If we were meant to be vegetarian as many vegetarians argue, why do we have incisors?!
Answers: Please explain as that makes no sense to me
Cows have incisors too, look it up. And they're obviously herbivores.
http://www.goveg.com/naturalhumandiet_ph...
This website describes how the anatomy of a human being reflects that of a herbivore, and not that of a carnivore or omnivore. Our intestines are longer for digestion of vegetation matter, for example.
See the bottom of the site for a quick comparative chart.
Good luck in your search for understanding.
Maybe the same reason as men having nipples....
Some experts argue that we were originally seed eaters, as well as nibbling fruits and the odd woolly mammoth.
The thought of not eating chicken chow mien, or beef hotpot anymore would drive me up the proverbial wall!! Come on lets exercise those incisors!
please read some darwin this will explain.
I agree that it's not a natural thing really but in a developed society and culture it's perhaps a good choice. Clearly it's just up to the individual, their beliefs and attitudes. I'm not vegetarian but I respect those who are and good luck to them in trying to make a difference.
Try biting into an apple!
Or a raw carrot.
i think u mean kaneines (fangs) and there 4 griping and holding food (had to revise that 4 a test in biology) and i u want to know what incisors r 4 there 4 cuting the food of the rest of the food.
u see it's all evilotion.....
As some said, cows have incisors and they are vegetarians.
Now, we used to need meat because it was for survival. Now, in our cushioned lifestyles, we no longer need meat to survive.
I'm fine with other animals eating other animals because they are out in the WILDERNESS, with no cars, planes, trains, heated houses to their advantage. How hard is this for you people to understand? WE'RE KILLING OUR PLANET with our freaking Hummers, plastics, all that stuff. We might as well not kill the cows and pigs! Do you know one of the REASONS we're having all these droughts? Some ridiculous percent of our drinking water goes to the animals we're breeding to kill!
dont no but if we were meant to eat meat we would onlyhave them
Incisors are for biting. Don't you bite vegetables and fruits?
the teeth arent the point.
humans cannot live off of meat , as other carnivores can..
humans cannot eat meat raw, as it poisons us, but again, other animals can.
we have to cook it.. so morbid.
itd be way different if a human went after another animal, tore it limb by limb and ate it raw. thats the natural process of life. its not right for animals to be in slaugterhouses, by us.. we are one ofb the smartest animals.. we have reasoning.
Incisors are for piercing the tough peels and rinds of fruits and vegetables and especially for eating tubers. That fact that we began eating tubers was a very important part of our development as a species and got us through some rough times.
I challenge you to tear through raw flesh with your incisors. Bite through the middle of a steak and then try and tear through it. God, you people drive me nuts with this question.
Looks like it's time to break out the wonderful essay "Are Humans Designed to Eat Mea" (excerpted) by Milton Mills, MD:
"A Question of Design
Animals who eat meat and those who eat plants face very different issues when dinner time arrives. Plants, because they are sedentary, encase their tissues in tough fibrous coverings for support and protection, and thus require a large amount of digestive processing to extract nutritional value from them. By contrast, "meat" (in the form of live animals) usually does not want to be eaten and is, therefore, recalcitrant, combative and uncooperative - it tends to run away.
Accordingly, plant eaters (herbivores) are optimized for foraging, batch feeding and prolonged digestion, whereas meat eaters (carnivores/omnivores) are designed for predation and the consumption of huge, infrequent meals.
Meat eaters are all equipped for short bursts of extreme speed that allows them to ambush and/or run down prey. Their limbs have been lightened to allow for fast running and their paws have been modified into compact clubs armed with claws.
When tackling struggling prey, the most vulnerable parts of their anatomy - the abdomen and gonads - are shielded behind the muscular armored chest. Their incisors have been reduced to short pointed pegs, while their canines are huge sharp elongated daggers used for ripping and killing. Their jaw joint is on the same plane as their cheek teeth, and there is no horizontal side-to-side motion of the lower jaw.
This makes their jaws very stable and allows them to operate like a pair of shears. Their molars are sharp, jagged and blade-shaped. The upper molars vertically slide past the lower molars in a slicing motion when the jaw is closed. These animals do not chew their food. Instead, they slice off huge chunks of meat and swallow them whole. They do not have digestive enzymes in their saliva since flesh-digesting enzymes released in the unprotected mouth would quickly destroy the oral cavity.
Their strongly acidic stomachs are huge storage vats that account for 60-70% of the total capacity of their GI tracts. Meat has no fiber and is, therefore, easily digested. Thus, their small intestines are very short (only 3-6 times their body length) and are optimized for protein and fat absorption. Their large intestines are short straight and smooth and designed for evacuation purposes only.
What about "By-design" Omnivores?
The one design concession "by-design" omnivores such as bears and raccoons have made to plant eating is that one or more pairs of their molars have modified from sharp blades to flattened grinding surfaces.
This allows them to crush and swallow a limited amount and range of plant foods such as fruits, berries, roots and tubers. However, they otherwise retain the typical carnivore tooth design and jaw mechanics, and their short small intestines do not allow them to adequately handle large amounts of plant fiber. Hence, a true natural omnivore is a carnivore that has been minimally modified to eat a limited range of soft, pulpy plant foods, but is still equipped to run down, kill, dismember and consume prey.
I Herd That!
Large mammalian herbivores tend to be social animals living in large herds/communities/cities. Because they must cover significant distances looking for and gathering plant foods, their limbs are modified for prolonged energy-efficient standing and walking. Instead of claws, their nails are blunt and used for digging and peeling. They have muscular lips, a small mouth opening and well-developed cheek muscles.
This creates a "walled-in" oral cavity that facilitates the crushing and grinding action of chewing. The jaw joint is above the plane of the cheek teeth and the lower is "L-shaped" causing the upper molars to come to rest on top of the lower molars when the jaw is closed. This allows the jaw to function like a nut cracker rather than a pair of shears.
The upper molars cannot vertically slide past the lower molars. But because the lower jaw has a pronounced horizontal side-to-side motion, the upper and lower molars horizontally slide across one another creating the grinding action of chewing. Accordingly, the molars are not sharp and blade-shaped, but are squared, flat-topped and abut one another forming extended grinding surfaces. The incisors are broad, flattened and spade-shaped and used for cropping and peeling. The canines may be absent, as in cows and sheep; shortened and reduced, as in horses and humans; or dagger-like and used for defense, as in hippos and some primates. Herbivores also usually have carbohydrate digesting enzymes in their saliva that begins the process of digestion while food is still in the mouth. In fact, the purpose of chewing (including chewing the cud) is to mix food with digestive enzymes to facilitate the process of digestion.
Plant tissues contain large amounts of fibrous material. The end result is that plant foods require extensive processing to extract their nutritional content. Because of this, herbivores consume smaller, more frequent meals, and tend to have much longer and, in some cases, much more elaborate digestive tracts than their meat-eating counterparts.
In a typical herbivore, the stomach holds less than 30% of the total capacity of the GI tract. On the other hand, the small intestine is extremely long and is usually more than 10-12 times the body length and has an unlimited capacity for carbohydrate absorption. The large intestine or colon is also relatively long and complex and frequently has a pouched appearance.
Here's Looking at You
In every respect, humans show the anatomic and physiologic features typical of an herbivore. A full and complete discussion of these features is well beyond the scope of this short article. What follows is a random sampling of facts.
Upright posture leaves the human abdomen, ovaries and testes completely exposed and, potentially, fatally vulnerable. Whereas standing and walking are very energy-efficient for humans, running is not.
We are extremely slow runners and have very poor stamina. We have a carbohydrate-digesting enzyme in our saliva called salivary amylase.
The human esophagus does not handle poorly chewed food very well. Over 90% of the people who choke to death each year choke on meat.
Human body length (head to tail bone) is typically 2.5 to 3 feet. Thus, at >25-30 feet in length, the human small intestine is clearly designed for digesting plant material.
Only herbivores have an appendix. No matter how much fat and cholesterol you feed carnivores like dogs and cats, they NEVER develop coronary artery disease.
In places where people eat a high fiber, whole food diet, appendicitis and diverticulosis are unknown."
http://www.all-creatures.org/mhvs/nl-200...
Why is it this same sort of question keeps getting asked, but no one ever wants to argue with this little body of evidence every time I post it? Hmmm.
Get it through your heads, people. We were NOT meant to eat meat or any other animal product!
Here's more proof: (read the book): http://thechinastudy.com
You don't seem to know a lot about the different major kinds of teeth!
With the exception of dolphins and whales which have very specialized fish catching or food filtering teeth,and the other exception of small insect eaters like shrews which have needle like teeth for chewing insects virtually ALL mammals have incisors.The big buck teeth a rabbit has are incisors for example.Incisors are used to cut a piece of food off a larger amount-e.g. a bit of apple off of a whole apple.
Then there are canine teeth.These are often thought to be something that only meat eaters have as dogs and cats and other carnivores use these to kill their prey.It is true that ALL carnivores do have large sharp canines.However some herbivores have them too-the huge teeth a hippo has when it opens it's mouth are canines.They are not used for killing prey of course as hippos eat grass and virtually nothing else.They are used instead for fighting other hippos.Some other plant eating animals have canine teeth for the same reason-Chinese water deer for example.Human canines are tiny and would be no use for killing anything.
Just about everyone knows that the flat teeth at the back of our mouths are called molars and are for grinding up food.Herbivores all have molars as do most omnivores such as pigs,bears and raccoons.Some true carnivores do but only those that sometimes eat a little plant food-so weasels do as some of that family-pine martens for example-do eat the odd bit of fruit as well as meat.Wolves and the rest of the dog family have some molars for the same reason.However the cats don't as they are all pure carnivores who never eat any plant food in the wild.
The last kind of teeth worthy of mention are the carnassial teeth.Humans don't have these.Only mammals whose diets are largely or totally made of meat do-cats,dogs,weasels and mongooses etc.They occupy the same place in the jaw as molars do in us.They are used for slicing a large piece of meat into smaller,easier to swallow bits.
In those animals who have both carnassials and molars-e.g. wolves-the molars are at the very back of the mouth-look at the very back of a dogs mouth sometime and you will see flat molars at the back and sharper carnassials.This lack of molars is also the reason why cats can't gnaw bones like dogs can-carnassials are not meant for that kind of use.
So now that's clear look at your own teeth in a mirror.No big canines for killing.No carnassials.Therefore you are not designed as a meat eater.Incisors which can cut anything-plant or meat.Lots of flat molars for grinding up plant tissue.
Combine that with the fact that we have a long intestinal system wheras carnivores have a short one and it seems pretty obvious that we are built to eat plants.The ability to digest meat-especially cooked meat-is just a bonus our bodies have.It probably arose when our ancestors long ago had to eat whatever edible food they could get.
i use incisors for raw vegetables.
I think you probably mean canines or maybe premolars, as all herbivorous mammals have incisors.
Vegetarianism is a choice. I could use my teeth to eat human flesh, but i don't have to. Our dentition is typical of omnivorous animals, not carnivores or herbivores. However, it is indeed "natural" to eat meat, just as it is natural to eat maggots and beetles, but in the richer parts of the West, adults do not usually eat insects deliberately.
For goodness sake, look at your teeth and then look at a lion's. Do they REALLY look the same to you? If you think so, test out your theory by using your big, sharp claws to kill your prey then using your ferocious carnivore teeth to rip through the skin and flesh. Oh, and eat it raw. If we were meant to eat meat we wouldn't be bothered by little things like foodborne pathogens from undercooked meat. We are certainly not born carnivores if that's your point. We are capable of being omnivores and nobody denies that. But animals that eat meat by instinct don't get heart disease or clogged arteries from it, nor does it promote the growth of cancers in true carnivores. Humans have a host of health issues related to eating animal foods and that's got to tell you something. Oh, and my incisors come in pretty handy for biting into an apple.
We are in fact omniverous, meaning we can eat either meat or vegetables or both if we choose to. You have incisors in case you want to eat meat . You aren't meant to be a carnivore and it would be unwise and unhealthy for a human to do so. you donot have the large incisors of a carnivore, their sheer speed, their sleek muscled bodies,their claws,their lightening reflexes or even their digestive systems ! A human can however survive on an all vegetarian diet! You can choose to eat meat if you want to. I choose not to.
Vegetarians do not say that we were meant to be vegetarian. Likewise one shouldn't go around saying that we are meant to eat meat. We have the freedom to choose which diet to follow!!
because it's just a justification for a lifestyle choice rather than a biological necessity. The facts is you CAN eat both. We are not carnivores, true meat eaters because we are OMNIVORES. like bears. We can eat a variety of foods, both meat and plants, safely and efficiently. Cooking food is amtter of taste not necessity. Lots of people eat almost or practically raw meats (steak, steak tartare, carpaccio etc) without ill effects. Or they can choose not to eat them. It's a choice. Actually, I think, because of the initial non-acceptance and extreme criticism from omnis, vegetarians and the vegetarian "movement" worked to find justification for their choice which would also satisfy their critics. Of course some would be more factual than others and some would be more like urban legend. The issue has not been helped by fanatics on both sides of the argument.
PS. humans have short large intestines for meat digestion, small long intestines for plant fiber digestion. Human teeth have very thin enamels as compared to true vegetarians. It will not survive a lifetime of plant fiber chewing,
Perhaps it's the same reason we have appendixes - a redundant evolutionary leftover?
Why do we have more molars and premolars than canines....humans are more designed to consume vegetation than meat
If we were meant to eat meat, why do we need knives to to cut it, forks to hold it, and why do we have to cook it and use meat tenderizers when no other animal does these things?
Try going up to a live cow and eating a chunk of it's flesh. You'd be lucky if your teeth even broke the skin, and even luckier if the cow didn't stomp you to death.
I think humans were evolved to be omnivores; eating a lot of plant material and occasional small animals such as grubs and insects--that's how chimpanzees and gorillas eat.
However, humans have the unique capacity to go beyond nature and make our own choices in how we want to live. Whether we were "meant" to do this or that seems like a silly argument to me.
Why do you bother getting up in the morning? I mean really. Are you that ignorant to actually believe because you have 2 teeth that are not flat like your molars, that you are meant to eat meat? You have the reasoning ability of a 2 year old. I think you should press the button to paige the nurse and tell her to increase your medication.
My pet sheep have incisors. from what i've seen they are vegetarians ( although it could be they sneak off to MCDs when i'm not looking )
There are many tough veggies, particularly when eaten raw ( as we would have done ) that require the tearing action of small pointy teeth and blade bladed teeth at the front.
I don't argue that we were meant to be veggie, humans are omnivores, vegetarianism is a choice we make. Humans are capable of fathering and birthing children at 12 years old. Just because we USED to do something does not make it automatically right.
We are capable and equiped for slavery, does that make it ok ?
If you can run through the forest and catch your animals by hand, tear them apart and eat them raw....then you can start to discuss if humans were meant to eat meat. You are using many unnatural processes in order to eat meat so it makes the "its natural" arguement extremely flawed.
The ones that do claim that are generally dribbling loonies so I wouldnt pay too much attention. The more reasonable ones will agree that while humans are designed to and are capable of eating meat, they choose not to.
This question is asked generally by those who are non vegetarians but they are little guilty at the same time so they need some kind of excuse or any trivial reason to continue with their food habits.
for the person that said we can't live off meat alone... absolutely not true. every vitamin and nutrient your body needs can be found in meat. granted you'd have to eat the more unpleasant parts of the animal to get these ( liver, tongue, brain, intestines, heart, lung, etc...) but the plains Indian's did it. for a long time they were considered the tallest people on earth, and they lived on an almost complete meat diet. also, we can eat meat raw. i personally eat my steaks raw. it's just that with all the industrialism involved with our meat processing today, you have to be careful about where you get your meat. sushi anyone?
lmao at the person who answered about the nipples!!! wow folk on here.
anyway in answer to your question i don't understand it. my sis is a veggie, i guess its personal preference. but the food chain is a natural process. do the veggies disagree with spiders eating flies or house mites?!! its madness. looking forward to my joint of meat tomorrow though.
We were meant to follow the path pre-chosen for us by God. Whether that means canivorous or herbivorous is totally a personal decision. besides, what the heck else would we use chickens and cows for? (Only dairy cattle give milk. Beef cattle are just used for that: beef!, and what do pigs do? Turkeys? )