A common myth told by PETA and is ignorantly repeated today is the claim that humans are unable to digest meat and it therefore putrefies in the colon, causing disease. I believe I may have a special insight on this one based on my unique experiences. We have probably all read the science of human digestion and understand why this statement is erroneous. But I would like to cover this one as living proof, not only that humans digest meat, but we digest it better than any other whole food we eat.
After I lost my intestines, I was left with only about ten inches of small bowel which was formed into a jejunostomy stoma as seen in the image. What you see in that graphic is all of the small intestine I had left. So in essence, I was able to see what passed directly out of the human stomach. It really doesn’t matter even if some doctor backs this erroneous claim, because doctors never deal with ostomies. Emptying of the ostomy bag is a job that even nurses do not perform regularly, but is the job of a “Tech” in a hospital. For those who don’t know, the Tech is person who goes room to room checking and recording blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar.
Aside from checking and recording vitals, the Tech must empty the ostomy bags of intestinal patients. They really don’t check the contents, just the overall volume of output. The output must be matched with the infused fluids to prevent dehydration. Of course, the Techs are terrible at this job and often spill the contents on the patient. Stomach acid burns like hell when it sits on your skin for more than a minute or two (strongly suggesting that it has the ability to break down protein). So more often than not, family members take over the job of ostomy care and recording. In my case, my beloved wife took on the dirty chore. For those that are curious; no, a jejunum or ileum output doesn’t smell like feces (that is a colonostomy), because the jejunum and ileum are before the colon, which houses the bacteria that create the offensive gasses. A jejunostomy or ileostomy output have the smell of vomit, because in reality that’s what it is.
Because I had such an extremely short bowel, my output was very high because no water absorption had taken place. I was fed and hydrated by infusion and could literally live without eating or drinking at all. Because of my excessive output, we had to make a rig that had a hose extending from the ostomy bag that drained into a one gallon jug. Often the hose would get clogged and my wife or sister would have to use a coat hanger wire to unplug it. Now if this vegan pseudoscience is right, we would suspect that the hose was being plugged by pieces of meat.
Never once did we see any solid chunks of meat. I became so curious about this that I once swallowed the largest chunk of meat I could possibly get down without choking. Because of the shortness of my bowel, it only took about twenty minutes for my stomach to empty into the ostomy. Better than two hours later, there were no signs of any meat chunks. What was always clogging the ostomy tube were pieces of vegetables that were not fully chewed.
Entire pieces of olive, lettuce, broccoli florets, grains and seeds were found. Yet, large pieces of fat were never witnessed. As a matter of fact, all the fat from the meat was already emulsified by the bile into solution within the duodenum. Over time, fat would coagulate on the side walls of the ostomy bag, but never were there any solid pieces observed. Certainly we are getting a lot more nutrition from our meat than from our vegetables – unless you can chew your cud several times like a ruminant.
No mammal on earth have enzymes that can break down the cellulose from plant cells. Cellulose membranes can only be ruptured through the mechanics of repetitive grinding and the fermentation of bacteria. Human molars are not flat enough to grind plants very effectively and we don’t have the bacteria necessary for fermentation within our stomachs. Who here has never observed whole corn kernels or nuts in their poop? I raise cattle and even in spite of their large flat molars, the ability to chew their food multiple times, and a host of protozoa in their stomachs, I have seen whole corn kernels in their manure. So, how much can a human really get out of whole grains with ridged molars and a nearly sterile stomach?
Humans have bacterial colonies only within the large intestines, but there is little nutrient absorption within the human colon. Long before meat reaches the colon it has been completely broken down and absorbed. All of the enzymes for breaking down meat protein and fat – pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, lipase and bile are all manufactured by our stomach, liver and pancreas. Most of these enzymes are secreted into the duodenum (the first section of small bowel directly after the stomach). In other words, we have no need for any ingested bacteria or enzymes for meat digestion, but we need plenty of outside help for plant digestion. If this cocktail of gastric juices ever hits your skin, you will know damn well how effectively they begin to break down protein – trust me on that one! The fact that the human digestive system maunufactures every enzyme needed to reduce animal flesh to solution would strongly suggest that we have evolved as an omnivore with a much stronger lean towards meat consumption.
We also have to consider that the doctors were infusing PPIs (Proton Pump inhibitors) mixed in with my TPN in order to suppress my appetite. This is important, because I was completely reducing animal fat and protein to solution with my stomach acid production severely crippled. Lowered acidity also reduces enzyme activity within the stomach. Imagine how much more efficient my stomach is at digesting meat now that I am no longer receiving PPIs. So I am not sure on what science the vegans bases their claim that humans can’t digest meat. As is typical with most vegan propaganda, it’s based on no science at all and was something they literally “pulled out of their ass”. Why people continue to repeat this nonsense without checking its validity is a mystery to me.
There is a condition that late-stage diabetics can suffer called, “Gastroparesis”, where the nerves to their stomach become damaged. As a result, all of the food consumed (not just meat, but everything they eat), does not digest and begins to ferment and putrefy. A man who I met at Jackson Memorial Hospital, who was there to receive a pancreas and liver transplant, and was also a diabetic began to suffer this illness. As a result, he required that a stomach tube be inserted to into his duodenum to infuse a predigested paste for the remainder of his life. Unfortunately, his liver was perforated during the procedure and he ultimately died as a result.
Perhaps some vegan diabetic mistook this symptom of the advanced stages of their disease as proof that the human could not digest meat and that it would putrefy in their intestines, but somehow I doubt that. It would appear to be just more desperate pseudoscience someone at PETA simply pulled out of their ass because they understand that those that want to believe in veganism will accept anything PETA says without further investigation.
It’s quite sad, because vegetarians and vegans can have some valid points about human health (certainly a vegetarian diet is a healthier option than the standard american diet (SAD) of processed crap and junk food), but when they toss out some completely falsifiable and totally fabricated nonsense, like the myth that humans cannot digest meat, no rational thinking person can take them serious and they destroy any credibility they may have had for any of their arguments. PETA does more of a disservice to the vegetarian and vegan agenda, yet vegetarians continue to support them.
This is why I like PETA. As long as they’re the voice for the vegetarian movement, it will never be taken seriously or proliferate. Sometimes I wonder if PETA is not actually funded by the meat industry to sabotage the vegan agenda through the exploitation of women in advertising, funding of eco-terrorism and manufacturing of complete and total pseudoscience. No special interest group would ruin their own credibility in that manner.
(If you want to read more scientific facts about how the human alimentary tract digests meat, J.Stanton has published a detailed breakdown in his post “Does Meat Rot In Your Colon”. Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD wrote an excellent description entitled “The Long Hollow Tube”.)
There are several other erroneous claims that I can expose, based upon my medical experiences. I have these subjects in these other rants:
“The Effect Of Sugar On Arteries”
Now, every time I hear a vegan proclaim that humans can’t digest meat because our stomach acid is too weak, I’ll wish I had some of my gastric juices to pour on them and see how long their epidermal protein can resist being digested.
PETA propaganda will never affect me, because I have seen what actually empties from the human stomach. Here are some other posts I have written concerning more falsifiable and ridiculous pseudoscience created by the likes of PETA:
“Is Meat Eating Causing Global Warming?”
Amazing. Thanks for sharing this.
Nobody can really argue your observations.
Thanks Majkinetor. Some person posting under the name Sssss provided a brilliant argument just a few comments below this. I had hoped they would at least provide us with some funny pseudoscience.
Thanks again
What is your blood type? Curious.
My blood type is A-.
I can see why you want to roar!
Thanks, Janet.
You sir, are a fucking idiot.
What a profound statement. I am in awe.
Hi Wolverine,
Thanks for this blog from Italy.
Keep up this good and useful work!
And don’t mind the morons.
Marco
Thanks Marco. I’m glad to know I have some readers in Italy. I would assume that you have a much broader selection of fresh food there. Here in the U.S. it’s getting hard to find anything that hasn’t had the toxic stink of industrial processing all over it.
In reference to those who have worked to acquire the title; “morons”, I actually find them rather amusing and self-incriminating.
Thanks again for your comment.
Just found your blog and I’m glad I did. Some amazing information here.
Thanks,
Bob
Thanks for stopping by and for the words of encouragement, Bob. I hope you’ll bookmark the site or subscribe to the RSS or email alerts.
Thanks again.
I definitely subscribed to the email announcement and have already posted your article on the dangers of colonoscopies to my facebook page.
Thanks, Bob, for helping to spread the information. I hate the idea of anyone else being injured the way I was by that damned machine – unless it was Katie Couric – then I’d see it as poetic justice or some sort of karma. Of course, I don’t believe in karma, which is why her ass will never be punctured and she could care less how many others are disabled by this snake oil medicine. If she developed colorectal cancer in spite of all the screenings she’s had, it might prove how ineffective they are at finding cancer – but I’m sure that GE damage control would have a thousand ad hoc excuses given by a host of media whore doctors (like Oz) that the public would buy hook, line and sinker.
Thanks again.
i also like J Stanton’s @ writing a great deal,
stay well!
J. Stanton has some great information at his site Gnolls. He has a very direct approach to delivering comprehensive facts. A great site.
Hope your father is staying well.
do you have an IBD possibly, if not why did you have parts of your intestine removed? I have crohn’s myself so I am really curious. also thanks for this this my friend is going vegan because she watched a documentary about meat giving us cancer. Odd, considering my 108 great-grandmother ate meat,and my 96 year old grandmother and my 93 year old grandfather and my 93 year old great grandfather, weird( I think she is secretly doing it just to lose weight) and also that besides that fact it might give you cancer she has no other moral reason to do so.
I had a type of IBD, Ulcerative Colitis, but that is not how I lost my bowels. Unlike Crrohn’s, which can affect the entire digestive tract, UC is isolated to the colon.
I lost my bowels due to the incompetence of a group of doctors. A gastroeterologist attempted a colonoscopy and perforated the colon. He and another group of doctors ignored my complaints of pain for nearly 4 days. In that time of massive hemorrhaging, a partial occlusion formed in the superior mesenteric artery – and again, the doctors failed to diagnose it for more than a week. The bood flow was severely decreased to the intestines and all of my bowels became ischemic.
Vegans use lots of scare tactics to get people to change to their lifestyle. Most of the time they know nothing that they claim to. There are no links to meat causing cancer. Some processed meats can contain carcinogenic chemicals, but in very low doses. This is why I stray away from processed meats (Spam, cold cuts, hot dogs, etc.). Fresh meat will never give anyone cancer.
They can claim all the health benefits they wish, but in the real world, the healthiest people I know are not vegan. But, some of the sickest people I know are. They go to the doctors more often and take way more medications and supplements. That’s funny, most of the people I know that went vegan for a while gained weight, mostly due to the high amount of starchy food – a lot of carbohydrates.
Sorry to hear about your Crohn’s Disease. I met a few people the suffered Crohn’s and were getting transplants at the time I was. It is a horrible disease. Try avoiding wheat and products made from wheat. Gluten is very rough on the intestinal walls. I still have 20 inches of native colon which I was able to spare by giving up wheat.
This is interesting to read and I think it’s incredible that what you’ve gone through.
I do think you’re being unfair to veggies and the like though, because as you state yourself you are missing the rest of the digestive tract which does take care of the broccoli and such. And those things are quite healthy for us and there are great nutrients extracted from them farther in the digestive process. The stomach is only one part of a long system. Now if we all had all types of whole veggies in our poop (not just the corn kernels) – that might be something to consider.
Hi Sara, thanks for commenting. You seem to have missed the point of the article completely. The point of the post was not to denigrate vegetables as a food source, but rather to counter the ignorant and deceitful claim by vegans that humans cannot digest meat. According to vegan pseudoscience, meat is indigestible by humans and putrefies in the colon. Although vegetables are an important source of many nutrients and a healthy part of a good diet, humans actually digest meat more efficiently than vegetables.
Your claim that the intestines contain enzymes to digest every part of vegetation, like broccoli, is not accurate. There are many indigestible carbohydrates within vegetables and though some of them can be broken down by colonic bacteria, humans do not have a high rate of absorption from the colon and the resulting butyric acid is mostly used locally by the cells of the colon and only about 10% is absorbed.
The parts of the intestines that I was missing are mostly used for absorption, not digestion. (I now have a complete digestive system due to the transplant). As a matter of fact, for a year after my transplant, my stoma was relocated at the end of the ileum (just before the colon) rather than the end of the duodenum (that’s over 20 more feet). Yet, I still found whole pieces of vegetables in the ostomy. The level of nutrition that we receive from most vegetables are contingent on how well they are cooked and chewed. Other than colonic bacteria, humans have absolutely no enzymes that can break-down plant cellulose (they must be mechanically broken by chewing).
This is why ruminant animals have multiple chambered stomachs and chew their cud several times. If the human digestive tract could so efficiently break down vegetation as you suggested, then why would ruminants have evolved such a large and energy gobbling digestive tract? A sheep’s ratio of small intestines is more than 3 times that of a human and uses a much larger ratio of their energy intake to operate and maintain. Explain to me why they evolved four stomachs if the tiny human intestine could do the trick – and why do they have such a large cecum, whereas the human cecum is almost non-existent?
I’m not sure where you got the idea that I was suggesting that vegetables are not good for us? I eat plenty of vegetables. Because vegetables are so difficult to digest, I ferment a lot of my vegetables to get more out of them. Humans get more nutrition from well cooked or fermented vegetables than raw. Most vegetables are indigestible to humans in their raw state and most grains are down-right toxic to humans in their raw state, because of the high level of lectins and phytates.
I’m not sure what you meant by saying I’m not fair to vegetables? Everything I stated in the article is scientific fact – and science and the truth doesn’t really care what is “politically correct” or what someone “wants to believe”. Even if you were right and there was something else further down the intestines that broke down vegetables (there isn’t), that would not change the fact that the meat was digested long before the vegetables – therefore, easier to digest and higher in available nutrients.
I don’t know any vegans who believe that the human body can’t digest meat. Your argument presents a straw man logical fallacy. Of course the human body can digest meat. I don’t deny that and most people don’t, but it’s an inarguable fact that the human body does not digest meat as efficiently as a traditionally carnivorous animal can. Our bodies do not have the physiological trademarks of traditional carnivores.
There is no straw many fallacy here, but your argument is certainly an argument from ignorance fallacy. Just because you are ignorant of the claim does not mean it has never been made. I have heard many vegans make this claim and according to my statistics on search engine terms, many people find my article while searching the phrase “can humans digest meat” every day, so they are also hearing this from somewhere.
One the flip side of your argument, humans do not digest vegetation as well as ruminant animals either, because we are not herbivores, but are omnivores. Humans do synthesize all of the enzymes necessary to digest meat, unlike total herbivores, who do not. My observation in undeniable. All of the meat that I consumed was completely reduced to liquid by the time it exited the duodenum, yet many pieces of whole vegetables were undigested. I’m not sure why that’s not efficient enough for you.
You act as though all carnivores digest meat with the same efficiency – nothing could be further from the truth. Cats are better suited for softer organs and muscles, whereas canines have the ability to digest much tougher cartilage and bone. Crocodilians have such powerful stomach acid that they can digest bone, horns, antlers and hooves. My post is hardly a straw man fallacy when you, yourself are claiming that we do not digest meat very well and my claim is that we digest it very well. How is completely reducing it to liquid before it reaches the small bowels not very efficient? According to your claim, there should have been some parts of the meat still undigested in the ostomy bag – there wasn’t.
You are the one with the straw man fallacy by trying to make the argument that I claimed that humans were carnivores. Where in this article did I make such a claim? Human beings are omnivores and can adapt to eating many different foods. Inuit people have proven that humans can thrive on animal products alone, if necessary.
This article is garbage. And of course there were whole pieces of lettuce and plant matter coming out the stomach. Most of our digestion is done in our stomach. The acids in out stomach do a great job breaking down proteins. When that animal protein liquid goes into the rest of the GI tract after the stomach it turns into a thick sludge. Which can hinder overall digestion. Bit saying we can eat meat. We surely can. But our diet should be based on plant spruces more so than animal sources.
So let me get this straight – the stomach does a great job breaking down animal proteins but upon leaving the stomach it becomes a thick sludge (that I presume is indigestible). Does it make any sense that the stomach would do a great job digesting a food that we’re genetically adapted to eat and is loaded with nutrients and the remainder of the digestive system can’t handle the food. I’m not one to be critical of people but your comment is stupid – appallingly stupid. And the grammatical and spelling errors make it nearly unreadable.
Great info, Bob. Thanks for blowing some fresh air into the stench that wafted this way. Trolls can be irritating.
Thanks for attempting to leave a comment. I believe that Bob was being very polite saying your comment was nearly unreadable. As much as a wanted to understand your comment it was completely incoherent. All spelling and grammar aside, the science (or lack of) didn’t seem to align with any biochemistry known to modern man.
The substance exiting the stomach is called “chyme”, not “sludge”. Can you site any studies that prove that the chyme containing animal proteins and fats are indigestible, or more accurately, inabsorbable? Because it makes absolutely no sense. Once exiting the duodenum, which is where all the pancreatic enzymes and bile are secreted, the protein chains have been reduced to simple amino acids. Amino acids from plants are no different from those of animals. So why would animal amino acids be less absorbable? An amino acid is an amino acid – plant or animal.
You admit that animal proteins are properly digested in the stomach and duodenum (If you know what that is), but then say they cannot be digested further down the bowels. This is absurd, because little to no digestion takes place beyond the duodenum – only absorption. The jejunum and ileum are filled with villi, which are predominantly for absorption of nutrients from the cyme. Your science is quite flawed and it is obvious that you WANT to believe something, but have no biological knowledge or evidence to back it up. Read a biology book on digestion and take a course in English and then come back and we can debate this intelligently.
The issue with the plant proteins was that a percentage of them were not efficiently broken down in the stomach and duodenum. What vegetable protein had been thoroughly chewed and digested would be absorbed. Problem is, humans cannot thoroughly chew our food as well as a ruminant, therefore much of the nutrients contained within the cellulose are never digested – this is why people find whole kernels of corn in there crap. You never find whole pieces of meat in your stool, do you?
Both animal and plant nutrients are good for us, the fact of the matter is that we are better designed, by nature, to extract nutrients more efficiently from animal cells (because the cell walls are more permeable than cellulose). Your argument did nothing to prove that our diet should be predominantly plant based, other than you saying so at the end of your ridiculous rant about sludge. Please show us some scientific evidence, outside of some claim on PETAs website (who are not scientists by any stretch), that may substantiate your thesis.
I know what I saw coming out of my stoma. I fail to see how my small intestine could absorb those whole pieces of vegetation, yet is was easy to see how they would have absorbed the animal protein and fat which had been reduced to a yellowish colored liquid, which I would not define as a “sludge”. I have a very highly intelligent readership and they demand scientific evidence, not vegan propaganda, to support dietary claims.