By Justin Donner

Sports Editor

My ancestors didn’t work their way to the very top of the food chain for me to just throw the glory away and not consume meat.

I enjoy being primal and tearing meat from the bones of ribs. If it’s so “unnatural”, why do millions of people enjoy doing the very same thing?

If you throw an apple on the ground, chances are your dog is not going to purposely consume it. They may swallow some thinking it’s a new ball, but they do not naturally eat or enjoy eating apples. The dog is by instinct a carnivore, just like we humans are instinctively omnivores.

You can make claims that we are not supposed to eat meat but the fact is we do. There are many more people in this world that consume meat than those who don’t. In some countries like the U.S. and the UK it makes up the bulk of individuals’ diets. In countries where it doesn’t, meat is a rare delicatessen. Sometimes it is only to be cherished and eaten during times of celebration.

Many of our close primate relatives are omnivores. So are many primitive tribes that are still excellent examples of human beings in their raw and unindustrialized form.

“Nearly all herbivores, like cows, have fermenting vats — large chambers in their stomachs where microbes attack plant material for digestion. Humans don’t. Intestine function relies more on surface area than length. As mentioned earlier, creatures with plant-based diets need larger guts to absorb more energy, while carnivores have rather small intestines. Humans possess intermediate-sized digestive tracts,” according to John McArdle of the Vegetarian Research Group.

Many important nutrients can be obtained from meat such as calcium, vitamin B12, and protein. A person who engages in heavy physical activity needs to rely on the nutrients from meat to help their body recover. For example, in the sport of body building, it is recommended to at least get one gram of protein per pound of body weight. This would be nearly impossible on a vegan diet. One would be left to use soy, and that destroys your testosterone levels. Not exactly ideal for a man trying to build muscle.

Researchers at Oxford University recently followed 35,000 individuals aged 20 to 89 for a period of five years and discovered that vegans are 30% more likely to break a bone than their vegetarian and flesh-eating peers.

I have heard the argument that livestock production causes an excess of methane gas. Our human bodies have a hard time fully digesting the complex carbs in a vegetarian diet, and this results in more human released gas. In my opinion, we will have gas from either the vegetarians or the cows, so I will just enjoy my meat.