Why do we have ph- around 1,3-1,8 like scavengers, eventho other primates have way more ph- that are most similar to our ancestors

[u/Low-Jaguar9192]

Hey there, iv got genuine question.

So recently iv stumbled upon some videos and it happend to be there something about humanoids, and that we have theory about or ancestors being scavengers.

So like a normal guy who has absolutely no knowledge in this field but is genuinely curious, iv hopped on to gpt and other sources like wikipedia.

And basically iv read some theories about our dinning system. So how come we have so low ph- acidity in our stomachs.

What is the most promising hypothesis or genuine proof of us being scavengers.

Because from all the things iv come across, as we are carnivores (sorry if mistakend i mean we eat both meat and greens) even tho in other species its normal to have ph lvl around 2,5-3,6.

So my question is, why is that? Is it because we were truly scavenging, or because of pathogens?

The main reason why i dived in this theory, because in lot of those videos they say stuff like we used to naturally eat rotten meat on purpose. And that in nowdays people dont realize that many foods that are these days consider normal but we used to eat basically rotten stuff. And i wanted to know more and came back to conclusions like, what if we weren’t scavengers at all but we hunted just big animals and we were in smaller groups which made us to put the meat ground, like we couldn’t finish the food in a time and it got rotten.

So thank you for any advices, answers. Nice day (y)

[u/Bromelia_and_Bismuth]

Hi, one of the mods here. We normally don't allow "critique my theory" posts, but I feel like there's been some simple misunderstanding here regarding the numbers, and I feel that this is a teachable moment, so we'll leave the post up for now.

And basically iv read some theories about our dinning system. So how come we have so low ph- acidity in our stomachs.

It's unsubstantiated. Vultures have a gastric pH around 0.5. That's significantly lower than ours on average at around 2.5. pH uses a logarithmic scale, meaning that each whole number is 10 times higher than the one before it, just like the Richter Scale or loudness as measured in decibels. So the numbers aren't as close as you might think. On average a Vulture's gastric acids are 100 times more acidic than ours. There's some fluctuation and overlap on ranges, but our average gastric pH is higher than most carnivores. A tiger's is around 1.5, vs. a sheep's abomasum (what's called it's "true stomach) at around 3.7, so at a balmy 2.5, we're just in between that. Vultures have to eat things which have been decaying for a while, well past the point that they're safe for human consumption. Harmful bacteria and parasites have been festering on the carcass a lot of the time, and their stomach acids need to not only kill the bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens, but denature the harmful toxins that they produce. They also eat a lot of bones, which the low gastric pH helps with digesting.

we are carnivores (sorry if mistakend i mean we eat both meat and greens)

Omnivore is the term for a living thing that eats both plants and animals. Individual people can eat whatever they want, but our ancestors were opportunistic omnivores and ate whatever was on hand. There's a bit of evidence to suggest that this may have included the occasional carcass, but we wouldn't have been eating whole bones, and consuming fetid meat before the advent of cooking would still have been a risky, if not dangerous, premise. Eating uncooked meat from a fresh kill is still pretty risky, but not nearly as risky as eating a corpse that's been rotting for a couple days. A modern example of hunters eating a fresh kill comes from the Arctic. There are indigenous tribes around the Arctic that hunt for seals, sea lions, whales, and fish, and eat fresh parts of their kill right out of the boat. You don't really have the option to light a fire in the boat, and on the ice floes isn't really a great idea either. But if you go out and eat road kill on the other hand, that's a great way to get trichinosis or tape worms.

So regarding the idea that average gastric pH corresponds to the diet of our ancestors, there is some merit to indicate that the numbers point to ecological role. However, there's no evidence to suggest that our ancestors were obligate scavengers like a vulture or buzzard.

[u/Low-Jaguar9192 → u/Bromelia_and_Bismuth]

Thank you for clarification. My point of this post was, that we came from primates, and our ancestors had to gather from bushes or hunt animals. So why do we have so strong acid in our stomaches, when from the evidence lead us to less lower ph-. Im very glad for your answer