Listen to Your Body! "The natural food of man, judging from his structure, appears to consist principally of the fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables." —Baron Curvier, a famous anatomist.   Now let's take a look at our anatomical structure and see if it gives us any ideas about what kind of food we should be ingesting. Teeth: Molars   A simple comparison of the teeth of carnivores and frugivores is very revealing. The molars of a carnivore have sharp, jagged edges and points, necessary for tearing their meat. The teeth never meet in a chewing movement but come very close so as to separate the muscle fibers. Carnivorous animals also lack the ability to move their jaws from side to side in a masticating manner, making it very difficult for them to eat raw plant matter.   Frugivores have solely long, wide, flat molars intended for smashing and grinding their food, very much like a grain mill works. Their dental structure is completely unsuited to the job of ripping, mincing and tearing. Meat, therefore, can only be ingested when it has been previously prepared by manually mincing, cooking or grinding, which leads us to the next point. Kinematics: Mechanics of Motion   God provided each creature with the necessary skills and physical makeup to meet their lifestyle and dietary needs. Take, for example, the lion. It has camouflage, dexterity, speed, plus the teeth and claws to capture and then eat its prey. It does not need a gun or spear; Mr. Lion is fully equipped to supply himself with the food he requires. But imagine the lion trying to climb a tree to reach the outside branches in order to pick fruit. Ridiculous, right?   Frugivores have the ability to reach, climb, hold and easily manage getting their food from plants. But they are just as incapable of acquiring meat without external and unnatural methods as the lion is in picking apples. God has given each of His creations what they need for the purpose and diet He has ordained for them. Our Senses   Our natural desire as children is for fruits. It is only after the tastes have been distorted through wrong eating habits, which have developed the animal passions, that some have come to crave meat. Even so, it is usually seasoned and spiced because it is actually a disturbing sight and unpleasant smell to many. If we were made to be meat eaters, God would have made those sights and smells appealing to us. Instead, He made us to crave the fresh, crispy apple, the sweet and juicy orange, or fresh homemade bread made from natural grains. Meat does not provide the absolutely vital elements that we need to sustain life. A person will actually starve on meat if they do not also eat something made from plants. The body craves real food, something it can actually get nutrition from. A person can live indefinitely on solely vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains and nuts.   Also, meat has many natural and unavoidable poisons and addictives such as purine, creatine, leaukomaine, xanthine, sarcina and uric acid, to mention just a few, which are very toxic to us as frugivores. These toxins are handled nicely by carnivores, however. Plant foods, on the other hand, offer none of these dangerous substances to us. Intestines Testify   Our bowels demand roughage for proper function, yet meat provides none. If it were not for the few vegetables that people eat with their meat they would have long ago died of intoxification. Still, people suffer many problems from ingesting substances that were never intended to enter their body. This is not what God wants for His children. His wish for us is that we prosper and have good health, so that our souls can also be healthy ( 3 John 2).   God did not design our intestines to handle the work necessary for digesting and extracting nutrients from meat. Our digestive tracts are long, curved and pouched, as are the digestive tracts of all frugivorious creatures. In contrast, those of meat eating animals are very short, straight and smooth, enabling the meat to get in and out before their bodies have absorbed most of the poisons. Since our digestive tract is so long, we get the full blow of the toxins. In the carnivora [animals], the alimentary canal is very short, being only three times the length of the body. In the herbivora, as in sheep, it is thirty times the length of the body. In frugivora, such as apes, monkeys, and man, it is twelve times the body length. Eat For Strength, Dr. A. W. Truman, pg. 10. The evidence is so clear! Our bodies were built to live and thrive on a plant diet consisting predominately of fruits, nuts and seeds, grains and vegetables. The laws of nature are still to a large degree in harmony with their Author. All rights reserved Copyright © 2006 By J. Lee