Here is a comprehensive look into whether our body is designed to be vegetarian. I found it a very educational/interesting read.
http://www.vegsource.com/veg_faq/comparative.htm
If you don’t want to read the whole article, the summary is: Yes, humans are designed to be herbivores (vegetarians). Scroll all the way down in the article to see charts where our body parts are compared to the same body parts of carnivores, herbivores, omnivores and humans. ~95% of our physical features match with those of herbivores!
Nimit
Good to have the reconfirmation Nimit. 🙂
Thanks Nimit. Very good & informative article and will surely help us when discussing the Veg & Nov veg debates.
I do not promote non-vegetarianism but:
1> How can one expect an eskimo to eat veg food? Human races have effectively adapted to environment around them and thats why they have survived and are dominant.
2> Today 5% veg population can eat because the remaining 95% is also not veg. It is a logistical issue just because there are so many of us.
Is it possible that the human body may have undergone changes in order to adapt to groqing intake of veg food?
It is believed that the hunter gatherers (non- veg ancestors) were taller and stronger than the the communities that turned to veg. Humans food habits gradually shifted to veg as they could find places where the food cld be grown predictably in the backyard and it could be stored ( grains) for a long period minimizing uncertainty in food supply. Of course they cld do so as the body could support this shift. One of the reasons why 70%of worlds veggies live in india is that >50% of indias land is aerable and is conducive to sustain veg food habits. Of course, this also led to shrinking body frame and size of indians over centuries.
Ignore my comment . The darn iphone is useless for writing long ones. Anyway, i agree with tarun.
Rohit, I am impressed that you wrote such a long comment on the iphone. You must be very good at iphone keyboard.
Guys take a look at: http://veg.ca/content/view/133/111/
“A meat-based diet requires 7 times more land than a plant-based diet.” Modern meat production is absolutely destructive to the planet and environment. The world could easily support an all-vegetarian population.
Also, sure an Eskimo couldn’t eat plants. If you grew up in the middle of a desert in Saudi Arabia, you probably wouldn’t be able to consume enough water either and over many generations, people there may adapt to consuming less water. Does that mean it is healthy to drink little water for the rest of the world also? Could we use that person as an example for why water is unnecessary for all humans to be healthy?
Rohit you may be right that veg diet has led to a smaller body size, but so what? Humans true advantage on the planet is our brains not our bodies. I have read that all other things equal on avg vegetarians have ~7 year longer lifespan than meat eaters. I believe this is due to the fact that our bodies are designed to consume and digest plant based foods.
I found this study on Vegetarian website that summarizes findings of different studies on mortality rate comparisons between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I won’t say that this the findings are indisputable however, I find this site more credible since it is dedicated to vegetarianism.
http://www.oxveg.veggroup.org/articles/1114.html
The conclusions listed here seem logical that like everything else in life there are multiple factors that determine longevity and diet is just one of the them.
as far as body size is concerned.. I definitely want to be able to dunk! 🙂