Our Bodies Need Plant Foods, Not Animal Foods[5,9]
Many people believe, due to the meat and dairy industries huge marketing budgets, that meat is a necessary part of our diet — in other words, essential. But this simply is not true.
Because the human diet has consisted almost entirely of plant foods,
we, as well as other herbivores, have the ability to synthesize nutrients that are only found in flesh. For example, herbivores are able to make Vitamin A from a precursor found in large quantities in plants, beta-carotene. Carnivores have no need to turn beta-carotene into Vitamin A because meat contains large doses of this vitamin. Niacin is another vitamin that is found in large quantities of flesh that carnivores have lost the need to synthesize. Herbivores synthesize Niacin from tryptophan which is found in large quantities of plants.
When humans do not eat enough Vitamin C, found in an abundance in plant foods, we get scurvy. Because there is no Vitamin C in flesh foods, carnivorous animals are able to synthesize it in their body from the various raw materials in their diet. Therefore, Vitamin C is not an essential nutrient for carnivores; they do not need to get it from their diet.
Our Instincts Are for Plants
When you see a dead bird on the side of the road, do you think about stopping for a snack? Does the idea of chasing an animal, catching it, and tearing it limb from limb while you feast on it's warm blood and guts excite you? Would you eat a dog or a cat or a horse? What makes cows and chickens so special? Do you enjoy the taste of raw flesh? If you answered yes to any of these questions, many people would think you deserve to be in an insane asylum.
We humans have no taste buds for flesh foods. If you try to give a carnivore (like a cat), a grape, it won't eat it because it does not have taste buds for carbohydrates. Similarly, we do not have taste buds for amino acids (protein), and need to alter flesh from its natural form by cooking it in sauces, spices, and/or fat to make it palatable. If you don't believe me, I would love to watch you try to eat a portion of boiled chicken or steak without adding anything to it. After noting your displeasure and inability to do so, I will give it to a dog or cat and watch as it eagerly wolfs it down.
Eating Meat Makes You Less of a Man
Here's a quote from a Dr. John McDougall, MD, newsletter:
"Men traditionally have been the hunters who carry back the slain animals to feed the village — you know, “they bring home the bacon.” Scientific research confirms meat is viewed as a superior masculine food.[10] The acts of killing, butchering and eating animals are associated with power, aggression, virility, strength, and passion — attributes desired by most men — and eating meat has long been associated with aggressive behaviors and violent personalities. Men say they need more, and they do eat more meat, especially more red meat, than women. However, based on male anatomy, real men should be vegetarians.
Eating meat diminishes sexual performance and masculinity. The male hormone testosterone that determines sexual development and interest has been found to be 13% higher in vegans (a strict plant diet — no animal products of any kind) than in meat-eaters.[11] Meat-eaters are likely to become impotent because of damage caused to the artery system that supplies their penis with the blood that causes an erection.[12] Erectile dysfunction is more often seen in men with elevated cholesterol levels[13] and high levels of LDL “bad” cholesterol[14] — both conditions related to habitual meat-eating.
The greatest threat to a man’s virility is from the high levels of environmental chemicals concentrated in modern meats of all kinds. These chemicals interfere with the actions of testosterone. Decreased ejaculate volume, low sperm count, shortened sperm life, poor sperm motility, genetic damage, and infertility result from eating meat with estrogen-like environmental chemicals15. These chemicals in the meat, eaten by his mother, influence the development of the male fetus, increasing the risk that the baby boy will be born with a smaller penis and testicles, as well as deformity of the penis (hypospadia) and an undescended testicle (cryptorchism). Estimates are 89% to 99% of the chemical intake into our body is from our food, and most of this is from foods high on the food chain — meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products."[16,17]
The More Meat You Eat the Greater Your Risk of Disease
Through immense scientific research, like the China Study, it has been made abundantly clear that the more animal-based foods we eat, the greater are risk for just about every kind of disease and illness in modern society. Dr. McDougall has had first-hand experience with curing many of his clients "incurable" diseases just by switching them to a whole foods vegetarian diet, with minimal or no dairy.
Meat takes the place of fruits and vegetables, which contain large amounts of antioxidants which help keep us healthy. Because we have to cook meat, it is devoid of all of it's life-preserving enzymes that are just as important, if not more, in the preservation of health.
What About B12?
Many meat-eaters throw the B12 argument as a last ditch effort on why we should eat meat. First of all, many people, regardless of whether or not they eat meat, are deficient in B12.
B12 exists in large quantities in organic top soil. Chemically grown food destroys the top soil and the B12 with it. As a result, livestock are fed foods fortified in B12 to make up for the large amounts of commercially grown foods.
B12 can only be synthesized by bacteria, and throughout your digestive system you have these B12 producing bacteria. But is this enough?
If you pull an organic carrot out of the ground and don't wash it too thoroughly, you are almost guaranteed to get a large quantity of B12. But because modern society has become so anal about washing our fruits and vegetables, these natural sources of B12 have nearly vanished.
Because of the B12 producing bacteria inside of us, it is very rare for healthy vegans to become B12 deficient (just because you don't eat meat doesn't mean you're eating healthy!). Our bodies can store B12 for long periods of time, but some doctors recommend taking a B12 supplement if you have been vegetarian for awhile.
Click here to find out more about B12
1. Meat in the Human Diet, John A. McDougall, M.D. The McDougall Newsletter, July 2003.
2. The Comparative Anatomy of Eating, Milton R. Mills, M.D., EarthSave.ca, accessed Jan. 2009.
3. Wood B. Human evolution: We are what we ate. Nature 1999;400:219 - 220.
4. Milton K. Back to basics: why foods of wild primates have relevance for modern human health. Nutrition. 2000 Jul-Aug;16(7-8):480-3.
5. Milton K. A hypothesis to explain the role of meat-eating in human evolution. Evol Anthropol 1999;8:11-21.
6. W. Collens, “Phylogenetic Aspects of the Cause of Human Atherosclerotic Disease,” Circulation (suppl II) 31-32 (1965): II-7.
7. Carpenter KJ. Protein requirements of adults from an evolutionary perspective. Am J Clin Nutr. 1992 May;55(5):913-7
8. H. Heimlich, “A Life-Saving Maneuver to Prevent Food-Choking,” JAMA 234 (1975): 398-401.
9. Milton K. Hunter-gatherer diets-a different perspective. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Mar;71(3):665-7.
10. Roos G. Men, masculinity and food: interviews with Finnish carpenters and engineers. Appetite. 2001 Aug;37(1):47-56.
11. Coffey D. Similarities of prostate and breast cancer: Evolution, diet, and estrogens.Urology 57(4 Suppl 1):31-8, 2001.
Allen NE. Hormones and diet: low insulin-like growth factor-I but normal bioavailable androgens in vegan men. Br J Cancer. 2000 Jul;83(1):95-7.
12. Feldman HA. Erectile dysfunction and coronary risk factors: prospective results from the Massachusetts male aging study. Prev Med. 2000 Apr;30(4):328-38.
13. Bodie J. Laboratory evaluations of erectile dysfunction: an evidence based approach. J Urol. 2003 Jun;169(6):2262-4.
14. Walczak MK Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in erectile dysfunction.J Gend Specif Med. 2002 Nov-Dec;5(6):19-24.
15. Rozati R . Role of environmental estrogens in the deterioration of male factor fertility. Fertil Steril. 2002 Dec;78(6):1187-94.
16. Duarte-Davidson R. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the UK population: estimated intake, exposure and body burden. Sci Total Environ. 1994 Jul 11;151(2):131-52.
17. Liem AK. Exposure of populations to dioxins and related compounds. Food Addit Contam. 2000 Apr;17(4):241-59.