Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Do healthy, high fruit eating animals exist who also have similar digestive mechanics as humans?

For example, while grass-eaters like cows can live on grass, humans should not be expected to since grass eaters have bigger and more sophisticated guts.

I'm wondering if there are animals with similar gut morphology and functionality as a human's gut, who also consume high amounts of fruit. I'm also wondering what those animal's health is like. If they're typically healthy, might that then suggest humans could do OK on high fruit intakes?

If there are healthy animals with similar gut's to humans who also eat high fruit, is there any other reason to think that the healthfulness of those animals could not also apply to humans eating similarly high-fruit diets?

flag	asked Feb 10 2012 at 0:28 free3337 2,373●7●13

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Bears eat a ton of fruit in summer/fall but they also add tons of fat (not just from fruit, of course.) – Nance Feb 10 2012 at 0:33

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I suggest looking into the diet of the island people of Vanuatu. They eat a relatively high amount of fruit and the people are in amazing health. They do not however eat grains, vegetable oils, or dairy and they consume plenty coconut. – josh Feb 10 2012 at 0:36

If you use the search box using "fructose" there are many interesting threads but none are a direct answer for your question. – Nance Feb 10 2012 at 0:39

@Nance But do those bears have similar digestive systems as humans? – free3337 Feb 10 2012 at 3:32

Bread-Eating Beelzebub · Answer 1 · 2012-02-10 03:59:23Z UTC

No, there is no animal with a gut like a human. I guess the gibbon at least has a similar gut-brain size ratio, but the colon is much larger. The human species is pretty unique among primates: alt text

As far as other types of mammals

from beyondveg.com alt text So there are some similarities, but some huuuuuge differences too. Plus stomach acidity and gut bacteria are going to be different too. It's pretty hilarious looking at them though because I always see vegetarian sites saying that meat-eating animals have short digestive tracts. Um, look at that bear one!

And even if there were

http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-5a.shtml "The authors attempt to substantiate the correlation between diet and gastrointestinal morphology among a series of Primates; they conclude that the distinctions are not so obvious as in other orders and in most cases do not permit reliable conclusions to be drawn, while in some cases the evidence is contradictory."

Matt · Answer 2 · 2012-02-10 04:18:22Z UTC

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I've always heard that pigs have very similar digestive systems to humans. Heck, their dentition is also reminiscent of humans. Not fruit eaters though.

answered Feb 10 2012 at 4:18

Matt
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	they may not be fruit eaters, but they do eat fruit? they love apples. you can even watch on youtube. i'm guessing in the wild they would go for low hanging fruit & fruit lying on the ground. doesn't the saying go that pigs will eat anything – daz Feb 10 2012 at 4:34
	They do. They're foragers, so they'd eat fallen fruit. Heck my goats (ruminants) love apples, banana peels, whole lemons, etc... – Matt Feb 10 2012 at 18:01

Soccertanker · Answer 3 · 2012-02-10 00:42:21Z UTC

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Loads of primates eat tons of fruit and vegetables and are extremely healthy. If you look at this, you'll notice that, in general, gorillas eat a diet of about 2/3 fruit! It's pretty exciting.

answered Feb 10 2012 at 0:42

Soccertanker
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So that huge gut is needed to process 1/3 of their intake? Fascinating! – Nance Feb 10 2012 at 0:44

Travis Culp · Answer 4 · 2012-02-10 01:12:58Z UTC

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I think bonobos and chimps are what you're looking for. I think their flesh intake is something like 5% or less.

http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/pagegen/inc/ACConklin.pdf

answered Feb 10 2012 at 1:12

Travis Culp♦
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Do healthy high fruit eating animals with similar digestive mechanics as humans exist?

4 Answers