“Omnivorous or vegetarian?”
Some people are ‘meat lovers’ while others fiercely reject the idea of humans eating meat. Perceptions and love/hate for meat vary according to each ideological frame and culture. However, this informative essay will not address the perceptions and preferences that people might have. It depends on a scientific debate with those who think that prehistoric man was vegetarian in nature and therefore humans should not eat meat and those who think that humans have always been omnivorous which means that we can eat seeds, grains, plants, fruits, but also animals. Through this essay I will defend that it is normal and natural that humans eat meat, in contrast with the vegetarian’s arguments, however it is healthier if we do not eat great amounts of meat per week.
An argument defending human as vegetarian is centered on the characteristics of the human body compared to carnivorous animals. It argues that because humans don’t have claws or pointed teeth we shouldn’t eat meat. However, I found that the digestive and dental system of homo sapiens serves as an example on omnivorous adjustment because the incisor teeth and canine are good to tear cooked meat into pieces, whereas the molars are needed to grind vegetable matter. Furthermore, vegetarians argue that carnivorous animals have smaller intestines than humans because raw meat needs to be defecated faster, so it won’t turn bad before it can be digested. However one argument to counter this position is that humans can’t be totally vegetarian either because plant material containing fiber and cellulose cannot be efficiently broken down by the enzymes our stomachs secrete and because humans have simple-chamber stomach while herbivores have multiple-chamber stomach. This reinforces the argument that humans are omnivorous because our bodies are not totally prepared for such big amounts of meat, like carnivorous animals, nor for all kinds of plants. Rather we should have a