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mike_a_lafontaine wrote:There are certainly many aspects of how we digest/absorb foods that would indicate we were designed to have meat in our diets, not totally carnivorous, but definately some meat components. Iron is the most notable. We absorb heme-bound iron, which is found almost exclusively in meat, much more readily than non-heme iron, plus MFP-factor, which is found only in animal flesh, increases our ability to absorb non-heme iron. Vegetarians always point to the high iron content in dark greens such as spinach but never seem to realize that plants with high iron content are only high in the not-easily-absorbed non-heme iron and that they typically contain various chelating agents and fibrous entities that inhibit iron absorption. Those with vegetarian/vegan diets have a higher incedence of anemia because of this. Like other carnivors and omnivors, we have short, relatively inefficient digestive tracts with proteases that are very good at breaking down animal proteins but pretty crappy at breaking down a lot of the fibrous proteins found in plants.

Plus, don't kid yourself. If we didn't eat cows, they surely would eat us. http://pandasthumb.org/archives/images/ ... he_cow.JPG

Clevis Hitch wrote:So my question is this, what is the benefit of whole grains and green leafy vegetables. As a omnivore, what should I be looking to consume other than meat.