Stags out in the wild are herbivores. They only eat plants. They can graze on shrubs or grasses. They can also munch on foliage or berries.
The stags that I live with eat everything. They are omnivores. We humans possess the ability to digest almost anything:
Besides being 98% water, human saliva also starts the digestion process:
Amylase is secreted from the parotid glands and breaks down carbohydrates. Protease is secreted from the submandibular glands and begins protein digestion. Lipase is secreted from the sublingual (under the tongue) glands to initiate fat digestion. click here for more
That has always convinced me that humans are designed to eat whatever they can get their hands on. This made sense during caveman days when humans spent hours and sometimes days hunting animals, gathering berries or grain or nuts, just to stay alive. If a caveman happened upon a wild boar and killed it, then those humans were carnivores that day. The next day, if they could only find wild grains, acorns, and a few berries, then they were herbivores.
I have been thinking
a lot about this because John and I started making significant changes to our food choices in the last few months. Those of you following this blog may have read about our switch to brown rice... I say food choices, because our society is bombarded with health advice and food suggestions from low-fat, low-carb diets... to high-protein, no-carb diets.... to vegan diets... to counting Weight Watcher points every day. Part of the food-related problems of our modern society is that we have many, many choices. And often, we choose the wrong foods to put in our bodies. John and I were no exception.
Our trials and tribulations regarding eating healthier started when I bought a new set of dishes. They were meant to be dessert plates, about 8 inches in diameter. I bought them because they were very cute, but realizing that we could only put a small amount of food on them, I thought it might help us decrease our food portions. When I first used these dishes to serve dinner, John looked at me kinda funny but didn't say anything.
We ate smaller portions but nothing happened to the scale when we got on it. Was it because our little dessert plates were piled high? Was it the second helpings we felt we needed since our plates were so tiny? This strategy did not seem to work...
To be continued
