30/11/2024
Bra att ha till hands när man ska äta julbord tillsammans...
👋🐒 Hi primate, frugivore, sapien! Are you finally going to stop making bizarre arguments to justify abusing animals?
I know, I know: I’m here fighting animal exploitation, not to defend our health. But since the zombie trolls love to yell that we’re natural meat eaters and think it gives them a free pass to exploit anything, we might counter that nonsense too, right?
📖
A long time ago, human animals began spreading rapidly across the globe, to places where our natural foods - nuts, fruits and seeds - were harder to find. To survive, we began eating literally everything and anything we could find, even animals, until every corner of the earth was marked by humanity. Still, physically we remain primates, frugivores, and nearly every part of our body reflects this. See design.
BUT THEN WHY CONTAINS FLESH GOOD NUTRIENTS FOR US?
Whether firsthand or secondhand: every plant, fruit or nut provides unique amino acids that non-human and human animals store in their own flesh. So yes, it’s filled with many useful nutrients.
However, this nutrient package is designed for predators, whose fast metabolisms require nutrients in an instant burst of energy. For humans, whose intestines are not adapted for meat-heavy diets, it can be harmful, as it is proven carcinogenic. We are sustainable foragers, meant to get the scala of different nutrients slowly from a mix of plantbased foods.
BUT AREN’T WE OMNIVORES?
Physically? No. Still frugivores.
Mentally? No. We still don’t feel the urge to run after animals, drawn to their blood and scent, fixating on their necks.
Behaviorally? Yes. Because of cultural evolution, but that’s literally it.
Most ‘omnivores’ belong physically to another order, like humans. Animals may adapt their diets because of changed environments and situations, but their core traits remain tied to their original order like pandas (carnivore to herbivore), flying foxes (carnivore to frugivore) or rats (herbivore to omnivore).
Many can survive on foods outside their natural diet, but that doesn’t mean it’s always optimal for them. Especially when it can have long-term harmful effects, like flesh does with humans.
And now, back to the ethical issue, where the focus belongs. Go vegan. 🌱
*and oh, being a frugivore doesn’t mean everyone needs to be a fruitarian. The word may suggest it, but that is not what a frugivore literally means to be.
**written in my own words, but here are most of the sources:
- Milton, K. (1999): A hypothesis regarding the evolution of human diet and intelligence
- World Health Organization (WHO), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (2015): Processed meat and colorectal cancer risk
- Chan, D. S. M., et al. (2011): Red and processed meat and colorectal cancer incidence: meta-analysis of prospective studies
- Sayers, K., & Lovejoy, C. O. (2008): The chimpanzee has no clothes: A critical examination of Pan troglodytes in models of human evolution
- Fuentes, A. (2017): The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional
- de Waal, F. B. M. (2009): The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
- Wrangham, R. (2009): Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
- Springmann, M., et al. (2016): Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change
