Most people believe humans are carnivorous/omnivorous creatures—atop the food chain—who have been eating meat since the beginning of time. I believe a few sharks, piranhas, hyenas, bears and lions would like to have a word with us about who's ahead of who in the food chain. Most large herbivores such as rhinos, hippos, elephants and gorillas could also kill a human easily, if provoked. These animals are also ahead of us in the food chain. Humans, historically and scientifically, have always been near the bottom of the food chain. Killing during a one-on-one confrontation without weapons, and the ability to consume bloody raw flesh right from the bone without having it cause disease later on in life, have always been the only true factors in determining physiology and placement in the food chain. All genuine carnivores and omnivores eat an animal's eyes, nose, face, toes, tail, anus, inner organs, blood, brain and fur UNCOOKED. Humans have to cook certain parts of the dismembered animal so we don't become violently ill. That unequivocally makes us fake carnivores/omnivores.
Before tools, weapons, and fire, there was no meat-eating. Humans were vegan long before they turned to an unnatural diet of dead animals; we were vegan scavengers and gatherers long before we tried hunting and gathering. And, contrary to the lies being spread by biased meat-eating scientists, meat was NOT responsible for brain growth. It was plant starch, as Dartmouth University Professor Nathaniel Dominy explains in this article. Moreover, according to creation theory, humans were vegan long before we turned to a sinful diet of dead animals (check out the BIBLE and QUR'AN essays located in the Other Animal Rights Issues page, and The Garden of Vegan, the final section of this page). It was only when the Ice Age hit, and most vegetation was wiped out, that humans turned to a survival scenario of eating meat. When the Ice Age ended, we should have reverted to the vegan diet that kept us connected to, and part of, the natural world, not fallaciously on top of it.
Our human physiology is such that all the tools, weapons, hubris, deceit and technology have not magically transformed us into carnivorous/omnivorous creatures. Many anthropologists and medical experts attest to the fact that humans are completely herbivorous, plant-eating creatures. Dr. William Roberts, editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Cardiology and a professor at Baylor University, states, "Human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh—which contains cholesterol and saturated fat—was never intended for human beings who are natural herbivores." Dr. Milton Mills wrote an indisputable essay about human physiology as well. In their book The Vegetarian Way, nutritionists Virginia and Mark Messina compiled an easy-to-understand chart comparing human bodies to those of herbivores, omnivores and carnivores.
Let's compare the bodies of humans and herbivores to the bodies of carnivores and omnivores. First, the length of intestines in humans and other herbivores falls somewhere between 7 to 13 times the length of the trunk/torso section of the body (I am being generous compared to the research of Mills and the Messinas). In contrast, the length of intestines in carnivores/omnivores is only 3 to 6 times the length of the trunk/torso. (The length of the trunk/torso is used as the means of comparison rather than overall body length or height because humans are bipedal animals whereas most other animals are quadrupeds.) Moreover, the interior surface of human intestines is heavily fluted and striated, whereas the interior intestinal surfaces of carnivores/omnivores tend to be smooth in comparison. The relatively short intestinal length in carnivores/omnivores, along with the relatively smooth interior surface, allow rotting animal flesh, animal protein, casein, cholesterol, trans fatty acids and saturated fat to pass through quickly; that is why it's impossible for any real carnivore/omnivore to clog their arteries. Clogged arteries, however, harms or kills 51.5 percent of all meat, dairy, egg-eating humans! Dr. William Castelli, director of the Framingham Heart Study (the world's longest running heart study), supports the aforementioned findings with additional claims about cancer rates dropping 60 percent if people stopped eating meat, cheese, milk and eggs.
Humans and other herbivores have carbohydrate digestive enzymes in their saliva, meaning our bodies were created for fruits and vegetables. Animal products have no complex carbohydrates, which is why carnivores/omnivores lack carbohydrate digestive enzymes in their saliva. Many humans who eat meat try disingenuously to exploit the fact that humans are unable to digest cellulose, and discard it during the digestion process. However, cellulose is neither beneficial nor damaging to us in any way, so our inability to digest it is irrelevant. Bonobos, which are humans' closest animal relative as they share 99.5 percent of our DNA, cannot digest cellulose either, and that's because bonobos, like humans, are fruitarians/ frugivores (ultra herbivores). The REAL issue at hand is whether humans can properly process and digest animal protein, casein, saturated fat, trans fatty acids and cholesterol—which is why these agents are responsible for nearly every disease known to humankind. The tired and shopworn "argument from cellulose indigestion" is just another diversionary tactic used by meat, dairy, and egg addicts who are unable to look in the mirror and admit that they're the key players in the Animal Holocaust.
Human teeth are broad, short, blunt, flat and spade-shaped like the teeth of other herbivores, not the fanged mouths of carnivores/omnivores. Most herbivores have canines, incisors and molars, which are used for ripping rough foods like apples, carrots or nuts. And if you truly think that humans have carnivorous/omnivorous teeth, stop at a pet store today and buy a rawhide dog bone (no soft, chewy modern-day nylon bones allowed). When you get home, gnaw on it for a few hours and destroy it with those powerful teeth of yours. ADAPTT hereby absolves itself of any lawsuits when you break and crack your weak little herbivorous teeth and the dentist charges you $10,000 to fix your mouth!
If your lower jaw moves from side to side—and you grind and chew your food—then you are unequivocally herbivorous. The jaws of carnivores/omnivores only move up and down, vertically. They don't chew; they just rip and swallow. Humans sweat through their pores to cool down. We don't pant like dogs, cats or lions to cool ourselves down. There are no claws on the human hand either, although claws are a trademark of the carnivore/omnivore. When we drive down the highway and spot a dead animal on the side of the road, I'm quite sure people don't get excited, start to salivate, come to a screeching halt, jump out of their car, scare the crows away and start munching on the dead animal. Real carnivores/omnivores eat dead, rotting animals on the side of the road. We always cook meat before eating it, even though lions don't have gazelle barbeques in the jungles of Africa.
To prove beyond a reasonable doubt that humans are herbivores, place a two-year old child in a crib with a bunny rabbit and an apple. If the child eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, then I'll eat a steak sandwich that's been dipped in ice cream! Humans have no carnivorous/omnivorous instincts whatsoever when we're born, young and growing up. There isn't a speck of carnivorism nor an iota of omnivorism in us. People become inured to the taste of blood, flesh, veins, muscles, tendons, cow secretions [milk], hen-ass droppings [eggs] and bee vomit [honey] after they're forced down our throats during childhood.
With all this physiological evidence at hand, one might wonder why many physiologists and evolutionary biologists—even the most brilliant and widely-renowned evolutionary biologists such as Richard Dawkins—would continue to indulge their addiction to meat, dairy products and eggs, and publicly rationalize their addiction in ways that wouldn't do justice to a 13-year-old. The answer is simple and clear-cut: Scientists are human, and because humans are fallible and weak, they fall prey to addictions of all kinds. And when that happens, the rational mind, supposedly invoked to combat the addiction, usually falls by the wayside. It is only when the addict brings what he feels into accord with what he knows, his ethics into accord with the scientific facts, and the contents of his stomach into accord with the contents of his rational brain, that he can break the cycle of addiction that envelops and destroys him.