Stupid Things Omnivores Say: But We Have Incisors…
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Read this drivel from a comment on HuffPo today:
“Our incisors and cuspids are designed to tear flesh, why deny our biology. I embrace myself as a Person for the Eating of Tasty Animals.”
AKA, everything I learned about biology, ethics, and nutrition, I learned from my dentist.
If you read more of the comments you’ll see that this jerk wasn’t the only one to bust out the “but we have teeth” argument. Apparently omnis think we can answer all life’s questions through sufficiently rigorous examination of one another’s body parts.
Omnis, let me help you out here… unless you believe God created the world in six days and lovingly designed each of us down to the little toe nail. Then I can’t help you. (But maybe you can help me…. I’ve always wondered what we were supposed to use all that belly button lint for.)
If you believe in evolution, though, then there’s something you should know. Nothing about the way we are can answer questions about what we should or ought to do. Saying, “Doing X is only natural” or “We were evolved to do Y” is UTTERLY MEANINGLESS.
We weren’t evolved to do anything. We just evolved. Why do we have an appendix? Why do we have five fingers instead of seven or four? Why do we have eyebrows? Why can we smell rotten eggs, but not carbon monoxide? Why do we have some pointy teeth and some not-so-pointy teeth?
Because. I learned that answer in elementary school and it’s been useful ever since. We have pointy teeth because some creature 10,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago or 1 million or 10 million years ago who may or may not have been human as we know it happened to have pointy teeth and happened to have lots of babies. And those babies had babies who had more babies and eventually you appeared. With pointy teeth. Congratulations.
Nothing about the way we live our lives is “natural.” We live in huge concrete cities. We drive cars. We sh-t in toilets. We eat food that someone else produced that comes boxed and shrink wrapped from grocery stores. Were we “evolved” to live this way? Does it matter?
If you want to know what you “should” eat, don’t stand in front of a mirror and open wide. Try reading a book instead. Or, you know, read about all the excellent reasons to go vegan here on Vegan Soapbox.
Horses have canine teeth too. Maybe we should be eating grass.
I think a better argument would be to point to this:
http://www.goveg.com/naturalhumandiet_physiology.asp
Humans are herbivores. Despite popular belief, we don’t have canine teeth.
Apparently we were evolved to get cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, too, since those illnesses are more strongly associated with meat-eating than with veganism.
John,
I don’t think that’s a better argument at all.
My whole point is that what’s in your mouth has no bearing whatsoever on what we ought to eat. What’s in our mouths was determined largely by events that took place hundreds of thousands of years ago. What we ought to eat is an ethical and nutritional question that can be answered today without reference to prehistorical events.
I wouldn’t care if our teeth were 6 inches long and serrated, I’d still think we should be vegan. Similarly, the fact that we share similar dentition with other species is irrelevant, even when those species tend to be herbivorous.
some say chimpanzees kill small animals and primates and eat them too, but have they ever seen how large and long canines of chimpanzees are…also they do it on their own not by use of knives and guns and nets and etc.
Hi mercury, Actually some chimps do hunt with tools:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/04/chimps-with-spears/mary-roach-text
BUT, they tend to only seek out meaty food sources when other food sources are low.
We weren’t evolved to do anything. We just evolved. Why do we have an appendix?;; This USED to be used, but no longer. It is meaningless at this point, but once served a purpose.
Why do we have five fingers instead of seven or four?;; No clue.
Why do we have eyebrows?;; Same reason as eyelashes- keeps things from getting in your eyes.
Why can we smell rotten eggs, but not carbon monoxide?;; When you find out, let me know.
Why do we have some pointy teeth and some not-so-pointy teeth?;; Designed for different things.
I think Veganism is a choice. I made it myself, but was unable to keep up with it. MY body seems to be designed more for meats than anything, because even with energy drinks, vitamins by the handful, and proper exercise, without meat in my diet I was fatigued and irritated. I refuse to eat red meat, still, and mostly just have poultry or pork products between once a day and every 3 days. I refuse to eat Eggs as they are chicken abortions, and I drink soymilk. I refuse to eat or touch anything raw, and I sure as hell will never gut a fish or chicken, and I will forever cry uselessly when there is a local pig roast.
However, at this time I am an omnivore. It has nothing to do with my teeth, and everything to do with not having the money or resources or time to commit myself to a vegan lifestyle. Yes, I lost 40 pounds and felt thin and fantastic and all that, but I couldn’t stay awake, even with 6 cups of coffee and 2 energy drinks a day.
When you find an inexpensive way to Go Vegan, let me know.
Also, I left the link to my MySpace on here. If anyone wants to chat or add me as a friend, just let me know you came from this site.
Chrissee,
Here’s what I eat that’s vegan and CHEAP…
Breakfast: oatmeal with fruit
Lunch: baked potato (or two) w/ salsa, steamed carrots and green beans, and a large green salad
Dinner: rice and beans, steamed squash or corn, and a large green salad
Snacks: fruit, veggies, nuts, or popcorn
It’s no more expensive to eat a plant based diet then a meat based diet. It’s a learning process and a new learning process that many just don’t have the motivation to do. Since going Vegan I have more energy, less health problems, lowered my cholesterol from 270 to 114 and that is just the beginning. I do not spend any more money on groceries, then I did before. People often don’t realize exactly how much they spend on animal flesh based foods and food of convenience and processed foods and snacks. Excuses to justify the lack of motivation, same excuses that keep people obese. Some that try vegan/all plant based, secretly object to that food preparation can take more time and can be inconvenient in a flesh eaters based world, to get the food ready sometimes, or to go out to dinner.
It is faster to rip open a bag of chips and microwave some frozen dinner or slap a steak in to a pan. If you done it a thousand times it’s just easier so it seesm.
It is easier to partake at a barbecue with friends that are flesh eaters, and harder to stand your ground for better eating and have them poke fun of you. It’s simpler to give in and find some excuse like, “I crave meat”. It takes special people to go Vegan and and their ground, it take real commitment and believe in the importance of it all. Flesh eater are cruel so you have to take a few hits, many people don’t have what ti takes. At eh end of the day they don’t care ENOUGH about the animals or their health. it’s easier to pop a cholesterol lowering pill then to change eating fundamentally.
So some, when they going gets though, stop trying and say I feel tired and week, I have to have my meat. There are many reasons why people feel tired and week, most flesh eaters I know are not only tired and week, but they also have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many have diabetes, that is just a few problems they have. Constipation, digestive problems skin problems bad breath are the less serious ones. Since I stopped eating flesh, I have not had one day of bad breath and my lifelong constipation was gone within days of omitting all meat and dairy and eggs. My skin out breaks are a thing of the past. Of course the consuption of sugar is also important less is more. Sodas are a menace.
Frankly the befit of a Vegan diet are so drastic that I find it criminal to continue perpetrating the flesh eating mantra on people especially children. The only people that benefit in a big way are producers of flesh products, dairy industry, pharmaceutical industries, and the medical industries and at the end funeral homes. One half makes us sick, the other promises to make us well, the last one puts the now dead, once diseased flesh eating corpse in the ground. A symbiotic relationship, we are the brain washed pawns in this charade!
Vegan eating is only expensive if you buy frozen vegan dinners, and processed foods, the easy and quick way to eat. But whole foods are not more expensive. So instead of facing ones own laziness lets just pretend my body craves flesh. There is no such thing as craving meat or as I rather call it what it is “flesh”.
The word “meat” actually used to refer to all “solid” food, and only in modern times have we started to relate it solely to animal flesh. Animal flesh is “protein” i.e amino acids, if you think you are craving flesh, you are craving protein which can be obtained from many plant sources. The craving for animal flesh is purely physiological. People crave meat (flesh) the same way they crave ice cream, habit and wanting.
Grains and plants, nuts, and soy beans are the best source of wholesome protein They can be bought in bulk and keep for months unlike flesh, which rots easily and carries parasites. After ingestng it, is starts to rott in the same way it rots on your plate if left uncooled. That created putrid gases, bloating, bad breath and deposits in your intestine that are anything but healthy. Flesh is truly disgusting and if not dressed up with all kind of spices and sauces salt and browned and cooked to death twice, it could not be consumed at all.
Grains are economical, wholesome, and a money and life saving source of protein! No excuses Go Vegan!
What happened to my post?
Ginette, The reason your commend didn’t show up right away is because the first comment anyone posts here is always moderated. That’s because we get so much spam. But now that your first comment was approved the next one you post will probably show up right away.
“We weren’t evolved to do anything.”
Actually, we evolved to survive. Pointy/sharp teeth weren’t a random accident – they allowed our ancestors to take advantage of rich protein sources, especially in the form of scavengered meat, which supported the growth and evolution of more and more complex brains. Meat is one of the foremost reasons we even made it to being humans.
It’s not that “some creature” which “happened to have pointy teeth” just “happened to have lots of babies” – that creature’s pointy teeth were one of a number of adaptions that helped it survive. It used its large brain to capture animals, and its pointy teeth to eat them.
I am not in any way pro-meat. I am, however, very anti-ignorance. I agree with the kernel of your argument: that in this day and age meat-eating is not a biological imperative, and our social and cultural adaptions allow us to choose any diet we want.
I disagree quite strongly with the way you’ve presented your point. There was a time when meat-eating was a integral part of human, or at least proto-human life – it’s not fair to deny that.
And for the appendix, it is most likely a vestigial organ from a time even BEFORE our ancestors began eating meat, when their diet consisted primarily of plant matter, which is more difficult to digest, so the body needed extra organs to aid in digestion. When our diet changed, the body stopped relying upon the appendix, but because it did no harm there was no reason for its existance to be selected against, so it’s still around.
Please don’t edit our evolutionary heritage as it suits you.
Educate yourself.