Our intestinal tracts are smaller than that of herbivores. As a matter of fact our intestinal tract has the length ratio similar to that of other omnivores, sim

Our intestinal tracts are smaller than that of herbivores. As a matter of fact our intestinal tract has the length ratio similar to that of other omnivores, similar to that of pigs or dogs for example. We don't have the teeth of carnivores, but we don't have the teeth of herbivores either. That's because we evolved to use tools and fire, which meant we could predigest our food, which also allowed us btw to eat tubers. Thus comparisons with other animals is silly. We aren't like cows, we cannot synthesize essential amino acids from grass, we don't have the gut or the gut flora for it and we don't stay around all day chewing leaves like gorillas. Our big brain evolved with foods high in calories and in paleolithic this meant animal fat and starch. Yes, you can live on a whole plants based diet, with the proper supplements. Whether that's optimal or not is another question entirely and there are plenty of studies available from African countries showing that children could really benefit from more meat and dairy in their diet. --- > "We're paving the rainforests to plant more crops to feed back to animals, despite having millions starving to death." References please. While in the 19th century most of the human population lived in extreme poverty and suffered from malnutrition, the percent of people living in poverty and suffering from malnutrition has dropped to a historically low in 2015, afaik less than 10% of the world population. We are living in the best times of humanity, from all points of view, literally. Therefore bringing starvation into this discussion, despite the absolutely amazing progress we've made since 1960 (which is around the time when meat consumption went up btw), shows ignorance. I'm not denying that meat should be more expensive and reflect its actual cost to the environment, but really, stop it with the quackery.