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Comparison Between the Digestive Tracts of a Carnivore, a Herbivore and Man
Part 1: Introduction
In The Naive Vegetarian , I talked about Man's evolution and the sorts of food which the fossil record suggests we should eat and what modern primitives, untouched by civilisation eat. This all points to our being a carnivorous species. The third aspect of the evidence confirms this hypothesis by looking at our digestive system and comparing it with those of animals whose diet is known beyond doubt.
There are basically two types of animals in Nature:
- Herbivores: animals that eat vegetation. They are able to digest and use as food the cellulose which forms the cell walls of all plants.
- Carnivores: animals that eat herbivores. The carnivore's digestion is unable break down vegetable cell walls.
Many people today aver that we are a vegetarian species, or at the very least, that we are able to live healthily on a diet composed almost entirely of foods of vegetable origin. This falsehood, for such it is, must be scotched from the start if the present unhealthy trends are to be reversed.
There have been many stories over the past several decades of explorers getting
lost and
starving to death - in situations where they are surrounded by vast amounts of
lush vegetation.
It is a situation in which many animals would have no difficulty whatsoever in
surviving. The
reason Man does not survive is because he cannot live on vegetation alone.
There is a very good
reason for this. Walter Voegtlin, in his book, The Stone Age Diet, gave examples
which is amply demonstrated the differences between the digestive
tracts of three animals of
roughly equal size, which are familiar to us all: a sheep
(herbivore), a dog
(carnivore) and at a human. (1)
In Part 2 we will look at the digestive system of the dog.
Reference
1. Walter Voegtlin, The Stone Age Diet, Vantage Press, Inc, New York, NY, 1976
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