Pure herbivores’ main advantage over us is their ability (through their gut bacteria) to make use of all the carbohydrates in cellulose.
For protein, cattle and other herbivores do have a higher ability to extract usable amino acids from plant sources within the actual structural matrix of how they exist naturally in the plant, but we humans deal with that by processing and cooking our food instead of eating raw plants. Herbivores also have to do a lot more mechanical processing, especially chewing, to break down the structure of the plant matter for their guts to process.
The fact is, herbivores have to eat so much more food than meat eating animals do. Gorillas eat 30 kg of food per day. Elephants eat 75-150 kg of food per day.
And in captivity, fruit-eating primates need protein supplements, to make up for the fact that human-bred fruit tends to be much higher in sugar and lower in protein (per calorie, at least) than what these animals eat in the wild, especially when you account for insect parts that are common in wild fruit.
We all get our protein from gut bacteria, or at least thanks to gut bacteria. In nutrition, “protein” refers to the collection of the proteins (amino-acid chain macromolecules) that we can digest. The rest of the proteins (the proteins we can not digest) are called “fiber” in nutrition.
Foregut fermenters turn all of protein ingested, in addition to ingested nitrogen like urea, into base blocks like ammonia and then back into bacterial proteins that have much better amino acids. They are creating the amino acids they need, roughly in the quantities needed. In humans this does not happen in any meaningful way - we must eat the amino acids we need.
Cows and Kangaroos are pretty jacked too. Wouldn’t want their palates or diets though.
Bro did not skip neck day.
His upper trapezius is so jacked, it could almost double as an umbrella shielding him from the rain & sun.
Cows and kangaroos get their protein from gut bacteria, bit of a cheat code
Pure herbivores’ main advantage over us is their ability (through their gut bacteria) to make use of all the carbohydrates in cellulose.
For protein, cattle and other herbivores do have a higher ability to extract usable amino acids from plant sources within the actual structural matrix of how they exist naturally in the plant, but we humans deal with that by processing and cooking our food instead of eating raw plants. Herbivores also have to do a lot more mechanical processing, especially chewing, to break down the structure of the plant matter for their guts to process.
The fact is, herbivores have to eat so much more food than meat eating animals do. Gorillas eat 30 kg of food per day. Elephants eat 75-150 kg of food per day.
And in captivity, fruit-eating primates need protein supplements, to make up for the fact that human-bred fruit tends to be much higher in sugar and lower in protein (per calorie, at least) than what these animals eat in the wild, especially when you account for insect parts that are common in wild fruit.
We all get our protein from gut bacteria, or at least thanks to gut bacteria. In nutrition, “protein” refers to the collection of the proteins (amino-acid chain macromolecules) that we can digest. The rest of the proteins (the proteins we can not digest) are called “fiber” in nutrition.
Foregut fermenters turn all of protein ingested, in addition to ingested nitrogen like urea, into base blocks like ammonia and then back into bacterial proteins that have much better amino acids. They are creating the amino acids they need, roughly in the quantities needed. In humans this does not happen in any meaningful way - we must eat the amino acids we need.
Well, that is cheating.