right to left wrote:
So, if humans do require some meat in our diets to remain healthy, it is a very small fraction of what we are actually consuming today on average.
This is generally true for Americans. As for remaining healthy, one needn't consume meat if an equivalent vegan/fortified alternative is available. Note that I was talking about performance, not general health. I can go forever on no meat at all. Lastly, processed carbs are a bigger factor in obesity than protein and fat, and they're are totally vegan in nature. You see, it isn't so much avoid X because of Y, avoid A because of B, but rather knowing how much X and A constitutes moderation.
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A dog may be an omnivore, but I'd like to hear from a veterinarian or a zoologist on this issue, because dogs seem to have a lot more adaptations for a predominantly meat diet than we do.
Dogs are quite typical carnivores, however their gut has evolved to look more like that of an omnivore. This is due to the amount of inadvertent plant matter that they've ingested over the millenia.
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Since we also have a cat (who prefers tuna and salmon to cat food), I'd like to know if any vegetarian fanatics have tried to turn their cats into vegans?
There are vegan cat food options out there. How folks feed it to animals that go nuts when you break out the sliced turkey or make tuna salad is beyond me. Then again, I’m not so much an uptight, anal fool over animals killing other animals for food either.
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From my limited understanding, the modern house cat is a true carnivore, and likely has a digestive tract too short to live adequately on plant food sources.
Gut length is a factor, though cell specialization is really the key.