What's wrong with eating MEAT?

Submitted on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 11:29

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This part explores the human physiological evidence that we are not designed to eat meat; from our lips to our digestive systems, humans are entirely like vegetarian animals and completely unlike meat eating animals.

But our ancestors have always eaten meat, haven't they?

No!  After much recent study and research, scientists have concluded that our early ancestors were vegetarians who ate no meat except during periods of extreme crisis.  It was only during the last Ice Age, when their normal diet of fruits, nuts, and vegetables was unavailable that the early humans had to start eating animal flesh in order to survive.  Unfortunately the custom of eating meat continued after the Ice Age, either by necessity (like the Eskimos and tribes who live in the far north), through habit, or through lack of proper knowledge.  However, throughout history there have been many individuals and groups of people who have realized the importance of a pure diet for health, mental clarity, or spiritual reasons and who have thereby remained vegetarians.

History of Vegetarianism

From the beginnings of recorded history, we find that the vegetarian diet was regarded as the natural diet of humanity.  The early Greeks, Egyptians, and Hebrews described man as a fruit eater.  The wise priests of ancient Egypt never ate meat.  Many great Greek wise men -- including Plato, Socrates, and Pythagoras -- were strong advocates of the vegetarian diet.  The great civilization of the Inca Indians was based on a vegetarian diet.  In India, the Buddha urged his disciples not to eat flesh.  The Taoist saints and sages were vegetarians; the early Christians and Jews were also vegetarians.  The Bible clearly states: "And god said, 'Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which are fruits; for you it shall be as meat.' " (Genesis 1:29).  And further, the Bible forbids the eating of flesh: "But living flesh and blood you shall not eat." (Genesis 9:4).  St. Paul, one of the greatest disciples of Jesus, wrote his letter to the Romans, "It is good not to eat flesh..." (Romans 14:21). 

Recently historians have discovered ancient texts similar to the New Testament, describing the life and speeches of Jesus.  In one of these scriptures, Jesus says: "And the flesh of slain beasts in a person's body will become his own tomb.  For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself, and whosoever eats the flesh of slain beasts eats the body of death." (The Essene Gospel of Peace).

The ancient Hindus in India always forbade the eating of meat; the holy book of Islam (Mohammedanism), the Koran, prohibits the eating of "dead animals, blood, and flesh..."  One of the first prophets after Muhammad, his own nephew, advised the higher disciples, "Do not make your stomachs graves for animals."

So we see throughout history, many wise and knowledgeable people have adopted the vegetarian diet and have strongly urged others to do the same.

But isn't it natural for human beings to eat meat?

No!  Scientists know that the diet of any animal corresponds to its physiological structure.  Human physiology, bodily functions, and digestive system are completely different from those of carnivorous animals.  According to diet we can divide vertebrate animals into three groups: meat eaters, grass and leaf eaters, and fruit eaters.  Let us look closely at each and see where humanity fits in.

Meat eaters

Carnivorous animals including the lion, dog, wolf, cat, etc. have many unique characteristics which set them apart from all other members of the animal kingdom.  They all possess a very simple and short digestive system -- only three times the length of their bodies.  This is because flesh decays very rapidly, and the products of this decay quickly poison the bloodstream if they remain too long in the body.  So a short digestive tract was evolved for rapid expulsion of putrefactive bacteria from decomposing flesh, as well as stomachs with ten times as much hydrochloric acid as non-carnivorous animals (to digest fibrous tissues and bones). 

Meat eating animals that hunt in the cool of the night and sleep during the day when it is hot do not need sweat glands to cool their bodies, they therefore do not perspire through their skin, they sweat through their tongues.  On the other hand, vegetarian animals, such as the cow, horse, zebra, deer, etc., spend much of their time in the sun gathering their food, and they freely perspire through their skin to cool their bodies. 

The most significant difference between the natural meat eaters and other animals is their teeth.  Along with sharp claws, all meat eaters, since they have to kill mainly with their teeth possess powerful jaws and pointed elongated "canine" teeth to pierce tough hide and to spear and tear flesh.  They do NOT have molars (flat back teeth) which vegetarian animals need for grinding their food.  Unlike grains, flesh does not need to be chewed in the mouth to predigest it; it is digested mostly in the stomach and the intestines.  A cat, for example, can hardly chew at all.

Grass and leaf eaters (herbivores)

Grass and leaf eating animals (elephant, cow, sheep, llama, etc.) live on grass herbs and other plants much of which is coarse and bulky.  The digestion of this type of food starts in the mouth with the enzyme ptyalin in the saliva.  These foods must be chewed well and thoroughly mixed with ptyalin in order to be broken down.  For this reason, grass and leaf eaters have 24 special "molar" teeth and a slight side to side motion to grind their food, as opposed to exclusively up and down motion of carnivores. 

They have no claws or sharp teeth, they drink by sucking water up into their mouths as opposed to lapping it up with their tongue which all meat eaters do. 

Since they do not eat rapidly decaying foods like the meat eaters, and since their food can take a longer time to pass through, they have much longer digestive systems -- intestines which are ten times the length of the body.  Interestingly, recent studies have shown that a meat diet has an extremely harmful effect on these grass and leaf eaters.  Dr. William Collins, a scientist in the New York Maimonedes Medical Center found that the meat eating animals have an "almost unlimited capacity to handle saturated fats cholesterol".  If a half pound of animal fat is added daily over a long period of time to a rabbit's diet, after two months his vessels become caked with fat and the serious disease called atherosclerosis develops.  Human digestive systems, like the rabbit's are also not designed to digest meat, and they become diseased the more they eat it, as we will later see.

Fruit eaters

These animals include mainly the anthropoid apes, humanity's immediate animal ancestors.  The diet of these apes consists mostly of fruits and nuts.  Their skin has millions of pores for sweating, and they also have molars to grind and chew their food; their saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for predigestion.  Their intestines are twelve times the length of their body, for the slow digestion of fruits and vegetables.

Human beings

Human characteristics are in every way like the fruit eaters, very similar to the grass and leaf eaters, and very unlike the meat eaters, as is clearly shown in the table below.  The human digestive system, tooth and jaw structure, and bodily functions are completely different from carnivorous animals.  As in the case of the anthropoid ape, the human digestive system is twelve times the length of the body, our skin has millions of tiny pores to evaporate water and cool the body by sweating, we drink water by suction like all other vegetarian animals, our tooth and jaw structure is vegetarian, and our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for predigestion of grains.

Human beings clearly are not carnivores by physiology -- our anatomy and digestive system show that we must have evolved for millions of years living on fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables.

Furthermore, it is obvious that our natural instincts are non-carnivorous.  Most people have other people kill their meat for them and would be sickened if they had to do the killing themselves.  Instead of eating raw meat as all flesh-eating animals do, humans boil, bake, or fry it and disguise it with all kinds of sauces and spices so that it bears no resemblance to its raw state.  One scientist explains it this way: "a cat will salivate with hungry desire at the smell of a piece of raw flesh but not at all at the smell of fruit.  If man could delight in pouncing upon a bird, tear its still living limbs apart with his teeth, and suck the warm blood, one might conclude that nature provided him with meat-eating instinct.   On the other hand, a bunch of luscious grapes makes his mouth water, and even in the absence of hunger he will eat fruit because it tastes so good."

Scientists and naturalists, including the great Charles Darwin who gave the theory of evolution, agree that early humans were fruit and vegetable eaters and that throughout history our anatomy has not changed.  The great Swedish scientist von Linne' states: "Man's structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food."

So, it is clear from scientific studies that physiologically, anatomically, and instinctively, man is perfectly suited to a diet for fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains.  This is summarized in the following table.

Read part 2 exploring more logical reasons to stop eating meat

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