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Carnivore or Omnivore or Bit of Both?

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Not Satisfied with Cultural, Religious, Sexual, Race Classifications etc. we muddle the water with Dietary Classifications as well

It has become normal for meat eating humans to refer to themselves as Carnivore. The definition of Carnivore and scientific listing of which animals are Carnivore DOES NOT include humans.

Humans are classified as Omnivore.

Witness the Wikipedia definition for both:

An omnivore is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed. Often, they have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into their diet.

A carnivore, meaning “meat eater”, is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging. Animals that depend solely on animal flesh for their nutrient requirements are called obligate carnivores while those that also consume non-animal food are called facultative carnivores.

Tongue in cheek Carnivore Types:

  • Strict – No plants shall touch these lips
  • Picky – Just Beef, Just Pork, Just Lamb, Just Chicken
  • Wild – Only Game
  • Domestic – Cute and Cuddly baby meat only
  • Hyena – Anything goes from toes to nose
  • CS – Carnivore Salad (chicken) only
  • Middle East – Only animals that have had their throats cut and bled for a while whilst a guy prays. No swine.
  • Raw – Not to be confused with Hyena. Only the best meat raw (bilting, steak tartare, dry wors).
  • Ethical Carnivore – Hunts, Slaughters and Butchers on own land and premises for own consumption
  • Infant – Milk and blood mix
  • Highbrow – Brains only

Any others?

Facts about Carnivores:

There Are 15 Basic Carnivore Families: The canid and felid carnivores are divided into 15 families. The canids include Canidae (wolves, dogs, and foxes), Mustelidae (weasels, badgers, and otters), Ursidae (bears), Mephitidae (skunks), Procyonidae (raccoons), Otariidae (earless seals), Phocidae (eared seals), Ailuridae (red pandas), and Odobenidae (walruses). The felids include Felidae (lions, tigers, and cats), Hyaenidae (hyenas), Herpestidae (mongooses), Viverridae (civets), Prionodontidae (Asiatic linsangs), and Eupleridae (small mammals of Madagascar).

Carnivores Can Only Move Their Jaws up and Down: When you watch a dog or cat eat, you may be intrigued (or vaguely repulsed) by the sloppy, chomping, up-and-down motion of its jaws. You can attribute this to the characteristic shape of the carnivoran skull: The jaws are positioned, and the muscles are attached, in such a way as to disallow side-by-side movement. One positive thing about the arrangement of the carnivoran skull is that it allows for a larger brain than other mammals, which is why cats, dogs, and bears, as a whole, tend to be much smarter than goats, horses, and hippos.

All Carnivores Descend From a Common Ancestor: As far as paleontologists can tell, all carnivores alive today—ranging from cats and dogs to bears and hyenas—are ultimately descended from Miacis, a small mammal that lived in western Europe about 55 million years ago, only 10 million years after the dinosaurs had gone extinct. There were mammals before Miacis—these animals evolved from therapsid reptiles during the late Triassic period—but the tree-dwelling Miacis was the first to be equipped with the characteristic teeth and jaws of carnivorans, and served as a blueprint for later carnivoran evolution.

Carnivores Have Relatively Simple Digestive Systems: As a general rule, plants are much more difficult to break down and digest than fresh meat—which is why the guts of horses, hippos, and elks are packed with yards upon yards of intestines, and often more than one stomach (as in ruminant animals like cows). By contrast, carnivores have relatively simple digestive systems with shorter, more compact intestines and a higher stomach-volume to intestine-volume ratio. (This explains why your house cat throws up after eating grass; its digestive system simply isn’t equipped to process the fibrous proteins of plants.)

Prominent types of veganism include:

  • Dietary vegans. Often used interchangeably with “plant-based eaters,” this term refers to those who avoid animal products in their diet but continue to use them in other products, such as clothing and cosmetics.
  • Whole-food vegans. These individuals favor a diet rich in whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
  • Junk-food vegans. Some people rely heavily on processed vegan food, such as vegan meats, fries, frozen dinners, and desserts, including Oreo cookies and non-dairy ice cream.
  • Raw-food vegans. This group eats only foods that are raw or cooked at temperatures below 118°F (48°C) (22Trusted Source).
  • Low-fat, raw-food vegans. Also known as fruitarians, this subset limits high-fat foods, such as nuts, avocados, and coconuts, instead relying mainly on fruit. Other plants are occasionally eaten in small amounts.

Vegans avoid all foods of animal origin.

These include:

  • Meat
  • Chicken
  • Fish
  • Shellfish
  • Eggs
  • Dairy
  • Honey

Vegans avoid any animal-derived ingredients, such as albumin, casein, carmine, gelatin, pepsin, shellac, isinglass, and whey.

Foods containing these ingredients include some types of beer and wine, marshmallows, breakfast cereals, gummy candies, and chewing gum.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.