I mean, in the wild the primary hunting would be animals with fatty meats, right? So why digestion isn’t optimized?
In: Biology
We’re not carnivores. Our digestive systems aren’t set up to digest large amounts of meat. We digest meat just fine if we get a little time to do it. But it is slower than digesting many other things. So if you stuff yourself with meat and then eat more things on top of that, you’ll get bloated simply because you’re filling yourself up faster than your digestive system can process.
An obligate carnivore, ie. an animal that evolved to eat nothing but meat, will digest meat a lot faster than we will.
Frankly, the problem isn’t so much with eating meat but the ridiculous portion sizes people eat these days. with live in such luxury that we glut ourselves every day. That’s causing a whole new set of problems.
Sugars and fat are what our bodies use to store energy. Sugar, especially, is used for quick, short-term storage. Carbs, of course are a form of sugar.
Protein is used to perform functions, such as acting as muscle. When it is formed by the pig’s body, it isn’t with the intention of it being broken down for fuel later on.
Given this, what else would you expect other than for our bodies to use something that is easy to break down into energy for energy storage? It’s like asking why it’s more difficult to scrap a car engine for parts than it is to siphon gas out of the tank.