We are not the only omnivores, but I think it is an underappreciated trait of humans.
I believe that a lot is written about what is a healthy diet, but in reality, as long as there is no obvious excess or deficiency, and you don't have a specific disease, then any diet can be healthy. Vegan, carnivore, paleo, keto, kosher, whatever... even junk food. The human digestive system is very good at working with anything you throw at it.
The only thing is the less varied the diet, the more you need to care about potential deficiencies. Usually, there is a way, but unlike with a varied diet where you can rely on random sampling, you may need to be more explicit.
The psychological side is quite a bit more complex though. While a healthy diet is almost always possible from the point of view of our guts, we may not want to, because our natural incentives may not align with what modern society offers. What used to be rare is now abundant and easily accessible.
"healthy" in that "you won't die" -- not necessarily "healthy" as in "ideal for maintaining peak health". That's probably a bad comparison... But I'm not sure that you can count out the importance of the intestinal microbiome. It's not just vitamins or metals--one can be deficient in beneficial bacteria as well. These bacteria are why we can "throw anything" at our intestines. That's true until the good bacteria have nothing left to sustain them and die off.
> I believe that a lot is written about what is a healthy diet, but in reality, as long as there is no obvious excess or deficiency, and you don't have a specific disease, then any diet can be healthy.
I believe that a lot is written about what is a healthy diet, but in reality, as long as there is no obvious excess or deficiency, and you don't have a specific disease, then any diet can be healthy. Vegan, carnivore, paleo, keto, kosher, whatever... even junk food. The human digestive system is very good at working with anything you throw at it.
The only thing is the less varied the diet, the more you need to care about potential deficiencies. Usually, there is a way, but unlike with a varied diet where you can rely on random sampling, you may need to be more explicit.
The psychological side is quite a bit more complex though. While a healthy diet is almost always possible from the point of view of our guts, we may not want to, because our natural incentives may not align with what modern society offers. What used to be rare is now abundant and easily accessible.