{"id":275,"date":"2019-07-03T22:47:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T02:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=275"},"modified":"2022-04-12T21:56:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T01:56:54","slug":"are-humans-omnivores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/are-humans-omnivores\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Humans Omnivores, Herbivores, or Carnivores?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are humans omnivores, carnivores, or herbivores? Do we eat everything naturally, and are humans omnivores by nature? See what science says about the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The answer is simple: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans evolved as omnivores<\/strong>. This is reflected in the design of our teeth (we can eat both plants and meat), our brain capacity for observation and memory, and adaptations such as hunting and cooking.
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Being an omnivore as a human is an advantage that has enabled humans to survive in many different environments. But it presents a challenge. Because we can eat almost anything, we must continually make choices.<\/strong>
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Because humans are omnivores, in the early days of human evolution<\/a>, eating the wrong thing might kill you or make you sick, so the decision was crucial and fraught with anxiety. Besides deciding what was safe, humans as omnivores also needed to determine which foods provided the most energy. 
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In contrast, animals that are \u201cspecialized eaters\u201d don\u2019t have to think about what to eat because they only eat one thing, For example, a koala eats only eucalyptus leaves. A monarch butterfly eats only milkweed.
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Humans are omnivores, and we developed some evolutionary tools to help us decide what to eat. They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n