gabriele
06-02-2009, 09:14 AM
I found this today, interesting:
1. Our small and large intestines, like those of other primates, are four times longer than those of carnivores. Because of the long intestines, meat passes very slowly through the human digestive system; it takes about 4 days during which the disease-causing products of decaying meat are in constant contact with the digestive organs (vegetarian food takes only about 1 1/2 days). [4]
2. Our hands are similar to those of apes; they are meant for picking food such as vegetables, fruits, leaves, flowers, seeds, etc., and not for tearing flesh.
3. Our lower jaw, or mandible, can move both up and down and side to side, like the primates'; carnivores' jaws move only up and down.
4. Our saliva is alkaline like that of the higher species of apes; it contains ptyalin to digest carbohydrates. Carnivores' saliva is acidic.
5. Unlike carnivores, we do not have fangs for biting into flesh. Our so-called canine teeth are not truly canine like the dog's. We are not constituted to prey upon animals, rip apart their bodies, or bite into their flesh.
6. Although our gastric secretions are acidic like that of carnivores, their stomachs have four times as much acid; this strong acidic region is necessary to digest their high-protein flesh diet.
7. Carnivores have proportionally larger kidneys and livers than we have; they need these larger organs in order to handle the excessive nitrogenous waste of a flesh diet.
8. The carnivores' livers secrete a far greater amount of bile into the gut to deal with their high-fat meat diet.
Table I (below) indicates that people are closest in structure to animals that primarily eat fruits.
SOURCE: Barbara Parham, What's Wrong with Eating Meat?
Denver Colorado.,Ananda Marga Publications, 1979, pp. 10-11.
Reproduced with permission.
1. Our small and large intestines, like those of other primates, are four times longer than those of carnivores. Because of the long intestines, meat passes very slowly through the human digestive system; it takes about 4 days during which the disease-causing products of decaying meat are in constant contact with the digestive organs (vegetarian food takes only about 1 1/2 days). [4]
2. Our hands are similar to those of apes; they are meant for picking food such as vegetables, fruits, leaves, flowers, seeds, etc., and not for tearing flesh.
3. Our lower jaw, or mandible, can move both up and down and side to side, like the primates'; carnivores' jaws move only up and down.
4. Our saliva is alkaline like that of the higher species of apes; it contains ptyalin to digest carbohydrates. Carnivores' saliva is acidic.
5. Unlike carnivores, we do not have fangs for biting into flesh. Our so-called canine teeth are not truly canine like the dog's. We are not constituted to prey upon animals, rip apart their bodies, or bite into their flesh.
6. Although our gastric secretions are acidic like that of carnivores, their stomachs have four times as much acid; this strong acidic region is necessary to digest their high-protein flesh diet.
7. Carnivores have proportionally larger kidneys and livers than we have; they need these larger organs in order to handle the excessive nitrogenous waste of a flesh diet.
8. The carnivores' livers secrete a far greater amount of bile into the gut to deal with their high-fat meat diet.
Table I (below) indicates that people are closest in structure to animals that primarily eat fruits.
SOURCE: Barbara Parham, What's Wrong with Eating Meat?
Denver Colorado.,Ananda Marga Publications, 1979, pp. 10-11.
Reproduced with permission.