Vegetarian types -- not to be offensive, just curious -- why do we have the kind of teeth we have?

Question

Whether you believe evolution, Creation (Genesis version), random intelligent design, or whatever -- why do we have teeth that are VERY useful when it comes to the eating of meat?

Just curious, like I said.

Thanks all!

Answer 1

Complete carnivores tend to have large canines and very small and underdeveloped molars, while herbivores have the opposite (with the exception of teeth needed for defense). Omnivores are somewhere in between. Here's an example: Wolves vs. Raccoon Dogs. Wolves are actually omnivores (they eat predigested greens out of prey's stomach) but not by much. Raccoon dogs are true omnivores; they will eat anything they can get their mouth around. Compared to the wolf, raccoon dogs have smaller canine teeth and larger molars.

Moving on to humans. Humans actually have way more herbivore type teeth than carnivore type teeth. Our teeth are not very effective with regards to ripping apart raw flesh. We also have longer digestive tracts than wolves to digest plant matter. However, we do have front teeth that are somewhat similar to carnivore teeth. On the herbivore/ carnivore spectrum, humans would be somewhere in the middle, perhaps slightly on the herbi side.

From an evolutionary perspective, the ability to eat meat was an important one because it provided a source of protein that was needed to make the evolutionary jump in our brain development. But, now that we are here, there are other facotrs to consider.
However, a debate about the "proper" diet for humans based on anatomical facts leaves out two important factors 1) the ability of humans to obtain nutrients from any source and 2) human's capacity to assign a ethical value to their food due to their intelligence and relative lack of instinct.

1) Humans can get nutrients from just about anything. This enables humans to live in a wide variety of locations. In Papua New Guinea, the traditional staple food was the pulp from the sago palm, a vegetarian high carb food source, with small bits of protein as a supplement (Historically, this semi veg diet is typical of most cultures). Conversely, peoples living in or near the Arctic circle lived primarily off of meat. They are able to survive by consuming the entire animal (getting calcium from bones, etc) which as a whole, contains enough of the necessary nutrients to survive. This would indicate that functionally, humans can survive on just meat (almost) or just plants.

2) You can't really judge a shark for eating meat; this is what defines a shark. Humans however do not have the driving instinct to eat a particular type of food, and the have the intelligence to assign moral values to the food they eat. We have the capacity to think about the ethics of eating meat, and because of this and what was discussed in 1), have the fortune of deciding whether or not to eat meat.

Answer 2

Those that I've seen using the teeth argument to support vegetarianism usually confuse teeth for eating meat with teeth for killing prey. Sure, we don't have a mouth full of sharp pointy teeth, but we do have some pointy teeth and some sharp edged ones.

A human's mouth is designed to process different kinds of food, including meat. We just don't have to use them to kill our prey.

Answer 3

Our teeth aren't particularly useful for meat eating. The species homo sapiens has been characterized by a reduction in dentition, smaller molars, lack of shearing crests, smaller canines, and smaller incisors than the closest primate species, pan and gorilla. That reflects soft, high-calorie foods - fruit is probably the best dietary candidate, as well as cooked foods and insects.

Remember, too, that the human mouth has altered considerably for speech, not just for eating - it's difficult to make broad generalizations about what teeth do when the shape of our mouth, teeth, larynx, etcetera have all been altered so much to make way for increased cephalization and speech.

It was actually really interesting, when I was doing archaeology lab work, years ago, before I went into law, we'd look at human teeth. The canines always had these huge, long roots, and we were always told that this was a sort of evolutionary leftover, back from the time when our species still had large, functional canines.

Answer 4

We humans are just about perfect omnivores. The most intelligent, problem solving animals also tend to be omnivores because they are made to be resourceful (i.e.-pigs, rats, chimps, and dogs). While we are on the subject of chimps, our closest relative, they also go out occasionally and hunt, kill, and eat smaller monkeys and other prey. We were never designed to be solely vegetarians. Even the proboscis monkey evolved a rumen to eat tough plant material like a cow. We did not.

Answer 5

I don't think they're very useful for eating meat... they're perfect for eating plants though. Our teeth wouldn't do a very good job at biting through the hide of say, a deer and then it would be pretty hard chewing through its raw flesh as well. The only reason it's easier for us to eat meat with the teeth we have is because we cook it and that has nothing to do with our teeth or bodies but how we manipulate the meat to make it more suitable for our herbivorous teeth and digestive systems (we can't digest raw meat). That said, our teeth would do just as good a job at chewing cooked human flesh so by your reasoning are we meant to eat humans too?

Answer 6

Well, for example, when I eat an apple, I bite into it with my top front and bottom front teeth, and chew with my back teeth because it goes faster. I am not about to eat an apple with my front teeth... that'll take too long, and plus I will just look silly.

Answer 7

Actually humans have very inefficient teeth when it comes to eating meat. Our teeth tend to be broad and flat, good for grinding and biting through. If you look in nature for animals with teeth like ours, you find herbivores. If you look at an animal that eats meat such as a lion, its teeth are sharp and narrow. These type of teeth are good for slicing and piercing.
And to go off on a tangent if you look at the intestines of carnivores they tend to be shorter in length than those of herbivores. And guess what, humans have a fairly long intestinal system.

Answer 8

Our teeth are perfect for piercing the flesh of ROOTS and VEGETABLES and FRUIT, not animals. Try it. I dare you.
And thn try and tear through a steak without cooking it. Even if you do cook it and cut it into peices and eat it it is not goig to digest well. It's why there's so much colon cancer. The cholesterol's a killer, too.

If you're really interested in reading about why many people do not feel humans were designed to live off of meat other than in emergency situations, please read the following essays:
http://www.celestialhealing.net/physicalveg3.htm
http://www.all-creatures.org/mhvs/nl-2003-wi-meat.html

Answer 9

We have mostly cutting and grinding teeth. We only have 4 "canines", and they are small and not particularly sharp,...perfect for biting into a mango or pear.

Answer 10

Just because someone is vegetarian doesnt mean they think people were not originally intended to eat meat. I accept that people have been built to eat meat. But were we meant to literally torture animals before killing them? And do we STILL need to eat meat? Do we need to put dozens of cows in a small mud patch so that we can have 99 cent cheesburgers? I can not only survive but thrive without eating meat...so I feel no need to be the cause of an animals death.