Meant to Be Meat Eaters or Go Meatless?

In “Food Fights” (Jan. 22) about carnivorous families with vegetarians in them, Tom Eubanks was quoted as saying, “All you have to do is look . . . at our teeth . . . and see that we were meant to eat meat.”

He must be striving mightily to delude himself, as are the many others who employ that argument. One look at our teeth will show you that they are far more like those of a horse than of a cat or a dog. We have incisors for cropping, and molars for crushing, rather than the tearing fangs a real carnivore has. That’s why we have steak knives.

The cancers and cardiovascular diseases brought about by meat eating are another indication that we were not “meant” to eat meat. But even if we had been meant to, that does not mean we may not rise above killing for survival.

After all, we were also “meant” to go barefoot and naked in the cold and the heat, to sleep on the ground, and to die at 40. If we can rise above that out of selfishness, we can also rise above meat eating out of love.

RICHARD RISEMBERG

Los Angeles