Why don't we eat grass?!


Question:

Why don't we eat grass?

I mean the green variety that grows in your garden.
Many animals eat it and look how healthy they are, but we have never really cottoned on to the idea.
It is cheap, easy to grow and must be packed full of goodness.

Additional Details

4 weeks ago
Thank everyone that explains a lot.
Still the animals get shiny coats and produce nice healthy milk, no?


Answers:
4 weeks ago
Thank everyone that explains a lot.
Still the animals get shiny coats and produce nice healthy milk, no?

Sorry but cows actually have 4 stomachs,
We can eat grass, however grass cells contain something called cellulose, which we cant digest to get the energy we need. Cows and other mammals can eat grass because they have special bacteria living in their stomachs called symbiont bacteria. These symbionts can break the bond in cellulose for the animal its living in. That way cows can get energy from grass. We don't have any of these symbiont bacteria, so we can't digest the cellulose in grass.

Source(s):
worked on the kill floor of an abatoir

Mooo knows

I don't think we can digest it easily and basically who'd want to??

its not full of goodness, that why anim,als graze constantly and its also VERY hard to digest hence cows use 3 stomachs for it and other animals pass most of it straight through

A matter of digestion, I think. Cows have two stomachs, thus able to

Th human stomch doesnt digest grass very well. I think cows have more than one stomach so that makes it easier for them.

because it tastes like s*it

'cos it's not so delicious when dogs go do their business on it,......isn't it????

Do you think cows really enjoy it? Give them an oven and some fingers to work with, and I'm sure they'd rather knock up a stir fry!

There are alot of thing swhich human do not eat but animals do. I would imagine that grass does not suit human taste buds.

uhm well for a start in case you havent noticed WERE NOT ANIMALS. We dont have to eat grass in which has been peed on, or had chemicals on to be treated. Since we are not absolutely starving there is no real need to change now from the varied diet we already have to one in which probably doesnt have all the nutrients we need. Please tell me you did not take a lot of time to think about this question.

well cause we can't digest it, it has no vitamins or minerals and it taste like *** so you would probably look retarded eating it

"packed full of goodness" ??? Quite the contrary. It has very little nutritional value. Which is why animals that do eat it have to eat it constantly, and which is why they have extra modified stomaches just so they can break it down to extract what meagre nutrients it has.

The last time I checked, I wasn't a goat. And the last time I checked, goats weren't ordering t-bones for dinner. We all have our respective dinners, and I will leave the grass to the goats, horses, sheep, rabbits, etc.

Humans can't digest grass, that's why.

It's very low in food value.This is why cows and other ruminants have to eat all the time.When they are not eating they are ruminating,(bringing it back up to chew again) as it is difficult to digest due to the high cellulose content.
Humans have lost the ability to digest cellulose (caecum and appendix apparently were used for this [some scientists hypothesise] but now they are vestigial.)

Nothing stops you eating it. The main reason is that the digestive systems of humans and grass eating animals vary considerably.Cows for example chew the cud,that is they regurgitate the grass they have eaten and rechew and redigest it ,which is different to the human digestive process.Humans tend to use the grains of grasses to process in different ways to create their foodstuffs.Wheat,oats and rice for example.

We have evolved (sorry creationist morons) away from grazing, that's why our appendix no longer does anything and we cannot digest grass

Lawn grass is so full of cellulose an indigestible fibre that our tummies would have to work overtime. HOWEVER, juicing grasses like wheatgrass and chickweed can be very beneficial. You get the nutrients in a liquid form without all the roughage.

Hey, if we eat all the grass what would the animals eat?

Well for one our bodies cant process grass. Corn is a great example, What happens when you eat corn? More importantly what happens a day after you eat corn? No processing. Cows even have a hard time eating grass they have four stomachs and they constantly regurgitate their food to process it. Corn is essentially grass , not a vegetable. We are by nature omnivorous , hence the sharp and flat teeth. We can enjoy the benefits of it, if it were processed for us as we do with wheat grass.

Hi, I guess because we would have to copy the grass-grazers, copy the sheep, cattle, hoses etc and spend all day every day eating the stuff to gain enough nutrition.
Of course other grasses such as wheat & barleywe use widely in, say breads & beers.
I have tried mown lawn grass fried in cooking stuff, and it was pretty unappetising.
It is not really packed full of goodness, which is why the critters have to eat so much of it.

Nice idea though, but a non-starter for humans.

Bob

we do eat types of grass, just not weed grass.

Maybe because it doesn't taste very nice!

well.................. i do, its good for you and i suppose Cress is just like grass so we can easily digest it

We might produce too much milk and consequently put the dairy farmers out of business.




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