For the Animals
An Argument Guide
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"Gorillas, bulls and horses get strong eating only plants."

Weak or false science

They make claims about the body or nutrition that the evidence does not support. When they fall, they take the speaker's credibility with them.

Why it is weak

It's a false analogy. Cattle digest grass with the help of microbes in the rumen, and horses ferment fiber in the large intestine; the microbes turn fiber and other compounds into nutrients, including protein. Gorillas spend much of the day eating large volumes of leaves and have a gut adapted to ferment them. The human digestive system doesn't work like that.

So a herbivore's strength says nothing about what the human body needs. Anyone who knows the subject takes the argument apart in one sentence, and the speaker's credibility goes with it.

It's also an appeal to nature: even if the analogy held, what other animals do doesn't decide what is right for us to do.

How to say it better

Use evidence about humans: well-planned plant-based diets provide the protein we need, and there are top athletes who don't eat animals. And remember that the main question is moral, not nutritional.

See also