«Have you ever wondered why our canine teeth are so much shorter and duller than those of carnivorous animals, such as cats and dogs? Have you ever tried to rip the flesh from an animal you just hunted and killed using just your teeth? (If the answer is "yes," I don't want to know.)

»

In part, because we have large brains and grasping hands that can fashion tools with which to efficiently hunt animals, kill them, butcher them, and create fire to cook them. Thus we don't need canine teeth to effectively procur and eat meat. A different evolutionary path than canines and felines.

In part, because we have large brains and grasping hands that can fashion tools with which to efficiently hunt animals, kill them, butcher them, and create fire to cook them. Thus we don't need canine teeth to effectively procur and eat meat. A different evolutionary path than canines and felines.

Nice speculation, anyway.

Jay

What do you mean by a "natural diet?" The diet on the island of Crete up till the 1960s? The diet of rural Okinawa? Both of those were almost vegetarian, and these populations had the longest lifespans in the famous Seven Countries Study. How about the hunter-gatherer diet of our hominid ancestors? I guess that was pretty "natural." Was it any healthier though? Who knows. Our ancestors didn't live long enough for us to find out. The Standard American Diet? There's an omnivorous diet that is most certainly unhealthy. The Inuit diet? Almost all meat and a really short average lifespan.

«Have you ever wondered why our canine teeth are so much shorter and duller than those of carnivorous animals, such as cats and dogs? Have you ever tried to rip the flesh from an animal you just hunted and killed using just your teeth? (If the answer is "yes," I don't want to know.)

»

In part, because we have large brains and grasping hands that can fashion tools with which to efficiently hunt animals, kill them, butcher them, and create fire to cook them. Thus we don't need canine teeth to effectively procur and eat meat. A different evolutionary path than canines and felines.

Cheers,
Rob.calm

Well, antropologists say that the remains of hunters-gatherers demonstarte much better general health of a popuation than those of farming tribes -- I think these studies do account for possible differences in lifespan. Sure, we have to take into account the respective activity levels, and longer lifespans, etc, etc, etc.

There are plant sources of protein, but it seems that our bodies do not process it well enough -- as it follows from several references in this thread to a certain digestive system malfunction.

Overall, I agree with you that it is possible to maintain a healthy vegeterian diat. However, I insist that in practice it it much more demanding than maintaining a healthy omnivorous diet.

In my opinion, that entire paragraph is nothing more than opinion.

And be careful of misleading information. For example, in the list above the highest "%" of protein listed is spinach... well, 1 full cup of spinach contains ONE SINGLE whopping gram of protein... good luck. Another point to make is that, although babies are growing fast while sucking tit, they are NOT putting on much lean muscle mass

i find it hilarious that everyone thinks that to be vegan or vegetarian, you must eat a bunch of tofu to get your protien. if you relied strictly on tofu for you protein intake, then no s--- you got sick and defficient in some areas. there are many other forms of protein that do not come from animals, and taste great.
i have been cruelty free for 15 years and climbing for 20. i am healthy as they come. my wife and i live as vegans and raise our dogs as vegans. our vet says he has never seen healthier dogs. http://vegancats.com/
if you want to become vegan, then there are a million websites and groups that will help you on your way to a healthy, 100% active lifestyle.
many prominant athletes are vegan, and are kicking butt.
it is so easy for people to blame a meatless diet on their shortcomings.
if you do it right, you will be very happy in your choice.
if you do it wrong, you will find an easy excuse to go back to killing things.
please take a look at these websites. there are many informative things that will help you live life cruelty free, and most importantly, healthy. they also have great recipes that will help you get away from the boring tofu.
http://vegan.org/
http://vegweb.com/
http://veggielife.com/
and regardless of what people think about peta (i dont agree with all their tactics), they do have some great stuff on their sites.
http://www.peta.org/living/

feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.
please folks try not to take my statements as offensive. i do not try to preach to much about this stuff and really do not judge you on your lifestyle choices.

Does a kosher diet seem as much trouble to you as a vegetarian?

Really, neither of these dietary restrictions in any trouble at all in modern society, presenting little difficulty and having no penalties.

If civilization comes crashing down and grocery stores should no longer be ready sources of varied foodstuffs, I'll consider my omnivorous options. Until then, I'll exercise my ethical choice and stay healthy, while being astoundingly not inconvenienced.

Does a kosher diet seem as much trouble to you as a vegetarian?

I'll exercise my ethical choice and stay healthy, while being astoundingly not inconvenienced.

There are plant sources of protein, but it seems that our bodies do not process it well enough -- as it follows from several references in this thread to a certain digestive system malfunction.

Overall, I agree with you that it is possible to maintain a healthy vegeterian diat. However, I insist that in practice it it much more demanding than maintaining a healthy omnivorous diet.

What you are suggesting is logically impossible. To a first approximation, meat is nothing but protein and unhealthy fat. Compared to grains, legumes, nuts, and vegetables, which contain a broader range of nutrients -- protein, carbohydrate, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant phytochemicals -- meats are about as unbalanced a food as you can think of (aside from processed foods). What you are suggesting is that by substituting more balanced foods for less balanced ones, that the diet will be less nutritionally adequate. This would only be true if vegetarian diets were deficient in protein, the one beneficial nutrient that meats are high in, but vegetarian diets are protein adequate.

Jay

This sort of self-righteous attitude is the reason why some people have little respect for vegans. To describe an omnivore as cruel for eating meat is about as stupid as forcing a carnivore to live as a herbivore.
lot of

="jredThis sort of self-righteous attitude is the reason why some people have little respect for vegans. To describe an omnivore as cruel for eating meat is about as stupid as forcing a carnivore to live as a herbivore.
lot of

i am hardly looking for respect from people like you. i am asking for you to respect the life of those that cannot defend themselves, those that die for your consumption, so that you can live a "healthy" carnivorous life.

You do not do any good to anyone by being a vegterian -- read my previous posts on the subject. Think about agricultural wastelands and how many animals (and even entire species) were destroyed to provide you with veggie foods. Face it, by being a big animal placed high in the food chain (and not being able to syntesize nutritients from the elements and sunlight), your lifesupport place a high tax on the environment.

And it is not only food -- just think about all that toilet paper you use per year -- how many trees (and, consequently, wildlife) is that equivalent to???

There are better ways to decrease the impact and increase sustainability. Get rid of this obsenely large SUV, vote for public transportation, skip on chritsmas shopping, don't do barbeque, use less wrapping, reuse plastic bags, recycle, etc.

No, Jay, what I said is absolutely correct. Cutting off fish and meat leaves you with less choices.

In theory, one can live off tofu, beans, and raw veggies indefenitely, but in practice many of real human vegeterians fall for unhealthy (vegeterian) choices -- processed foods, loads of cheese or oils, etc.

Read any vegeterian cookbook -- the recipies generally involve much more food processing (and often are high in fat and simple carbs) to make up for the lack of meats.

i am hardly looking for respect from people like you. i am asking for you to respect the life of those that cannot defend themselves, those that die for your consumption, so that you can live a "healthy" carnivorous life.

This is wrong. It is true that I do use a lot of resources. However, as a vegetarian, I'm cutting down on the amount of land required to sustain my diet. A fixed amount of land is required for growth of friuts, vegetables, and grains. Many of these grains are fed to me, and many are fed to cows, chickens, and other food animals. A fixed amount of land is required for these animals, in pasture and run (not the case with factory farming, but that's another barrell of monkeys) in stockards, in processing, and the like.

Note that my diet doesn't require the amount of land set aside for production of foodstuffs for livestock or the amount of land set aside for housing and pasture of livestock.

My tax on the land is still extent, but is thus reduced.