Are humans omnivores, carnivores or herbivores? @endgame2050

Sofia Pineda Ochoa | Are humans omnivores, carnivores or herbivores? @endgame2050 | Uploaded September 2015 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
Are we omnivores, carnivores or herbivores? It’s important for animals to eat what they are physiologically and anatomically designed to eat, to improve the chances of survival and health. So, what are humans designed to eat? Dr. Sofia Pineda Ochoa discusses this often misunderstood topic.

The first part of the transcript is included below for reference, and the full transcript (which is too long to have here) is available on our website, along with sources and credits, at this link: meatyourfuture.com/2015/09/herbivores-carnivores

[The following transcript is an approximation of the audio in video. To hear the audio and see the accompanying visuals, please play the video.]

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

Are humans herbivores, carnivores or omnivores? It’s very important for a given animal to eat what they are physiologically and anatomically designed to eat, to improve the chances of survival and health. So, what are humans designed to eat?

When looking at a species to determine what they are in terms of carnivore, omnivore or herbivore, we can look at their behavior or we can look at their biology. From a behavioral standpoint, humans behave as omnivores because we observe many humans in their behavior eating a wide variety of both animal and plant-based foods. Biologically, however, from a physiologic and anatomic standpoint, it’s a different story.

Dr. Williams C. Roberts from the National Institutes of Health and Baylor University — who is the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology and one of the most prominent cardiologists in the world with over 1,500 publications in peer reviewed medical journals — summarized our answer very nicely. He wrote:

“Although most of us conduct our lives as omnivores, in that we eat flesh as well as vegetables and fruits, human beings have characteristics of herbivores, not carnivores. The appendages of carnivores are claws; those of herbivores are hands or hooves. The teeth of carnivores are sharp; those of herbivores are mainly flat (for grinding). The intestinal tract of carnivores is short (3 times body length); that of herbivores, long (12 times body length). Body cooling of carnivores is done by panting; herbivores, by sweating. Carnivores drink fluids by lapping; herbivores, by sipping. Carnivores produce their own vitamin C, whereas herbivores obtain it from their diet. Thus, humans have characteristics of herbivores, not carnivores.”

That’s right. Humans have characteristics of herbivores, not carnivores or omnivores — because omnivores, like bears and raccoons, actually retain most of the carnivorous characteristics, so that they are still able to digest and hunt their prey, and do so effectively.

[Remainder of transcript, along with sources and credits, available here: meatyourfuture.com/2015/09/herbivores-carnivores]

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$Protein and Bone Health Does animal protein in our diet result in higher risk of bone fractures and osteoporosis? It appears so! Our co-founder, Dr. Sofia Pineda Ochoa, discusses the clinical epidemiological studies that have found a strong, positive association between animal protein intake and risk of bone fractures. The protein causes acidosis in our bodies when we metabolize it, and one of the mechanisms used to neutralize that acidity appears to be leaching calcium from our bones. The first part of the transcript is included below for reference, and the full transcript (which is too long to have here) is available on our website with sources and credits at this link: http://meatyourfuture.com/2015/05/hea... [The following transcript is an approximation of the audio in video. To hear the audio and see the accompanying visuals, please play the video.] PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: Harvard’s School of Public Health explains very nicely the mechanism by which protein can cause problems for bone health. It says, “as your body digests protein, it releases acids into the bloodstream, which the body neutralizes by drawing calcium from the bones. Following a high-protein diet for a few weeks probably won’t have much effect on bone strength. Doing it for a long time, though, could weaken bone.” Now we’ve known for a very long time that meats, including fish, are acid forming in our body. Scientists from Columbia University, back in 1912, analyzed acid and base forming elements in food, and noted that, “all the meats (including fish)…show a decided excess of acid-forming elements”; all the “meats (including fish) show [a] decided predominance of acid-forming elements.” Back in 1920, Columbia’s Department of Chemistry also reported that adding meat to one’s diet results in increase of calcium loss in urine, thought to be because “the added meat gave to the diet as a whole an excess of acid-forming over base-forming mineral elements[.]” And what have we seen from the results of the consumption of animal protein with regards to bones? Researchers from Yale University’s School of Medicine looked back across a broad array of thirty-four prior published studies across sixteen countries, and they found these studies over time showed “a strong, positive association” between dietary animal protein and female bone fracture rates. So, we’ve known for some time that this association exists. We know eating a diet high in animal protein results in acidity, and that our body leaches calcium from our bones to buffer the acid. One of the mechanisms behind this phenomenon is that animal protein has a higher amount of sulfur containing amino acids, and the “sulfur-containing amino acids from animal protein lower blood pH”. So animal proteins — including meat, fish, dairy, poultry or eggs — have higher amounts of sulfur-containing amino acids than plant foods. As a result, when we eat diets high in animal proteins, our body produces sulfuric acid, which increases the acidity in our bodies. One of the body’s mechanisms to neutralize this acidity is to draw calcium from our bones (similar, for example, to when we take antacids that are made with calcium to neutralize the acidity in our stomach associated with heartburn). The problem is that constantly leaching calcium from our bones can reduce bone mass, making our bones weak and more prone to fractures and osteoporosis. Moreover, the chronically higher calcium excreted in our urine can also lead to the development of kidney stones. This Harvard study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology followed over 80,000 women over twelve years, and found that animal protein was associated with increased risk of forearm fracture, but no increase in risk was observed with higher intakes of vegetable protein. It found that women who consumed the largest amount of animal protein in the study had a 22% higher risk of fracture. Evidence suggests that “higher protein intakes in young…women have a negative impact on radial bone measurements”, meaning that women who consumed higher protein diets have been found to lose bone mineral content and bone density. So we know that our body uses base stores (including calcium from our bones) to neutralize the acidity we get from our diet. This article from The Journal of Nutrition explains the same thing. It says, “diets that are net acid producing…induce and sustain increased acidity of [our] body fluid. With increasing age, the kidney’s ability to excrete daily net acid loads declines, invoking increased utilization of base stores ([from our] bone [and] skeletal muscle) on a daily basis to mitigate the otherwise increasing baseline metabolic acidosis, which results in increased calciuria and net losses of body calcium... (Remainder of transcript, along with sources and credits, available here: http://meatyourfuture.com/2015/05/hea...]$

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$Is Dairy Good for your Bones? Contrary to the years of marketing and promotions from the diary industry, there are a host of very serious problems with milk, cheese, yogurt and other dairy foods. Dr. Sofia Pineda Ochoa discusses the health related issues of dairy in this video, as well as some of the environmental and ethical issues involved. The first part of the transcript is included below for reference, and the full transcript (which is too long to have here) is available on our website, along with sources and credits, at this link: http://meatyourfuture.com/2015/12/dairy-and-bones/ [The following transcript is an approximation of the audio in video. To hear the audio and see the accompanying visuals, please play the video.] PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: Got bone problems? If you “got milk”, there’s a chance you’re increasing your risk. I’m Dr. Sofia Pineda Ochoa with Meat Your Future. Today, I’ll be talking about dairy. Last October 2014, a study came out in the British Medical Journal and was reported by many news networks because the results were so impressive. Here’s a clip from Fox News Channel: Some brand new research to tell you about that goes against almost everything youve ever heard about the benefits of drinking milk. A new study shows that in-taking a higher intake of milk may actually cause an increased rate in fractures, and even death in both men and women. The study included more than 100,000 people and found that women who drink three or more glasses of milk per day had a 60% increased risk of a developing hip fractures and a 93% increased risk of mortality and that for each glass of milk per day the risk of “all-cause mortality” increased by 15%. Another study, this one from Harvard in 2014, found that “Greater milk consumption during teenage years was not associated with a lower risk of hip fracture in older adults.” As a matter of fact, they found that “each additional glass of milk per day during teenage years was associated with a significant 9% higher risk of hip fracture in men[.] Another Harvard professor did a study of fracture incidence and calcium and dairy intake in 10 countries, and found that a higher consumption of calcium was associated with a higher risk of bone fractures. United States made the top of the list on this graph. “[S]usceptible populations apparently consume more, rather than less calcium[.]” “[H]ip fractures are more frequent in populations where dairy products are commonly consumed and calcium intakes are relatively high.” [Remainder of transcript, along with sources and credits, available here: http://meatyourfuture.com/2015/12/dairy-and-bones]$