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Human Adaptations to Eating Meat

Revero Team

Tuesday, July 02, 2024

Answers you can share with your friends and family

CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML
CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML

If you listen to mainstream media, they want you to eat “meat” made from patented products created in a lab.

But as you likely know, anything with more than five ingredients is processed food, which means these fake meat products are ultra-processed foods and are dangerous for your health.

So, what do you say to those who want you to only eat plants or fake meat products?

Human History Supports Meat Eating

Eating meat has undoubtedly changed how humans interact in fundamental ways. Cooperative hunting promoted language and social development. The domestication of animals furthered the evolution of society, and meat eating increased feelings of fullness.

People who eat little to no meat frequently argue that our facial structure and digestive system demonstrate that we were never meant to eat animal products. Yet, when Zink and Lieberman tested this theory in 2016, it turned out that eating meat took less force to chew than eating root vegetables.

Eating higher-calorie, more nutritious meat also ensured that our ancestors' brains evolved into the larger form we benefit from today.

It is a myth that meat is acidic and difficult for your intestinal tract to digest. Your stomach produces acid and pancreatic juices in the small intestines to digest meat and fats. Some pancreatic enzymes specific for fats include pepsin, trypsin, lipase, and chymotrypsin.

The human stomach has a pH of 1.5, which is extremely acidic. This is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation to scavenging and (later) hunting meat, allowing for good digestion while disinfecting the meat. Our stomach acidity is lower than that of cats or dogs, animals unquestionably evolved to eat meat.

Humans evolved a large, complex, and energy-hungry brain. While our brain provides us with capabilities beyond any other animal on the planet, it comes at a cost, because the brain consumes 20% of the total fuel supply.

In order to “balance the energy budget,” evolution downsized our gastrointestinal tract. The overall volume of our GI tract is much smaller, proportionally, than other primates or non-predator mammals. The “expensive tissue hypothesis” explained this in detail.

The human gastrointestinal tract is quite similar to that of a dog, wolf, or cat, except that we have a longer small intestine. As this is where fats are digested and absorbed, it suggests that we evolved to thrive on a high-fat diet.

Since fat provides the most calories per gram, this fits in well with the expensive tissue hypothesis. We can get the most energy from the smallest volume of food by eating high-fat foods.

What Does This All Mean?

The evidence indicates that humans have been eating meat for millions of years, long before the agricultural revolution resulted in an increased dietary intake of plant foods such as wheat, about ten thousand years ago.

Your digestive tract is designed to digest and absorb nutrients from meat, and meat is the only source of several vitamins and nutrients your body requires. Without meat, you must take supplements to avoid illness or disease.

The answer is a resounding "Yes!" Humans are designed to eat a diet including meat and can enjoy optimal health while doing so.

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