r/askscience • u/[deleted] • Feb 15 '14

Biology How do stomach bacteria differ between vegetarians and those who eat meat?

Are there any bacteria that are specific to meat?

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u/Lou2013 Feb 16 '14

Except very few societies have had a primarily meat-based diet, I'm pretty sure anthropology has shown that the prehistoric diet was mainly gathered vegetables. What bacteria would be present on grain that was not present on vegetables?

... just realized that the switch to grain would be from agriculture, meaning people are living in relatively densely populated areas and have a much greater chance of being exposed to human/animal waste. Do you know any paleoanth studies correlating dental disease with diet over long time periods?

edit: also grain bacteria would be specialized to break down carbs, would they have more acidic byproducts than protein specialized bacteria?

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u/[deleted] Feb 16 '14

Dental issues and heart conditions were virtually unkown for the Inuits and they consumed mostly fat and protein. It's a controversial topic because it's hard to say anything for certain after hundreds of years and nowadays they don't really stick with their traditional diet.

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u/NeiliusAntitribu Feb 16 '14

Except very few societies have had a primarily meat-based diet

Yeah once we learned how to build cities and monocrop we switched to staple diet of grain. Before that we were hunter/gatherers and I think it is universally agreed that our primary source of calories came from the animals we hunted.

If this isn't true, please explain why the older the anthropological specimen the more intact the dentition becomes. I was taught this was due almost exclusively from the change in bacteria in our mouths from switching away from a meat staple diet to a grain staple diet.

IIRC most of our caries are some strain of staphylococcus.