It's Just Meant To Be:

Albert Einstein, “It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”

There is no physiological, psychological or nutritional justification for meat-eating by humans.* This section is designed to offer up some light material which serves as a retort to the notion that vegetarianism is somehow unnatural.

Physiology:

• All of a carnivore’s teeth are long, sharp, and pointed; whereas we humans have smooth, only slightly raised points on our teeth: for crushing and grinding.
• A carnivore’s jaw moves up and down only, for tearing and biting; ours move from side to side for grinding.
• A carnivore’s saliva is acid and geared to the digestion of animal protein (it lacks ptyalin, a chemical that digests starches); our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starches.
• A carnivore’s stomach is a simple round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non-carnivore; our stomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure, and convoluted, with a duodenum.
• A carnivore’s intestines are three times the length of its trunk, designed for rapid expulsion of food-stuff, which quickly rots; our intestines are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them until all nutrients are extracted.
• The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a herbivore; our livers have the capacity to eliminate only a small amount of uric acid (uric acid: an extremely dangerous toxic substance - all meat consumption releases large quantities of it into the system). Unlike carnivores and most omivores, humans do not have the enzyme (uricase) to break down uric acid.
• A carnivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores; we do sweat through the skin and have pores.
• A carnivore’s urine is acid; ours is alkaline.
• A carnivore’s tongue is rough; ours is smooth.
• Our hands are perfectly designed for plucking fruit from a tree; not for tearing the guts out of carcasses of a dead animal as are a carnivore’s claws.

Psychology:

“ Have you ever strolled through a lush wooded area, filling your lungs with good air while listening to the birds sing? Perhaps a chipmunk scurried across your path. What was your very first instictive inclination upon the sight of the chipmunk, before you even had time to think? To pounce on it, grab it with your teeth, rip it apart, and swallow it, blood, guts, skin, bone, flesh, and all? Or would you instantly, upon sight of the furry little creature, say, “Shhh, did you see that cute little chipmunk?” I wonder how many more vegetarians there would be if when people wanted a piece of steak, they had to go out, beat a defenseless steer to death, cut it open, and wade through the blood and guts to slice out the particular parts they desired. Place a small child in a crib with a rabbit and an apple. If the child eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car.” - Harvey Diamond ‘Fit for Life’

Nutrition:

• Meat has virtually no carbohydrates: no fuel value.
• Meat has virtually no fiber content.
• When flesh protein is ingested, the chain has to be broken down and reassembled into human protein.
• Amino acids are somewhat delicate: the heat of cooking coagulates or destroys many of the amino acids so that they are not available for the body's use.
• Unusable amino acids become toxic: meat would have to be eaten raw for any potential usage of amino acids.
• Meat is also very high in saturated fat.

Vegetarians enjoy increased health because it is natural for human health. No mammal, other than those who are kept as pets or confined in a zoo (because they’re under the dominion of humans) have as many health problems as do humans. We are obviously the only animal who has developed a medical system, yet on paper, we enjoy the lowest level of health in the entire animal kingdom. The fact is that without the band-aid efforts of modern science ‘survival of the fittest’ would be a frightening notion to the human race.

If we are indeed meant to be carnivores or omnivores then why are most people incapable of eating meat without cooking it? We are the only so-called carnivore or omnivore who cook their meat. This is one major way in which the consumption of flesh food contributes to failing health in humans. Enzymes are sensitive to all heat above 130F. At 130F and above, these life-giving enzymes are dead.

Further, we eat only the muscle meat and fat of the animal. If you’ve ever seen a predator take down its prey, either in person or on a nature show, then you’d have noticed that the predator rips open the underside of its prey, opens up its belly and goes straight for the intestines. This is one reason why carnivores don’t eat other carnivores. Carnivorous animals are eating animals that are plant- and fruit-eaters, because that is what all animals need. The reason carnivores will go straight to the intestines is that that is where it finds the predigested nutrient dense, enzyme-rich, high water-content food. After that, it eats all of the organs, followed by the blood, lastly they eat the muscle meat and fat.

One of the most common myths is that meat makes one strong. What would you say is the strongest animal on the planet? The elephant?, Ox?, Horse?, Water buffalo? They all eat leafy matter, grass and fruit. The silverback gorilla physiologically resembles the human being. It is three times the size of an average person, but it has thirty times the strength of an average person. The silverback subsists wholly on fruit and other vegetation. When fruit is plentiful, they forgo the eating of any other food until the fruit is depleted. What about the steer meat, which is eaten for its near-perfect protein? What did the steer eat to build that protein? Grain and grass! Protein is not built in the body by eating protein/muscle. Muscle does not come from eating muscle. The body is just a little more sophisticated than that.

Protein is built from amino acids and there are no “essential” amino acids in flesh that the animal did not derive from plants, and that humans cannot also derive from plants. This is also why, except in emergencies, carnivorous animals generally don’t eat other carnivorous animals. No animal in nature needs to combine different foods to get all the essentials. The body has a most remarkable mechanism to guarantee that something as crucial as protein is manufactured regularly and with great proficiency.

There are eight amino acids that the body must appropriate from outside sources, and although all fruit and vegetables contain most of the eight, there are many fruit and vegetables that contain all the amino acids not produced by the body: carrots, bananas, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, kale, okra, peas, potatoes, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. All nuts, sunflower and sesame seeds, peanuts, and beans contain all eight, as well. Utilizable amino acid content found in plant life is far in excess of that to be found in flesh foods.

Vitamin B12 - where do the animals whose meat we eat get theirs? Vitamin B12 is found in plants in very small amounts. But the way Vitamin B12 is secured is primarily from that produced in the body. The stomach secreted a substance called “intrinsic factor,” which transports the vitamin B12 created by the bacterial flora in our intestines. Our actual need for vitamin B12 is so minute that it is measured in micrograms (millionth of a gram) or nanograms (billionth of a gram). One milligram of vitamin B12 will last you over two years, and healthy individuals usually carry around a five year supply. Putrefaction hampers the secretion of “intrinsic factor” in the stomach and retards the production of vitamin B12. So flesh-eaters are more apt to develop a vitamin B12 deficiency than vegetarians!

*OK - this just in: we have to retract our original statement!! We have discovered that there is indeed one justification for eating meat. Dr.Carl Lumholtz, a Norwegian scientist, conducted extensive studies of anthropology, specifically, cannibalism. He indicated that some aborigine tribes in Australia would not eat the flesh of meat eaters because it was salty and occasioned nausea. But vegetarians were considered good eatin’ because their food was chiefly of plant origin. So, if you are vacationing in cannibal territory, eating meat could serve as cannibal-repellant.

**For, yet, more nutritional information specific to vegetarians, please visit the Veggie.ca Nutrition section

The primary resource used for this section was Fit for Life by Marilyn and Harvey Diamond