Herbivores vs. Carnivores.
Recently a friend and I discussed our eating habits. We expressed our views on the ongoing debate of vegetarianism. Being a vegetarian for my entire life I was easily swayed to the affirmative side. He said something that sparked my interest so I went online and researched more about it and discovered something I’d never really given much thought to.
So starting with some statistics that relate to this topic. The number of people worldwide that will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million. The number of people who can be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million. That’s mind blowing.
A question that popped up was that are humans really constructed to consume other species? Is our body type desgined to consume the things we already devour? Cardiologist William C. Roberts says without a hesitation that humans aren’t physiologically designed to eat meat.
Another thing to take in to consideration is the build of the human body. The human body is most similar to a herbivores body instead of a carnivorious animal. The carnivore’s intestinal tract reaches about three times its body’s length. A herbivores intestinal tract is about twelve times its body length. Clearly, humans are closer to herbivores.
If you take a look at the typical herbivore interior
And then take a look at the typical carnivore interior
Then you take a look at the human interior, you see that it is similar to that of a herbivore.
Not only is there a difference in the interior systems, there is also a difference in the exterior. For example humans and herbivores have small mouths in relation to their head size, unlike carnivores which are helpful in seizing and killing prey. Also humans extensively chew their food while carnivores eat it whole. A few other differences include that both herbivores and humans get their vitamin C from their diets, while carnivores make it internally; and both cool of their bodies by perspiring while carnivores pant.When hungry a carnivorous animal can think of nothing else. However when you’re hungry and you happen to pass a dead animal on the street you don’t begin to salivate and devour the animal. Humans also lack the raw abilities to hunt, we are not quick like other predators. It was only because the invention of tools such as hatchets that killing and capturing prey was possible.
Carnivores eat their meat raw, this however disgusts humans. We have to cook the meat for it to taste better. Generally meat isn’t consumed raw and bloody. Unlike carnivores who eat the entire animal including the organs. Meat also takes a while to digest in our system. We have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a meat eater.
This also ties into a large problem facing the world today: Global Warming. Did you know that 18% of green house gases are caused by livestock farming? And if every American gave up meat for three days of the week, this would have a greater impact on reducing global warming than if all cars in the US were replaced with Toyota Priuses.
Now for some more shocking statistics. Nearly half the water consumed in the United States is used to raise animals for food. A vegetarian diet takes 300 gallons per day while a meat eating diet takes more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. Also a vegetarian saves an acre of trees per year! The tropical rain forests are being decimated to create land for grazing cattle.
Do you want more information on this topic? Watch the trailer for the popular film Meat the Truth.
This film is quite beneficial, it ranks as high as the informative An Inconvenient Truth. The film simply displays facts, and ways to change the world for the better.
Here’s an excerpt of a film review: Meat The Truth starts where An Inconvenient Truth leaves off, that the American way of life, right down to what we eat, creates a larger carbon footprint than anywhere else in the world. We are just 5 percent of the world’s population yet we grow and kill nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total. Americans consume on average 8 ounces of meat a day, nearly twice the global average. Data used in the film come from and have been validated by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO), the World Watch Institute, the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Free University Amsterdam, and numerous other sources…
For the full review click here.
Finally the benefits of vegetarianism
- Longer life expectancy
- Lower BMI
- Makes one less perceptible to deadly diseases.
- Helping the environment
Did you know that the average American consumes about forty pounds of meat per year?
Do you qualify for the cutest vegetarian alive?
