Most people in the world are omnivores. Omnivores eat a combination of plant and animal products. Most traditional cultures eat a diet that includes both plants and animals. I’ve been an omnivore at various points in my life and am one now.

Health Benefits

Vitamins such as A, D and K are found richly supplied in eggs, organ meats and seafood. These vitamins are also fat soluble, meaning that in order for them to be properly processed by your body they need to be eaten with fats.

Weston A. Price, a dentist, published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration in 1939. The book was a result of the research Price did on the dental health of people around the world. Price wondered why he was seeing increasing amounts of dental problems in his patients that he hadn’t seen a generation previously. To answer his question, he traveled around the world to study the dental health of traditional cultures that had not yet been influenced by the outside world. What he found was cultures eating meats, seafood, raw dairy and plant based foods. The people he studied had excellent dental health and seemed sturdy and healthy. They didn’t eat white flour, processed sugar or any other processed foods.

The Downside

While the health of omnivores who eat ancient traditional diets is very good, the modern omnivore who lives off of a standard Western diet is usually of poor health. Most modern omnivores don’t know how to eat meat properly and don’t know how much to eat. This mismanagement of their food intake has disastrous consequences, including high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and  other conditions.

My Two Cents

For what it’s worth, I have a ton of opinions about how omnivores should eat to stay healthy. If you choose to eat meat, the meat must be grass fed, free range, organic. It’s usually better to get your meat from the farmers directly than the supermarket because supermarkets tend to have deceptive labeling practices. Meat from grass fed animals contain more nutrients than meat from factory farmed animals.

Eat mostly plants. About 75% of your meal should consist of plants. That leaves no more than 25% for meat. No giant steaks that take up your whole plate. Don’t overcook your food, especially red meat. Eat it as rare as you can. Bacteria is a concern, but if you’re getting it from a reliable source it shouldn’t be a problem. Overcooking your meat makes it carcinogenic.

B12 is an important vitamin that you need to make sure you get enough of. I’ve mentioned it many times before, I know. That should let you know how important it is. Organ meats are one of the best sources of B12. Liver contains more than 600% of your daily recommended dose of B12. I know the idea of eating organ meat might gross you out. I grew up eating liver and onions and when I lived in Korea one of my favorite foods was sundae, a kind of blood sausage served with pieces of liver and heart. It takes some time to get used to the texture of organ meats, but they’re rich in vitamins. Seafood also contains B12. I just had some delicous steamed mussels packed with B12 with my dinner tonight.

I believe that we do need to eat some meat to be truly healthy. I know that will offend some vegetarians, but if you look at different traditional societies, how many of them were vegan or even vegetarian? People eat meat for a reason and until modern times were able to thrive on diets that included meat.

If meat is the reason for the health problems we see in modern humans, how do you explain the health of the Masai who eat a diet high in animal fat?

Like I keep on saying, try different diets and see what works best for you. You can’t clump the whole of the human race together and say that we all need to have the same diet to be healthy. Your dietary needs are influenced by were your family comes from originally.

If you want to find out more about being a healthy omnivore you can find some good information on the Weston A. Price Foundation website.

Photo by jlastra

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