Meat has probably been a more or less integral part of the human diet for millions of years. Even today, huge amounts of meat are still eaten around the world. In Germany alone, around 760 million individual animals are slaughtered every year. That equates to around 2 million animals per day. Thanks to scientific findings, it is no longer a secret that reducing our meat consumption as a human race not only has positive effects on the protection and preservation of the environment and nature, but also on our health. However, since our ancestors ate meat in earlier times, many people today still believe that meat consumption is essential for the human body. 

How essential or non-essential meat really is for our body can be quickly determined by taking a closer look at the anatomical structure of our human body and comparing it with other living beings. When comparing the bodies, especially the jaw and digestive tract, of a herbivorous and a carnivorous creature, clear differences can be seen. 

Carnivorous animals have long, sharp teeth that are used to tear raw meat apart, not to actually chew it, but to more or less simply swallow it. The mobility of the jaw of carnivorous animals is also adapted to this purpose, which is why the jaw of carnivorous animals can basically only be opened and closed. Lateral movements that serve to grind and chop food are not possible with this type of jaw. 

Herbivorous animals, on the other hand, have predominantly flat, wide and blunt teeth that serve to chew and chop plant food well. The jaw of herbivorous animals is also adapted to this purpose and can be moved sideways in addition to opening and closing to enable thorough chewing and grinding of plant food. 

If you now look at the human jaw, you will see that due to its teeth and the mobility of the jaw, it is designed to process mainly plant food. If you look at the rest of the digestive tract, it becomes increasingly clear which food the human body actually prefers. 

The digestive tract of carnivorous animals is about 2-3 times the length of that animal's body. 

The digestive tract of herbivorous animals is about 5-6 times the length of the animal's body. 

The human digestive tract is about 7-11 meters long, which is about 5-6 times the length of our body. 

Today it is a proven fact that if you put meat in this type of digestive tract, it passes through it very slowly. Raw meat, for example, takes about 72 hours to pass through the human body. Cooked or fried meat still takes about 52 hours to pass through our body. A raw fruit, on the other hand, passes through our body in 1.5 - 3 hours. 

So eating meat causes a lot of effort and resistance in our body, because the human body is not really designed to consume meat on a regular basis. If you still eat meat on a regular basis, the body will somehow cope with it, but it will not be able to function at the highest level with this type of food. Predominantly plant-based food is what the human body can process best, what most promotes its functions, and what it was ultimately designed for. 

However, it is not a made-up story, that our ancestors ate more or less meat many years ago. But we should not forget why they ate that way. Our ancestors did not eat meat because they thought it was the kind of food they needed, let alone because they liked the taste of meat, but simply because they had to survive. Our ancestors lived in a time when their survival was not yet assured and their only concern as humans was basically how to survive. 

When one's survival is at stake, one must not think about what to eat or not to eat, but eat what one can eat. So meat may be a good food for mere survival, but it is not a good food for those who have many other options to choose from. 

Today, our survival has been assured for generations and our overall human aspirations and consciousness have evolved tremendously. If this is the case and our survival is assured, then we should definitely make wiser choices in our diet. We now have the freedom to not just eat to somehow get through the winter and live to be 30 at best, as was the case with our ancestors, but we can choose a diet that suits us best and that allows us to reach the full potential of our possibilities. If this is our aspiration, then meat, especially in the form in which it is consumed today, is by far one of the worst things we can eat.