Early Human Evolution
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of
life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
--Albert Einstein
If it's so unhealthy and unnatural for humans to eat meat, why did our ancestors turn to animal flesh for sustenance?
During most of our evolutionary history, we were largely vegetarian. You could probably figure this out by noting that all the great apes, our closest living relatives, are also predominantly herbivorous. Like apes, our bodies evolved to eat fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham and his colleagues first explained that root vegetables—and the ability to cook them—prompted the evolution of large brains, smaller teeth, modern limb proportions, and even male-female bonding. Plant foods like potatoes made up the bulk of our ancestors' diet and spurred our advancement as a species.
The addition of modest amounts of meat to the early human diet came with the invention of fire, which allowed us to eat meat without being killed by it (usually). This practice did not turn our ancestors into carnivores but rather supplemented their traditional plant foods and allowed early humans to survive in periods when plant foods were unavailable.
Anthropologists believe that early humans started to consume small amounts
of meat when climate changes made plant foods scarce. During this period, starting
a little over a million years ago, humans began to hunt animals for sustenance
in the ever-changing landscapes they encountered during their migrations.
Modern Humans
Fully modern human beings (Homo sapiens) evolved about 150,000 years ago in
Africa and soon spread across the globe. With the advent of agriculture,
about 23,000 years ago, humans began to gather seeds and cultivate crops to
provide a more consistent food supply. Our ancestors occasionally killed
animals for their flesh, but they still received most of their nutrition from
plant sources. Until recently, only the wealthiest people could afford to feed,
raise, and slaughter animals for their flesh. Consequently, prior to the 20th
century, only the rich died from diseases like heart disease, obesity, and
strokes.
Humans Invent Factory Farming?
During the past 50 years, traditional small-scale farms have been replaced by massive, mechanized agricultural operations. Technological advances have allowed factory farmers to produce huge quantities of food and ship it anywhere in the world, and agribusiness entrepreneurs soon bought out and consolidated smaller agrarian operations. When America was founded, roughly 90 percent of Americans lived on farms.
Today, the percentage of Americans who farm for a living has fallen to less than 2 percent. The "family farm" is now practically extinct.
The industrialization of animal production has led to huge factory farms that raise thousands of animals in cramped, filthy warehouses. This crowding, combined with other cost-cutting practices (like grinding up the scraps from dead animals and feeding them back to the survivors) and huge agricultural subsidies (corporate welfare) has made meat cheap and readily available. In addition, our natural aversion to killing animals for food is bypassed by the modern farming system-immigrants and poor, rural Americans do the dangerous dirty work in the slaughterhouses, and the rest of us are never confronted with the task of killing the animals ourselves (or even having to watch it happen).
Since 1950, the per capita consumption of meat has almost doubled; now that
animal flesh has become relatively cheap and easily available, deadly ailments
like heart disease, strokes, cancer, and obesity have spread to people across
the socio-economic spectrum. And as the Western lifestyle spills over into
less developed areas in Asia and Africa, they, too, have started to die from
the diseases associated with meat-based diets.
A Healthy Human Diet
"T. Colin Campbell, the former senior science advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research, is outspoken on the diet/disease connection. He says, 'The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet.'"
In Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, he states, "I now consider veganism to be the ideal diet. A vegan diet—particularly one that is low in fat—will substantially reduce disease risks. Plus, we've seen no disadvantages from veganism. In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians."
William Castelli, M.D. says: "A low-fat, plant-based diet would not only lower the heart attack rate about 85 percent, but would lower the cancer rate 60 percent."
Our anatomy reveals that we are herbivores, as does our natural aversion to meat and the fact that it is harmful to our health. Meat-eaters are out of step with our evolutionary past. Our closest living relatives—the great apes—and ancestral human populations are and have been predominately vegetarian. They may eat the occasional rodent and some raw bugs, but the vast majority of their caloric intake is herbivorous. The key to human health lies in adopting a diet that is consistent with their anatomy and evolutionary history.
Luckily for us, it has never been easier to eat a vegetarian diet. Modern society has been able to provide a healthy vegetarian alternative for all of our favorite meat-based dishes, and more and more restaurants and grocery stores are offering delicious meat-free options.