You may be wondering what a frugivore is exactly. A frugivore is a creature who is biologically best-fit for eating a fruit-rich diet of whole plant foods. Carnivores are creatures who are biologically best-fit for eating raw flesh. Herbivores are creatures who are biologically best-fit for eating grasses and plant foliage. Insectivores are creatures who are biologically best-fit for eating insects. And frugivores, like us are perfectly adapted for dining on sweet fleshy fruits, seeds, starchy plant roots, and soft leaves. You may be wondering how I am so sure I am a frugivore. You may be questioning your own nature as a frugivore. After all, you likely grew up with everyone from your parents and teachers to your doctor and dentist telling you that you are a natural meat-eater and milk-drinker. I came to know that I am a frugivore, and you are one too, by observing nature and by studying human physiology and nutrition. Evidence Of Our Frugivore Nature:
Upright posture: Only frugivores stand on two legs. This position is ideal for picking fruit and berries off high branches. This position is not ideal for chasing down animal prey or dining on grass all day. True carnivores and herbivores, who are mammals like us, typically walk on four legs.
Complex hands with opposable thumbs: Human hands are perfectly designed for plucking ripe fruits and berries and tending gardens. However, we lack claws needed to kill prey (like many
carnivores possess).
Teeth: Our teeth are rather blunt and flat, perfect for mashing soft fruits and chewing crunchy roots and leaves. Our teeth most resemble those of other frugivores in the primate family. Again, we lack razor-sharp teeth of true carnivores that are capable of ripping apart raw flesh.
We are primates: Most primates are frugivores too! Almost all primates eat primarily whole plant foods. For the primates that eat bugs, these usually are a minor part of their diet.
Sweet tooth: Many people believe they have a “sweet tooth” but this is simply their instinctive craving for carbohydrate-rich sweet juicy fruits. Once their diet has an ample amount of fresh fruit, people find they stop craving processed sugar because their biological requirement for healthy carbohydrates is being fulfilled.
Digestive enzymes: Your saliva has enzymes for digesting carbohydrates, yet we lack digestive
enzymes that are present in carnivores for breaking down flesh. The fact that humans must cook meat to make it digestible, and heavily season it with plants to make it palatable, speaks volumes about our dietary nature.
Gut shape and size: The length of your gut says you are a frugivore! While carnivore’s have shorter digestive tracts and larger stomachs (that can fit a whole carcass!) human digestive tracts are built just like other primates who eat diets of primarily plants with loads of fresh fruit.
Instincts towards animals: If your instinct is to cuddle a bunny, rather than sink your teeth into it and taste its blood, than this should tell you something about your natural diet. No animal is repelled by its natural food source. Being attracted to our natural food source is critical for our survival, as it is for other creatures today and throughout time immemorial.
Instincts towards raw meat: The human senses are turned off by raw animals carcasses. Just as
humans do not have the natural impulse to sink our teeth or claws into a live animal for our next meal, we lack a natural impulse to eat a dead animal unless it is heavily processed and disguised from its natural form and taste. Meat must be both cooked and heavily seasoned before it appeals to a human.
Attraction to fruit: There’s a good reason fruit is the center of many tables and the focus of many art-works, humans naturally love to look at fruit. It is attractive to us precisely because it is our natural human diet we are physiologically and psychologically designed for.
