Why do humans need to eat plants and fruits to be healthy, but large carnivores (Tigers, Lions, etc.) don’t?

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Why do humans need to eat plants and fruits to be healthy, but large carnivores (Tigers, Lions, etc.) don’t?

In: Biology

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Lots of things to consider here:

1. We have an intellectualized idea of “health” that is riddled with _values_, not survival. From an evolutionary perspective “health” means you live long enough and well enough to have babies that can grow up to have babies. From this vantage point you (human) don’t need to eat a well balanced diet and can get all your needed nutrients from meat. The large cat isn’t thinking to themselves “how do I make sure I feel good and and can live to see my grandkids” and then altering their behaviors.
2. Without cooking, vegetable nutrition is largely unavailable to a cat – just not what they are built for. Even for humans, energy efficiency of (within the human, not total environmental system) is really bad for raw vegetables – we work really hard to get a little nutrition. This is why all the energy spent on a hunt is actually less NET energy than is often required for “gathering” in the hunter-gatherer society. Agriculture changed the game, allowing us to produce massive amounts of vegetables, then cook them and get a major boost in the “ROI” of eating vegetables. Cats don’t do any of that, although cooking vegetables does make some nutrition available to their system.

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