by Tarandus » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:13 am
Inga: if you tried to live on meat alone, I don't fancy your chances of a very long and healthy life. Study after study has now proved that a vegetarian diet halves the risk of cancer and heart disease, and a vegan one even more so. We are omnivorous, yes, but that is largely in my view a matter of fact and choice than anything to do with adaptations in our teeth or digestive system. I've even seen pigeons and sparrows eating scraps of meat in the street when their preferred diet of grains is absent. A number of years ago, a class of medical students in the US were given a lecture on the human digestive system, but the professor deliberately chose to illustrate the lecture with slides of a gorilla's digestive system. None of them noticed the difference, which is hardly surprising as in fact there is hardly any, and as I'm sure you know, gorillas survive largely on a diet of fruit and leaves. Our digestive tract, being very long, is highly unsuited to the ingestion of meat which contains many carcinogens. Animals that are adapted to eating meat, such as the cat family, have by contrast very short digestive tracts in order to expel the meat from their system in the shortest possible time, therefore. I think particularly your last sentence of your last message contains bald assertions whereas in fact I think you will find that further research into these issues will disclose that there is considerable scientific debate and the issues have by no means been resolved. What is beyond peradventure, though, is that studies have proved that a vegetarian, and even more so, a vegan diet, WILL halve your chances of getting cancer and/or suffering heart disease. Use that information how you will. As I've already indicated, it is no business of mine what people choose to eat. On the other hand, a meat-based diet is extremely wasteful of resources. It takes about ten times as much land and water to produce a unit of animal protein as opposed to the same unit of vegetable protein. There are simply not the resources available on this planet to feed the entire global population on a Western-style diet. Even in Britain, which has a great deal of rainfall, there are frequent water shortages. This is because 60% of all water used in this country is consumed by farmed livestock. You are right in noticing that my original point was a semantic one. People can eat fish if that's what they want to do as far as I am concerned; but once such persons start to describe themselves as 'vegetarians' (and this is becoming increasingly common), in my view they are misrepresenting themselves. Kind regards, T.
'Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions. Live the questions now. You will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.' Rainer Maria Rilke.