Here are two simple reasons why I believe that evolution designed humans to eat plants:

• Vitamin C: Most animals have the ability to synthesize Vitamin C but humans, gorillas, chimps, orangutans and some monkeys have lost this ability. Why? Because a plant rich diet provides sufficient Vitamin C.

• Cholesterol: Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that's found in all the cells in a human body. Cholesterol is needed to make hormones, Vitamin D (which is actually a hormone), and substances that help you digest foods. The human body makes all the cholesterol that it needs. Why? Because a plant rich diet does not contain any cholesterol.

There is a video of a presentation by Dr. Milton Mills titled Are Humans Designed to Eat Meat? that describes in detail many of the differences between carnivores (meat eaters) and herbivores (plant eaters) that explains why humans must have evolved as plant eaters.

Jeff Novick, R.D. has made a number of very informative and entertaining DVDs about a number of nutrition topics. His full length video on Calorie Density was recently released on YouTube. I high recommend watching this video, especially if you would like to know how you can eat all you want and not gain weight or eat all you want and lose weight until you get to your ideal weight.

I subscribe to the daily videos and weekly blog posts from Dr. Michael Gregor at NutritionFacts.org. One of his recent blog posts was titled Vitamin D Supplements for Increasing Aging Muscle Strength. As usual, Dr. Gregor includes links to a number of his videos about Vitamin D.

• Easy Black Bean Quinoa Burgers
• 2 Ingredient Refrigerator Pickled Veggies
• Plant Based Tips for Cooking Without Oil
• Dr. McDougall's Recipe Website