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Lessons from Jon Barron
Animal Diet VS Human Diet    In this week's excerpt from Lessons from the Miracle Doctors, Jon Barron continues his discussion of the digestive systems of different animals compare to the human system.
 "Herbivores (Plant Eaters): Cows, Deer, Etc
Herbivores have sharp chisel-shaped incisors for cutting, no upper incisors in some cases, and small incisor-like canines. Their molars and premolars are flattened with ridges. Their teeth and upper jaw meet the lower jaw so that lateral movement of the lower jaw produces the grinding actions to break down plant materials. In herbivores, the incisors are dominant, the canines usually depressed, and the molars broad-topped.
Herbivores also tend to have extended, compound stomachs. As for the herbivore bowel, at 20–28 times the length of the body (from mouth to anus), it usually runs almost eight times longer than a carnivore's, since plant matter (unlike meat) is not prone to putrefaction, thus rendering quick elimination moot.
As with carnivores, not much like us.
Omnivores (Roots, Berries, Meat, Nuts): Bears, Wild Pigs, Etc.
No animal is really adapted to eat all things, but if any animal comes close, it would be the bear. Typical foods consumed by bears include ants, bees, seeds, roots, nuts, berries, insect larvae such as grubs, and even flowers. Some meat, of course, is eaten by bears, including rodents, fish, deer, pigs, and lambs. Grizzlies and Alaskan brown bears are well-known salmon eaters. Polar bears feed almost exclusively on seals, but then, what vegetation is there for them to eat in the frozen wastes of the Arctic? And, of course, anyone who has read Winnie the Pooh knows that many bears love honey.
Other than the ants, grubs, and rodents, the bear diet sounds a lot like the typical Western diet. For this reason, many people conclude that the natural human diet is that of an omnivore. But remember, we're stepping back and taking a look physiologically where we fit in, and on those counts, we don't match the omnivores. The biggest difference is in the teeth. Omnivores have the sharp canines of the carnivore and the pronounced incisors of the herbivore. They also have molars that are both pointed and broad-topped. That's not even close to a human set of teeth.
Frugivores (Fruit and Nut Eaters): Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimpanzees, Etc.
In the frugivore, all the teeth are nearly of the same height. The canines are a little projected and the molars are broad-topped. (Sound familiar?) Unlike the carnivore jaw, which is vertically mobile for biting or tearing, the jaw of the typical frugivore is laterally mobile to allow for chewing.
As for the bowel of the frugivore, it runs about 10–12 times the length of the body from mouth to anus, the same as found in the human body. The stomach of the frugivore is typically long and extended (a complex structure), containing a tenth of the acidic salts and pepsin found in a carnivore's stomach. Again, the same as in humans.
So, here we have our match, but what does it mean? Are we restricted to fruits and nuts? No. In fact, the frugivores we most closely resemble, the wild chimpanzees, periodically eat live insects and raw meat. Among the great apes (the gorilla, the orangutan, the bonobo, and the chimpanzee) and ourselves, only humans and chimpanzees hunt and eat meat on a frequent basis. Gorillas have never been observed hunting or feeding on any animals other than invertebrates such as termites and ants. Nevertheless, chimpanzees are largely fruit eaters, and meat comprises only about 3 percent of their diet—far less than is found in the typical Western diet.
So far, the discussion of our natural diet is based on observation and hypothesis. Is there any science to back it up? In fact, there is: in 1979, Dr. Alan Walker, an anthropologist from Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, published research based on a careful examination of fossil teeth and fossilized human remains with electron microscopes. As Dr. Walker and his associates reported, 'Preliminary studies of fossil teeth have led to the startling suggestion that our early human ancestors (Australopithecus) were not predominantly meat-eaters or even eaters of seeds, shoots, leaves, or grasses, nor were they omnivorous. Instead, they appear to have subsisted chiefly on a diet of fruit.'"
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