Powered By Plants
 |
Powered By Plants counters the claim that meat-eating uniquely drove human evolution by reviewing a large amount of evidence that a plant-based diet powered human evolution. Challenging all carnists – including anthropologists and advocates of low-carbohydrate, 'paleo,' and 'carnivore' diets who claim that meat-eating made us human, and is both essential and beneficial to human health – Powered By Plants lays out the abundant evidence that we have numerous heritable anatomical, |
physiological, and biochemical features primarily adapted to acquisition, digestion, or metabolism of whole plant foods, and lack the heritable features expected as evidence of evolution dependent upon and primarily driven by meat consumption.
In Powered By Plants I perform a thorough survey of human biology from head-to-toe, and, citing hundreds of scientific references that provide evidence that our sensory, locomotive, manual, digestive, and reproductive systems, and our nutrient metabolism, all have features primarily adapted to a whole foods plant-based diet.
When printed double-sided on 8.5" x 11" paper, Powered By Plants has 326 pages. The text is 12 point Times font. It includes 900 footnotes. The Bibliography is 21 pages long printed in single-spaced 10 point Times font and includes more than 300 sources.
Here is the Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements x
Note To The Reader xi
Introduction xii
Part I: Natural Selection & Nutrition 1
1: Human Evolution & Nutrition 3
The Stone Age Red Herring 3
Reproductive Fitness vs. Health 4
Fossil Diet Records? 4
Meat Made Us Human? 5
Going Underground 11
Control of Fire 12
Hunting a Learned Behavior 14
Accelerated Evolution 15
Summary 15
2: The Nature of Nutritional Adaptations 17
The Carnivore Ideology 18
Plants vs Animals and Plant-eaters vs Carnivores 19
Omnivore Or Not? 20
Two Kinds of Omnivores 20
Natural Selection of Nutritional Adaptations 22
Biological Versus Behavioral Adaptations 25
Primates 27
Frugivores 29
Summary 30
Part II: Human Nutritional Physiology 32
3: Sensation and Nutrition 33
Vision 34
Hearing 36
Olfaction 37
Taste 38
Fat Taste 43
The Taste For Liver 45
Behavioral Adaptations 46
Summary 46
4: Locomotion 48
Stance 48
Human Stance 49
Bipedalism Not Optimal for Hunting 50
Bipedalism Originated In Forest-Dwelling Frugivores 50
Locomotion, Speed, and Endurance 52
Energy Cost of Locomotion 53
Persistence Hunting 53
Behavioral and Technological Circumvention of Our Locomotive Limits 61
Summary 62
5: Manual Endowments 64
Manual Dexterity and Tactile Sense 64
Hand and Brain 65
Manual Dexterity and Manufacture of Hunting Tools 66
Claws Versus Nails 68
6: Face, Mouth, and Throat 70
Facial Musculature, Jaws, and Throat 70
Teeth 71
Human Dentition In Comparison To Other Extant Apes 72
Canine Teeth 73
Dental Shearing Quotient 75
Dental Carbon Isotope Studies 79
Tropical Grasses, Tools, and Teeth 81
Megadontia Quotient 82
Another Kluge? 83
Comparative Oral Anatomy 84
A Mastication Experiment 84
Saliva 85
Salivary Proline-Rich Proteins 87
Summary 88
7: Stomach 90
Stomach Volume 90
Stomach Acidity 92
Scavenging 94
Summary 95
8: Small Intestine 96
Comparative Intestinal Length 97
Intestinal Immunity 99
The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis 100
A Plant Food Ceiling? Pandas, and Fiber in Wild Versus Cultivated Plants 102
Plant Food Ceiling Part 2: Modern Raw Dieters 110
Plant-Food Ceiling Part 3: Simian Diet Trials 116
Small Intestine Length and Obesity 118
9: Cecum and Appendix 121
The Cecum 121
The Appendix 122
Summary 123
10: Colon 124
Comparing Colons 124
Intestinal Ecology 125
Flora, Fiber, and Fats 127
Colon Health 129
Summary 130
11: Reproductive System 132
Seminal Vesicles 132
Placenta 132
Morning Sickness 132
Fertility 134
Animal Flesh and Female Infertility 135
High Protein Diets Potentially Toxic To Fetus 137
Meat and Male Infertility 138
Summary 142
12: Protein Requirements 143
Natural Selection of Protein Requirements 143
Human Protein Requirements 144
Plant-Based Protein 146
Plant-Based Protein For Athletes 148
Wild Plants Could Satisfy Human Protein Needs 153
Methionine and Cystine 154
Summary 157
13: Vitamin C, Uricase, and Uric Acid 158
Gout In Traditional Meat-Based Cultures 160
Contemporary Diet-Gout Research 162
Summary 168
14: Complexion Preference 169
Complexion, Vascularization, Oxygenation, and Diet in Humans 169
Summary 171
15: Vitamins A & B-12 172
Comparing Human Carotenoid Metabolism To Flesh-Eating Animals 172
Comparing Human Retinol Metabolism To Flesh-Eating Animals 174
Human Vitamin B12 Metabolism Compared to Flesh-Eating Animals 176
Humans Absorption of Animal-Based B12 Appears Limited 177
Non-animal B12 Sources 178
Is a B12 Supplement ‘Artificial’? 181
Summary 181
16: Carbohydrate & Lipid Metabolism 182
Carbohydrate and Fat Oxidation 182
Metabolism of Saturated and Unsaturated Fats 184
Obesity and Meat-Rich Diets 188
Obesity Among Mongols and Inuit 189
Cholesterol 191
Hyperlipidemia 192
Spontaneous Atherosclerosis 194
Simian Diet Effect On Human Blood Lipids 197
Summary 198
17: Brain Size & Metabolism 199
Encephalization Quotient 199
Is Seafood Superior Brain Food? 200
Cerebral Neuron Count 201
The Favored Frugivores 202
The Capuchin Catch 204
Flesh Does Not Provide Ready Brain Fuel 205
Neural Fatty Acids 205
Dietary DHA Potentially Harmful to Embryos 211
Plants Provide The Only Required Omega-3 Fat 211
Brain-Specific Minerals 212
Factors Correlating With Primate Encephalization 219
Plant-based Intelligence 220
Meat-eating Mentality 224
Animal Cruelty and Social Violence 225
Animal-Based Diets and Brain Damage 226
Does Meat-Eating Make People Warlike? 230
18: Meat-Adaptive Genes? 232
ApoE3: Meat-Adaptive, or Agriculture-Adaptive? 233
CMAH and Neu5Gc Sialic Acid 239
Summary 240
19: Science or Science Fiction? 242
Moving Beyond Carnism 243
Part III: Appendices & Bibliography 245
Appendix A: Essential Nutrients 246
Appendix B: A Whole Foods Plant-Based Diet 247
Supplements 249
Appendix C: Proposed Human Ancestors 254
Was The Alleged Last Common Ancestor Chimpanzee-like? 254
Orrorin tugenensis 258
Australopithecus 260
Homo habilis and rudolfensis 264
Erectus species 267
Homo heidelbergensis 270
Neanderthals 271
Homo sapiens 272
The Limits of Archaeology 274
Appendix D: Chimpanzees 275
Quantity 275
Measuring Wild Chimpanzee Diets 276
Chimpanzee Insectivory 276
Do Chimpanzees Scavenge? 278
Chimpanzee Hunting 279
Remarkable Variations In Chimpanzee Hunting 281
Chimps Probably Do Not Hunt To Obtain Macronutrients 284
How Well Do Chimpanzees Digest Animal Flesh? 285
Bibliography 288
Download for FREE, or pay any amount you wish.
Download your copy using the button below. The default price is $0.00 but you can choose to pay whatever you wish, just enter the amount you wish to pay in the price box.
I would appreciate any amount you wish to pay. I maintain this website at my own cost and also pay a monthly fee to E-junkie to make the book available for download. Anything you can offer to help me defray those expenses I incur to provide this information would be greatly appreciated.
Recent Articles
-
High Protein Chocolate Tofu Pudding
Jul 01, 24 12:41 PM
A delicious high protein chocolate tofu pudding. -
Vegan Macrobiotic Diet For Psoriasis
Sep 05, 23 06:36 PM
Vegan macrobiotic diet for psoriasis. My progress healing psoriasis with a vegan macrobiotic diet. -
How Every Disease Develops
Aug 04, 23 06:22 PM
How every disease develops over time, according to macrobiotic medicine. -
Why Do People Quit Being Vegan?
Jun 28, 23 08:04 PM
Why do people quit being vegan? How peer pressure and ego conspire against vegans. -
Powered By Plants
Mar 16, 23 08:01 PM
Powered By Plants is a book in which I have presented a lot of scientific evidence that humans are designed by Nature for a whole foods plant-based diet. -
Carnism Versus Libertarianism
Dec 30, 22 01:55 PM
Carnism Versus Libertarianism is an e-book demonstrating that carnism is in principle incompatible with libertarianism, voluntaryism, and anarchism. -
The Most Dangerous Superstition Book Review
Nov 15, 22 08:46 PM
Review of the book The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larken Rose. -
Plant-Based Diet Is Best For Health Protection: Meta-Review
Oct 17, 22 11:22 AM
A plant-based diet is best for health promotion according to a meta-review of more than 300 reviews published 1950-2013.
Carnism Vs Libertarianism E-Book
FREE
Read about Red Light Therapy HERE
SUBSCRIBE HERE!
Sign up for the Gaining Strength Newsletter so I can periodically provide you with more knowledge and tips for gaining physical, mental and spiritual strength and health. In exchange for your subscription I will send you a copy of my 13 page Gaining Strength Front and Straddle Split Training Program #1:
Affiliate Notice
On this website, you will see what are known as “affiliate links” for recommended products. These links have an ID or snippet of code attached that can give me a small commission for referrals or purchases made through them.
The affiliate commission doesn’t increase the cost of the product to you, nor does it cause any disruptions with your order. Affiliate programs enable online businesses like Full Range Strength to earn an income for providing quality information.
As an online business, FullRangeStrength.com heavily depends on affiliate earnings. If you want to support this site and provide me with compensation for providing you with quality strength and flexibility training and nutrition information, please consider using the affiliate links to purchase products you need for strength training and optimal nutrition.
Don Matesz is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for online businesses to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.