We have very different GI tracts than carnivores.
In fact, our GI tract is most similar to our frugivore friends the Gorillas, Orangutan and Chimpanzees.
(Yes - At some point 5 to 7 million years ago our ancestors were big on fruit.)
We have an acid stomach, same basic gut anatomy a sacculated colon, and roughly the same transit time for food through our systems…
Usually when non-carnivorous animals are given meat really bad things happen such as chronic nephritis.
And in some species decreasing meat intake increases lifespan.
Despite these facts, meat, at least up to a certain point, should pose no problems to the design our our GI tract.
This is because while we are not carnivores “by design” and have neither the gut anatomy nor digestive physiology of a true carnivore, we are able to easily extract amino acids from meat proteins with a high degree of efficiency.
This may be due to our stomach acid, which has an extremely low pH similar to most scavengers, or because our small intestines are larger than those of Gorillas, Orangutans or Chimpanzees.
For whatever reason, meat is a highly efficient way for us to get essential aminos acids.
However, the protein from meat may not be an excellent source of calories, as catabolizing protein for energy comes with a very high metabolic cost.
In other words it costs humans a lot of energy to turn protein into energy.
(It has been said that adult humans cannot catabolize enough protein from meat to meet more than 50% of their daily energetic requirements)
Luckily (in survival terms) much of the meat people eat today comes with at least some amount of easily obtainable energy in the form of fats.
Thus, in an odd way it could be that our frugivore background is part of the reason people find weight loss success with high meat diets.
It works not because we are carnivores, but the opposite, it works because we are NOT carnivores, so the built in inefficiencies of calorie attainment combined with our surprisingly efficient harvesting of amino acids allows for a metabolic situation well suited for fat loss and muscle preservation.
Now this doesn’t change my advice on how much protein we should be eating, and of course this is just a theory, or more a musing, but either way it could partly explain why some people find weight loss on very high meat diets.
.
We have very different GI tracts than carnivores.
In fact, our GI tract is most similar to our frugivore friends the Gorillas, Orangutan and Chimpanzees.
(Yes - At some point 5 to 7 million years ago our ancestors were big on fruit.)
We have an acid stomach, same basic gut anatomy a sacculated colon, and roughly the same transit time for food through our systems…
Usually when non-carnivorous animals are given meat really bad things happen such as chronic nephritis.
And in some species decreasing meat intake increases lifespan.
Despite these facts, meat, at least up to a certain point, should pose no problems to the design our our GI tract.
This is because while we are not carnivores “by design” and have neither the gut anatomy nor digestive physiology of a true carnivore, we are able to easily extract amino acids from meat proteins with a high degree of efficiency.
This may be due to our stomach acid, which has an extremely low pH similar to most scavengers, or because our small intestines are larger than those of Gorillas, Orangutans or Chimpanzees.
For whatever reason, meat is a highly efficient way for us to get essential aminos acids.
However, the protein from meat may not be an excellent source of calories, as catabolizing protein for energy comes with a very high metabolic cost.
In other words it costs humans a lot of energy to turn protein into energy.
(It has been said that adult humans cannot catabolize enough protein from meat to meet more than 50% of their daily energetic requirements)
Luckily (in survival terms) much of the meat people eat today comes with at least some amount of easily obtainable energy in the form of fats.
Thus, in an odd way it could be that our frugivore background is part of the reason people find weight loss success with high meat diets.
It works not because we are carnivores, but the opposite, it works because we are NOT carnivores, so the built in inefficiencies of calorie attainment combined with our surprisingly efficient harvesting of amino acids allows for a metabolic situation well suited for fat loss and muscle preservation.
Now this doesn’t change my advice on how much protein we should be eating, and of course this is just a theory, or more a musing, but either way it could partly explain why some people find weight loss on very high meat diets.
.