# Are humans meat eaters or vegetarians by nature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 4, 2008, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians-by-nature/455326 "2008-07-04T22:24:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians-by-nature/455326/121 "2008-07-15T00:47:08Z")
[QUOTE=BMalion] > [@Baldwin](#): > > Hippos eat more people than lions do. Is anyone else hearing the “hungry hungry hippo!” jingle in their head? [/QUOTE] No, because I originally misread it as “ **Hippies** eat more people than lions do” and now I find it difficult to read the sentence with its original intent. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians-by-nature/455326/122 "2008-07-15T00:53:18Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] “ **Hippies** eat more people than lions do” [/QUOTE] Well, back when I was in college, all the guys believed this was true of hippie chicks! ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians-by-nature/455326/123 "2008-07-15T01:36:59Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] And regarding your well-researched data, I’m now curious what effect the vegan diet of the mother has on the protein content of breast-milk. Should she be eating more protein during and in the months after her pregnancy so she can pass it on to her child? [/QUOTE] [This cite](http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F174e/8F174E04.htm) that I used earlier goes over nutrients in Gambian women’s breast milk that are low in the diet there. It also mentions Dutch children who were weaned onto a macrobiotic diet needing breast milk for fat and vitamin A because of the relatively low levels of those nutrients in the weaning diet. The nutritional value of breast milk is usually pretty stable for the macronutrients. If the mother’s diet isn’t good, then the nutrients will get cannibalized from her body. Obviously, this isn’t all that good for the mother, at least while she’s nursing a lot. It’s one of those evolutionary trade-offs; an adult can tolerate a nutritional shortage much better than an infant. Lacto-ovo vegetarians probably don’t have any problems meeting their requirements for macronutrients, and should be okay for A, D, and B12 probably even without supplementation. Vegans, on the other hand, are cautioned to [be sure to supplement](http://www.ehow.com/how_13202_vegetarian-diet-breast.html) for those particular vitamins, along with calcium, iron and zinc, and to be sure to eat foods that help with calcium absorption. DHA seems to be of particular concern because it’s usually very low in vegan breast milk, and is vital for brain and eye development. I found another page from a [vegan organization](http://www.vegansociety.com/people/lifestyle/families/parenting/vegan_children/) that goes over nutrition requirements for infants and children in some detail, and a [transcript of a seminar](http://www.vrg.org/family/adatranscript.htm) at another vegan website. You may want to view those with a bit of skepticism since they are possibly biased toward minimizing the perceived risks of vegetarianism. On the other hand, the tone of the vegetarian organizations is a little softer than [this NYT op-ed piece](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) I found when looking for cites. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians-by-nature/455326/124 "2008-07-15T13:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] No, because I originally misread it as “ **Hippies** eat more people than lions do” and now I find it difficult to read the sentence with its original intent. [/QUOTE] Damned hippies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians-by-nature/455326.md?page=6)