Are humans vegetarians or omnivores?

Being omnivores , humans are capable of eating and digesting both meat and plants, so the length of your gut falls somewhere in between ( 9 , 10 ).

Do omnivores consume both ____________ and animals?

An omnivore is an organism that eats plants and animals .

Are humans omnivores scholarly articles?

Based on their digestive system, humans are classified as omnivores , falling between their frugivorous anthropoid relatives (e.g., chimpanzees) and true carnivores.

Are humans considered omnivores What is an omnivore?

An omnivore is an organism that regularly consumes a variety of material, including plants, animals, algae, and fungi . They range in size from tiny insects like ants to large creatures—like people. Human beings are omnivores. People eat plants, such as vegetables and fruits.

Are humans omnivores True or false?

Humans are omnivores as they consume both plant and animal products.

What proves humans are omnivores?

Humans are definitely omnivores. The best evidence is our teeth : we have biting/tearing/ripping incisors and canines (like carnivores) and chewing molars (like herbivores). Animals with such diverse teeth tend to be omnivores.

What animal eats humans the most?

Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved lions, tigers, leopards, polar bears, and large crocodilians.

Do omnivores need meat?

An omnivore (/ˈɒmnɪvɔːr/) is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed.

Do omnivores prefer meat?

Generally, omnivores eat fruits and vegetables freely, but they can't eat grasses and some grains due to digestive limitations. Omnivores will also hunt both carnivores and herbivores for meat , including small mammals, reptiles, and insects. Large omnivores include bears and humans.

Are humans naturally vegetarian?

Are we herbivores, then? No; our guts aren't long enough, and our teeth don't quite fit the bill. We are, it seems, omnivores ; our bodies can handle both meat and plant matter pretty well.

Are humans originally vegetarian?

The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008).

Are humans genetically vegetarian?

Lots of factors influence what we eat, everything from taste preferences, to budgets and culture. New research suggests genetics may also play a role.

Are humans naturally vegetarian or nonvegetarian?

One example of such a myth is that man is naturally a vegetarian. And the rationale is that the human body resembles plant-eaters and not carnivores. But as a matter of fact, humans are omnivores . We may eat meat or plant foods.

Humans are Omnivores -- The Vegetarian Resource Group (2024)

Adapted from a talk by John McArdle, Ph.D.

Document Sections:

Introduction
Confusion between Taxonomy and Diet
Omnivorism
The Great Apes
Evidence of Humans as Omnivores

Archeological Record
Cell Types
Fermenting Vats
Jaws
Salivary Glands
Intestines

Conclusion
APPENDIX: Other Thoughts
For Questions or Comments

There are a number of popular myths aboutvegetarianism that have no scientific basis infact. One of these myths is that man is naturallya vegetarian because our bodies resemble planteaters, not carnivores. In fact we are omnivores,capable of either eating meat or plant foods. Thefollowing addresses the unscientific theory of manbeing only a plant eater.

Much of the misinformation on the issue of man'sbeing a natural vegetarian arises from confusionbetween taxonomic (in biology, the procedure ofclassifying organisms in established categories)and dietary characteristics.

Members of the mammalian Order Carnivora may ormay not be exclusive meat eaters. Those which eatonly meat are carnivores. Dietary adaptations arenot limited by a simple dichotomy betweenherbivores (strict vegetarians) and carnivores(strict meat-eaters), but include frugivores(predominantly fruit), gramnivores (nuts, seeds,etc.), folivores (leaves), insectivores(carnivore-insects and small vertebrates), etc. Is is also important to remember that the relationbetween the form (anatomy/physiology) and function(behavior) is not always one to one. Individualanatomical structures can serve one or morefunctions and similar functions can be served byseveral forms.

Archeological Record

As far back as it can betraced, clearly the archeological recordindicates an omnivorous diet for humans thatincluded meat. Our ancestry is among thehunter/gatherers from the beginning. Oncedomestication of food sources began, it includedboth animals and plants.

Cell Types

Relative number and distribution ofcell types, as well as structural specializations,are more important than overall length of theintestine to determining a typical diet. Dogs aretypical carnivores, but their intestinalcharacteristics have more in common withomnivores. Wolves eat quite a lot of plantmaterial.

Fermenting Vats

Nearly all plant eaters havefermenting vats (enlarged chambers where foodssits and microbes attack it). Ruminants likecattle and deer have forward sacs derived fromremodeled esophagus and stomach. Horses, rhinos,and colobine monkeys have posterior, hindgut sacs. Humans have no such specializations.

Jaws

Although evidence on the structure andfunction of human hands and jaws, behavior, andevolutionary history also either support anomnivorous diet or fail to support strictvegetarianism, the best evidence comes from ourteeth.

The short canines in humans are a functionalconsequence of the enlarged cranium and associatedreduction of the size of the jaws. In primates,canines function as both defense weapons andvisual threat devices. Interestingly, theprimates with the largest canines (gorillas andgelada baboons) both have basically vegetariandiets. In archeological sites, broken humanmolars are most often confused with brokenpremolars and molars of pigs, a classic omnivore.On the other hand, some herbivores havewell-developed incisors that are often mistakenfor those of human teeth when found inarcheological excavations.

Salivary Glands

These indicate we could beomnivores. Saliva and urine data vary, dependingon diet, not taxonomic group.

Intestines

Intestinal absorption is a surfacearea, not linear problem. Dogs (which arecarnivores) have intestinal specializations morecharacteristic of omnivores than carnivores suchas cats. The relative number of crypts and celltypes is a better indication of diet than simplelength. We are intermediate between the twogroups.

Humans are classic examples of omnivores in allrelevant anatomical traits. There is no basis inanatomy or physiology for the assumption thathumans are pre-adapted to the vegetarian diet. For that reason, the best arguments in support ofa meat-free diet remain ecological, ethical, andhealth concerns.

[Dr. McArdle is a vegetarian and currentlyScientific Advisor to The AmericanAnti-Vivisection Society. He is an anatomist and aprimatologist.]

The following information is taken from The NewYork Times, May 15, 1979. According to Dr. AlanWalker, a Johns Hopkins University anthropologist,hom*o Erectus, the species immediately ancestorialto our own hom*o Sapiens, had evidence of anomnivorous diet. Every hom*o-Erectus tooth foundwas that of an omnivore. However, a small sampleof teeth from the human-like species during a 12million year period leading up to the hom*o-Erectusperiod, indicates the earlier species may havebeen a fruit eater. Even if this species, waybefore our own, lived on a fruit diet, theyprobably would not have consumed what we considertypical fruits. Hundreds of plants produce fruitsthat are tougher, more substantial foods than whatwe eat today.

Quoted from an editorial by William CliffordRoberts, M.d., Editor-in-Chief of the AmericanJournal of Cardiology:

"When we kill animals toeat them, they end up killing us because theirflesh, which contains cholesterol and saturatedfat, was never intended for human beings, who arenatural herbivores."

Quoted from "WHAT DID OUR ANCESTORS EAT?" inNutrition Reviews, by Stanley Garn, Professor ofNutrition and Anthropology, and William Leonard,Assistant Professor of Human Biology:

"Thesepeople of Upper Pleistocene, and later those ofthe mesolithic, were our immediate ancestors, nolonger hunters exclusively and with whole-grainproducts and a variable amount of roots, fruits,leafy vegetables and nuts in their diet. We mustgrant them a mixed diet, with animal fat providinga smaller proportion of their food energy than wasprobably true for the Neanderthals."

For additional information, please see articles:

What did our ancestors eat? (Scientific American, 2012)
What killed Neanderthals? Scientists blame those rascally rabbits. (NBC News Science; 03/06/13)
Analysis of ancient poop shows Neanderthals ate plants, not just meat
Do chimpanzees fight wars and kill?(BBC; 08/11/15)
National Geographic Society Encyclopedic Entry Omnivore
First pots for cooking plants found(BBC; 12/19/16)
How the Extinction of Ice Age Mammals May Have Forced Us to Invent Civilization
Neanderthals cooked meals with pulses 70,000 years ago (2022)

This article was originally published in theMay/June 1991 edition of Vegetarian Journal,published by:

The Vegetarian Resource Group
P.O. Box 1463
Baltimore, MD 21203
(410) 366-VEGE

� 1996- The Vegetarian Resource Group
PO Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203
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Last Updated
August 30, 2000

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