 03:43
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WereBear WereBear is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M Levac
On a slightly different note, whenever I discuss diet with a veggy proponent, I try to turn the discussion toward supplementing with the things that are obviously lacking in such a diet, rather than merely mock them (which I used to do, but not anymore). So, fat, fat-solubles, B12, that kind of thing.


I can't even do that. Too much evidence that such supplementation does not always work.
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