Humans are herbivores

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"'''Humans are herbivores'''" is an idea that has cropped up in fringe sections of the [[vegan]] community. It is often used as an argument by vegans but can exist as an idea on its own.

== Proponents ==
* [[PETA]]<ref>[https://www.peta.org/living/food/really-natural-truth-humans-eating-meat/ Is It Really Natural? The Truth About Humans and Eating Meat]. ''[[PETA]]'', January 28, 2018.</ref> 
* The makers of [[Forks Over Knives|Forks Over Knives]]
* [[Huffington Post|HuffPo]] columnist and self-taught self-proclaimed "[[wellness]] expert" {{wpl|Kathy Freston}}
* Various vegan [[YouTube|YouTubers]], such as [[Vegan Gains]]<ref>Vegan Gains. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duqcbJbElo4 Joe Rogan Says Vegan Diets Are Bad]. YouTube.</ref>
* [[Vegan Artbook]]

==Arguments==
Most of the arguments in support of this idea are based on comparative anatomy and [[physiology]], as well as supposedly "[[common sense]]" speculations about [[Evolution|human evolution]]. They include the following: 
* The argument that our teeth are similar to animals such as cows. Aside from being inaccurate, this ignores that [[bonobo]]s, despite having similar teeth, are omnivores. Like other omnivores, human teeth have a variety of different cutting and crushing shapes that allows us to eat foods of varying textures, including soft fruits, hard/woody plant material, tough meat from mammals, small bones, chitinous insects, etc.
[[File:Bonobo skull.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A Bonobo taking pride in being different from humans]]
* Similarly, the argument that human beings couldn't possibly have torn apart and eaten prey due to their puny teeth, jaws, and nails.<ref>[https://www.peta.org/living/food/really-natural-truth-humans-eating-meat/ Is It Really Natural? The Truth About Humans and Eating Meat], PETA, accessed 18 Feb 2020</ref> This ignores that hominins have had stone tools for at least 2.6 million years, and it would be difficult to find evidence today if they had other, less-durable tools (like sharpened sticks) even before then.<ref name=sitools>[http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/stone-tools Ancient Tools], Smithsonian</ref> Butchery marks made by sharp tools on bones from that time period indicate that these tools were used by hominins for stripping and breaking bones and extracting marrow.<ref>[https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/evidence-for-meat-eating-by-early-humans-103874273/ Evidence for Meat-Eating by Early Humans], Pobiner, B., ''Nature Education Knowledge'' 4(6):1 (2013)</ref> The evolution of many distinctively human features (such as our brains) happened since we began eating meat.<ref>[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/evolution-of-diet/ The Evolution of Diet], Ann Gibbons, National Geographic</ref> ''[[Homo erectus]]'' and other primitive humans had larger teeth than present-day humans; it has been [[hypothesis|hypothesized]] that a reduction in tooth and jaw size occurred in our ancestors after they developed cooking, as cooking makes food much easier to break down.
* The argument that our colons are longer than those of other omnivorous mammals. This ignores that our colons are shorter than those of specialized herbivores, and that chimps have even longer colons,<ref>Mu, Kevin. [https://www.quora.com/What-are-chimpanzee-digestive-systems-like-compared-to-humans%E2%80%99/answer/Kevin-Mu What are chimpanzee digestive systems like compared to humans’] (answer). ''Quora''.</ref> despite being omnivores — although their diet is overwhelmingly plant-based.<ref>Watts, David P., Kevin B. Potts, Jeremiah S. Lwanga, and John C. Mitani. "Diet of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, 1. Diet composition and diversity." American Journal of Primatology 74, no. 2 (2012): 114-129.</ref> 
* The argument that there is no way early [[hominid]]s could have hunted down animals ourselves. This is [[fractal wrongness|fractally wrong]]; ironically enough, vegans saying this are subscribing to the widespread view in "meat-eating" [[Western culture]] that "meat" equals large mammals. Humans eat ''many'' kinds of animals: small game, poultry, fish, insects, shellfish, and so on, to say nothing of eggs, honey, or carrion. Chimpanzees and some other primates eat many of these as well. Early humans may have also scavenged,<ref>McLarren, Dan. [http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/winter-01012015/article/study-lends-new-support-to-theory-that-early-humans-were-scavengers Study Lends New Support to Theory that Early Humans were Scavengers]. March 3, 2015.</ref> and while predators such as lions would be unable to easily break open bones, early hominids could use rocks to smash open skulls and large bones to access the brain and bone marrow.

These also ignore that the only natural source of [[Vitamin]] B<sub>12</sub> is meat or other animal products, such as milk and eggs. B<sub>12</sub> deficiency causes pernicious anemia which, as the name suggests, will kill you if left untreated. Indeed, a few vegetarians and vegans every year either die or get seriously sick from improperly managing their diets. Groups such as the American Dietetic Association state that all vegetarians or vegans need to consume supplemental B<sub>12</sub> or foods fortified with it.<ref>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5188422/</ref> Most primates are able to get B<sub>12</sub> from their gut bacteria and absorb it in their large intestine, but human beings have different intestines which can only absorb B<sub>12</sub> in the small intestine, even though bacteria still produce it in our large intestines, and we then poop it out unabsorbed. It's not certain exactly when this change in our ancestors' digestive systems occurred, but logically it must have happened when there was already a substantial external source of B<sub>12</sub> in our diets, i.e. after we started to eat meat.<ref>[https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-evolutionary-quirk-that-made-vitamin-b12-part-of-our-diet The Evolutionary Quirk That Made Vitamin B12 Part of Our Diet], Nathan Lents, Discover Magazine, August 13, 2018</ref>

Furthermore, it ignores that most larger herbivores aren't ''themselves'' strictly herbivores, gnawing on bones and even occasionally meat.<ref>[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440313002070 Osteophagia and bone modifications by giraffe and other large ungulates], Jarod M.Hutson, Chrissina C. Burke, Gary Haynes, Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 40, Issue 12, December 2013, Pages 4139-4149</ref><ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-herbivores-arent-poor-chicken-got-eaten-cow-180951115/ This Poor Chicken Got Eaten by a Cow], Smithsonian Magazine, April 15, 2014</ref> Deer, for instance, will eat carrion (and even engage in cannibalism), and to acquire the nutrients needed to grow their antlers every breeding season, the males will search out bird nests and devour the eggs and chicks. If given the opportunity, a deer ''will'' eat your corpse.<ref>[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/05/deer-eating-human-forensics-decomposition/ You have been warned]</ref> Sweet dreams!

==Fact==
The mainstream view of [[Evolution|human evolution]] is that until around 4 million years ago, the ancestors of humans lived in the jungle eating fruits and other soft plants. Around 4 million years ago, ''[[Australopithecus]]'' moved into the savannah and began eating harder foods, including seeds, nuts, roots, arthropods, small mammals, and possibly carrion or food left by larger predators.<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-teeth-reveal-our-roots-180969495/ How Ancient Teeth Reveal the Roots of Humankind], Smithsonian Magazine, July 2, 2018</ref> Around 2.6 million years ago, australopithecines developed tools, and probably somewhere between 1.7m and 1m years ago, early humans began to control fire, both of which allowed them to consume a greater range of foods, including the meat of large animals.<ref name=sitools/> Through all this, humans continued to evolve and change in their ability to catch and consume different types of food, and anatomically modern humans did not appear until 200,000 years ago.

Overall, the argument that humans are naturally herbivores is a [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] [[appeal to nature]] that ''doesn't even correctly understand "nature"''. This takes away from the more legitimate arguments for veganism and vegetarianism, such as ethical and environmental reasons. In [[False dilemma|assuming the choice is between]] [[plant]]s and large mammals (bovids, deer, ovids, etc.), it also shows an ignorance of the wide range of non-vegan foods eaten by humans today.

==The truth in the lie: Vegetables are good for you==

While human herbivoriousness is a myth, it is factually true that human physiology ''is'' pretty well adapted to eating foods made from plants. Humans cannot digest plant fibre or plant cell walls like specialist herbivores can, but we can draw nutrition from plants anyway<ref>[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214799317302199 Impact of food structure and cell matrix on digestibility of plant-based food]</ref>, and the symbiotic bacteria in our guts can feed on undigested plant matter to produce interesting micronutrients that appear to contribute to better physical and mental health<ref>[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9787832/ Dietary Fiber Intake and Gut Microbiota in Human Health]</ref>. There is robust evidence that people who eat a diet that contains a high amount of vegetable and fruit-based ingredients enjoy better cardiovascular health and less susceptibility to cancer<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/46/3/1029/3039477 Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality—a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies], International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 46, Issue 3, June 2017, Pages 1029–1056, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw319</ref>, and excessive consumption of red meat and processed meat has been linked to cancer<ref>[https://publications.iarc.fr/Book-And-Report-Series/Iarc-Monographs-On-The-Identification-Of-Carcinogenic-Hazards-To-Humans/Red-Meat-And-Processed-Meat-2018 Red Meat and Processed Meat
IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans Volume 114], IARC, 2018, ISBN 978-92-832-0152-6</ref>, although this is difficult to separate out from the fact that people who concentrate on eating lots of vegetables and not overindulging on processed food likely take more care of their health in other ways, too. Just because humans cannot naturally gain all of their essential nutrition from plant sources does not mean human physiology is not best when it gains most of its nutrition from plant sources, and a well-thought-out vegan diet is much more fun to eat and biologically tolerable than [[Carnivore diet|the other extreme]].

None of this changes the fact that it is irresponsible to promote veganism by lying about its nutritional completeness. Vitamin B12, as well as other micronutrients that are absent in vegan diets, can now be synthesised in laboratories with no animal involvement. Telling vegans that their diets are naturally nutritionally complete can make people sick, especially when combined with lies about getting B12 from unwashed vegetables or mushrooms (which may contain these nutrients, but in biologically useless trace amounts). If you are a vegan, or even a vegetarian in a lot of cases, you need to supplement with Vitamin B12, either from pills or fortified plant milks.

Our ancestors being omnivores is a privilege for our species. Many of the better things about being human, like our excellent colour vision and high intelligence, are adaptations that allowed our ancestors to find different sources of nutrition, and our ability to survive on a wide variety of diets allows us to make more decisions about what we eat than we would be able to if we were obligate herbivores (or carnivores for that matter). While it is impossible to live a life completely free of all animal product involvement (whose manure do you think is growing those plants?), there are many valid ethical and scientific reasons to eat less meat or none at all, and there is no shame in veganism being a decision made by an omnivore.

== External links ==
*[https://www.peta.org/living/food/really-natural-truth-humans-eating-meat/ PETA's opinion]
*[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XmXynDLkbXY A random YouTuber's argument]
*[https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/214390 The huffpo column in question]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Animal rights]]
[[Category:Clichéed sayings]]
[[Category:Evolution]]
[[Category:Food woo]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Categories: Animal rights, Clichéed sayings, Evolution, Food woo, Pseudoscience