Herbivores eat low carb, moderate protein and high fat

[josh]

The macronutrient composition of the diet of wild western lowland gorillas


The western lowland gorilla diet has implications for... [J Nutr. 1997] - PubMed - NCBI


Macronutrient - Weight Fraction (g/ 100g) - Calories/ g - Calories/ 100g of Food - Percent of food
Fats 0.5 - 9 - 4.5 - 2.3%
Carbohydrate (excluding fiber) 7.7 - 4 - 30.8 - 15.9%
Protein 11.8 - 4 - 47.2 - 24.4%
Fiber 74 - 1.5 - 111 - 57.4%


At face value their diet appears to be a low-fat diet, doesn’t it? Only 2.3 percent of calories are in the form of fat. BUT that is before food is transformed by the digestive tract. Note the really large component of the gorilla diet: fiber. Fiber is fermented by gut bacteria.


Basic Fermentation Chemistry


The bacteria get 4 calories per gram from fiber, but they give back 1.5 calories per gram in the form of short-chain fats to the gorilla. Even with such a low caloric density, the mass of fiber in the wild gorilla diet is so large— 74 percent of the mass of food eaten— that those short-chain fats contribute fully 57 percent of the gorilla’s energy.


The Western Lowland Gorilla Diet After Transformation


Macronutrient - Percent of Energy
Polyunsaturated fat - < 2%
Saturated and monounsaturated fat - 58%
Carbs (excluding fiber) - 15.9%
Protein - 24.4%


The fiber has been converted into short-chain saturated fatty acids, which can then be lengthened into saturated fats and desaturated into monounsaturated fats. So after transformation, SaFA and MUFA are 58 percent of calories!

This is true for all mammalian animals.

Just more evidence why a low carb / higt fat diet is most likely how we are meant to eat

[h2s]

Very interesting. That is a very high percentage of fiber.

[josh]

Very interesting. That is a very high percentage of fiber.

That is because of their digestive tract. Gorillas are hindgut fermenters which means in the latter part of their digestive tract (in the colon) they will ferment fiber into fats. Specifically short chain fatty acids (propanoic and butyric acids) and then these fatty acids get lengthened into saturated fatty acids which are incorporated into tissue or are reduced to ketones for energy.

Point is that while a gorillas diet may appear to be vegetarian (high carb low fat) this is short sighted as we are only thinking of the food they eat. When you examine what the nutrients are after digestion you find that 58% of their nutrients are fats and only 15% are carbs which is quite the opposite of a high carb low fat diet.

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[Macdon1588]

This is interesting stuff. I think that I am doing better cutting down since upping the fats on my low carb adventure.

[Milburn]

Thanks for sharing.

[Jiigzz]

While this is pretty much a copy and paste from a certain book; it is of pretty big significance.