Are Humans Meant to Eat Meat?

The issue of natural human diet is one that when researched on the internet leads to lots of articles about how humans are 'naturally' herbivores. This is a an interesting point considering the issues that intensive meat farming has over the natural world, and so I went onto the 'PETA' website to find out about what apparently is a 'natural' human diet and whether that should include the consumption of meat.
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http://www.peta.org/living/food/natural-human-diet
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Ah PETA, let's see if we can actually construct a plausible argument for once instead of just blatantly lying. Apparently you couldn't keep away from the generalisations though, as for some reason one of your points assumes that humans who eat meat should therefore logically start salivating over a decomposing corpse at the side of the road. Yeah just foolproof, I guess that's why all vegetarians instantly salivate over every blade of grass they see. I don't suppose that vegetarians dream about picking and subsequently killing cabbages either, but for some reason PETA only think the inverse applies. Now I'm a biology student, and at no point have I ever heard that humans are not designed to eat meat despite taking a course on human physiology that heavily referenced the dietary aspects of the human body. I have been taught however that diet is dictated by evolution, which is a constant process, so to try and dictate the 'natural' diet of an organism is naive since every food source is a natural construct.

I don't know who was tasked with writing this piece for PETA, and nor do I really care, but they don't seem to have any awareness that an organism can be omnivorous. Is this line of thought ever explored? No, the whole thing is about trying to debunk the carnivorous tendencies of humans with some outrageous and inaccurate assumptions that show a true neglect for scientific integrity. A 'natural diet' is one that is derived from nature. I don't know in what universe eating meat isn't a natural construct, but in this one saying that eating meat is unnatural is a bit like saying homosexuality and polygamy are also unnatural. These three things may go against the principles of natural selection, but they are very much natural actions. The question should instead relate to whether humans have evolved to be herbivorous, and then explain why it would be impossible or unreasonable for humans to adapt to a carnivorous lifestyle.

Humans may well have different teeth from say a leopard, but then they looking nothing like a fucking elephant's either. Of course teeth are going to vary with each organism as they each evolved in different environments. Maybe we should instead compare the human anatomy to a closely related omnivore like a chimpanzee, and then surprisingly we'll find there are barely any differences. Of course there's always going to be differences if you compare drastically different animals separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Parrots for example have fucking talons, yet tarsiers have nails; guess which one is the carnivore and which is the herbivore? Let's stop classing carnivores as one huge group of animals because there are obviously going to be differences in claws between humans, who do not bring down their prey by striking at them, and a lion or a bear, which do strike down their prey using their claws that are obviously going to be bigger.

Short intestinal tracts? They're fucking 30 foot long, which is roughly the same length as most omnivores. This is another example of a dreadful use of animal biology. Since when does meat rot in the fucking intestines? That would make the consumption of just a little bit highly dangerous, and so I'm amazed that you can make sweeping statements like that without giving at least a single source. What evidence do you have to suggest that meat behaves much differently during digestion than fruit and vegetables? You don't, nor have you mentioned that you can also quite easily get diseases from eating products that don't come from animals; not everything is grown in a sterile environment. It's true that the intestines are one of the most significant barriers against disease in the human body, but then why is there a high concentration of white blood cells to act as an immune barrier if humans are evolved to eat the apparently harmless vegetation?

You haven't seemed to grasp the fact that the human body can adequately digest meat, which isn't just a coincidence and is something that has naturally arisen over time. If not then please explain to me why there is a presence of specific protease enzymes that have the sole function of breaking down amino acids in far greater quantities than you would find in beans or similar foods. The theory of enzyme induction proves that without this natural source of meat in the diet these enzymes just wouldn't be synthesised, so there is still absolutely nothing in this article that demonstrates why humans physiologically shouldn't eat meat. 

Do we have the instincts to be herbivores as well? It's all very well stating some vague information when you can't prove the inverse. You also haven't provided any sources to claim that carnivores take pleasure in bringing down prey. To carnivores bringing down prey is a mechanism of survival, much like breathing or drinking water is to me, yet do I take pleasure in undertaking those vital tasks? No, but there are people that do take pleasure from bringing down prey; that's why the popular sport of hunting exists, which according to you is impossible to exist because humans don't enjoy 'the thrill of the chase'. Just because something is widely repulsive doesn't mean it's unnatural. The sight of somebody else having a shit is disgusting to me, but just like vomiting these disgusting processes are something entirely natural, and don't in any way indicate that vile things are not what humans are designed for.

If humans really aren't designed to be natural predators then would PETA like to explain to me why the eyes on humans face in a forward direction similar to most carnivores? Would they also like to explain how humans have a relatively high level of intelligence that's similar to the majority of omnivores? How about why humans have been selected to be bipedal, making them slower than predators that would have otherwise predated on our species? There's just so many physiological arguments that PETA fail to address, and that's because when you look at how humans are evolved it becomes apparent that we're most adapted to be omnivorous. But PETA don't understand that, so now we're going to go through why meat is such an evil creation.

Yeah it's an obvious scientific fact that tumors are a physical impossibility in animals. The reality is that cancer has roughly the same rate of fatalities in wild animals, which is thought to be around 10%. I don't understand how all of these conditions arise from just consuming meat. Admittedly there are well known health risks with overindulging in meat, but that's the same with everything. If health risks really are the issue then why not discourage cigarettes or alcohol for being unnatural, as these luxury items are far more dangerous to a person's health than a slice of meat. And anyway just because something is unhealthy doesn't mean that it's not part of the natural diet. Just look at the giant panda; that's a species that should naturally be a carnivore but has adapted its diet to bamboo. Admittedly that adaptation isn't particularly healthy, but evolution isn't a perfect process. Humans however have successfully adapted to their diet which you even decide to admit in the next paragraph.

No the process of eating meat didn't turn our ancestors into carnivores, rather omnivores, but they sure as hell weren't herbivorous even by your own admission. What you've done is fallen on your own sword there, as you've openly admitted that humans have evolved to become omnivores; why can't you just fucking admit that humans are omnivores? But no, you keep on throwing up bollocks such as how apparently humans were predominantly vegetarian throughout their existence. Bullshit. Studies suggest that the reality is almost certainly the inverse. A leading anthropologist at the University of California states that "I disagree with those who say meat may have been only a marginal food for early humans. I have come to believe that the incorporation of animal matter into the diet played an absolutely essential role in human evolution." (http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/6-14-1999a.html) Turns out that not only are humans perfectly adapted to eating meat as a natural food source, but it's been vital to our very survival. That one piece of evidence alone is enough to prove that this idea of a naturally herbivorous diet couldn't be further from the truth.

Farmers of course are unanimously famous for being millionaires. What a distorted view of history we have here. Just looking at those rural Inuit tribes in the barren arctic landscapes and you can instantly see that despite their diet high in protein, they actually have low incidences of cardiovascular diseases. I like how we've now had to revert to sociological arguments to try and justify what was originally an argument about the natural behaviour of humans. The natural world has nothing to do with socioeconomic conditions, so why PETA are hurling this bullshit at us all of a sudden is an indication that they're out of fabricated lies.

Overall I think it's pretty clear that humans are perfectly fine to eat a diet of meat thanks to thousands of years of evolution. To say that humans are naturally vegetarians completely undermines the mechanism of evolution, and bringing in ethical issues as evidence is irrelevant in a purely scientific debate. Humans are adequately evolved to be omnivorous, and so are perfectly capable to survive without eating meat. To then claim that eating meat is unnatural is a misguided viewpoint that relies on manipulating the truth to carry any weight. So yes, it's perfectly natural for a human to eat meat. It may be true that humans are more adapted to eat a diet consisting of predominantly vegetation, but to say we're not designed to eat meat at all would be a stupid thing to say in a species that can quite clearly flourish under an omnivorous diet. If you really are obsessed with what humans should be naturally doing then please feel free to sell your house and walk around with your bollocks hanging out, because our bodies aren't evolved for housing or clothing either.