




Love it!
Nice article. I'm going to blog it on myspace and keep it as a reference for when people ask me why I'm veg.




Great find. Makes me happy to say I don't eat meat!




I want to be veg again, or at the very least reduce my meat consumption. I think I shall talk to Boyfriend about reducing our meat intake. He's on a green kick, and it would probably go over well.
Jeez...sometimes i feel so smug about being a veggie! there was a really interesting article published in england a while back that links red meat to lots of types of cancer...scary. i'll go see if i can dig it up.....![]()





No matter how much sense it makes, I can't see many people being rationally convinced to give up, or even cut down on, meat consumption. I think we're all doomed. Does the news make anyone else so nihilistic?
IMHO, that is an unbiased, well-written article from a reputable source, and I definitely will be saving that link for future reference.
It annoys me that I have to qualify why I dont eat red meat with a health excuse(valid as that excuse may be) just to avoid the "oh..you one of THOSE animal freaks" type comments. Esp when there is ample evidence such as this to prove that eating red meat is a detriment to not only health, but mankind as a whole.
people hear what they want to hear. Sucks




College kids are the worst about that, Cam. When I was veg, people looked at me like I might break out the peace signs and tie-dye at any minute. I had one kid give me a lecture worthy of a professor about how my green living isn't helping the earth because it's only me doing it. *mrf*





Pretty much. It's the same with the cars. People get stuck in a rut and they can't see past what they've been told:
If you don't eat meat, you'll die/are a pussy. You need a BIG car, or you won't be able to see over the other big cars. One person can't make a difference, etc.
Good article though.
Im no longer a vegetarian / vegan but its a good article. Its always annoyed me how the environmental consequences of eating meat dont get focussed on too much.
I'm sorry but i'm totally a carnivore. I was raised on a farm and we slaughtered all of our own animals etc. Don't get me wrong, I eat a lot of vegi type stuff and treat meat as more of a side dish or supplementary food item but ....
I dunno. I feel bad trying to explain why I DO eat meat so I feel for all the vegans etc that have to make an excuse for thier dietary choices.
I was forced into veganism in my early years due to health, but did it again recently for this reason. I had read PETA's stats on how much water it takes to make a pound of grain vs a pound of meat, and was astounded.
If I don't eat meat now, I get sick, but I still only eat it about once a week. It's just too expensive on the economy.



Carnivore represent! Ah meat... How could I ever smile at myself in the mirror again if I wasn't puttin my pearly canines to their intended use? *pointy grin*
But sure, I've eaten too much at times, and most people prolly still do, but if the stuff gets more expensive that'll hopefully be self-correcting. And all power to vegans, abstain away for whatever reason- more left for me!
Great article. I'll never be formally classified as a veg, but I eat very very little meat, around once a month, usually wild salmon. I liked how the article suggested a sort of ethical non-vegetarianism as future trend.
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I've always been of the mind that meat was not meant for us to consume DAILY. Fortnightly or weekly.. okay.. however daily? Nope. We do have the teeth to consume meat however not on the same scale and capacity as REAL carnivores.
I basically do not eat any lamb, pork, beef ... yet I will have seafood and chicken plus various other products such as eggs, milk, etc.
For my own diet, I feel better if I eat one egg a day, have plenty of cheese (daily intake), limit my daily milk intake, have chicken in small quantities, seafood a couple of times a week ... and this is purely because my body actually craves these foods.
My body hardly ever craves lamb, pork, beef and related foods. I've eaten salami once or twice in over a decade as my body craved it at the time.
It is a good article.
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I'm similar, though I dislike eggs and anything I can taste egg in, so they're out. I don't enjoy the taste of meat. I eat what I crave, really, and though I do enjoy poultry and fish, my actual consumption of these things is reasonably low, as I crave them only sometimes (perhaps a few times a week at most, and only moderate quantities then). Generally my protein comes from cheese, other dairy and soy foods.
I became B12 deficient within six months and got very sick as a vegan, so clearly my body functions poorly when my diet lacks animal foods completely.
In my community, you're as much an apologist for eating meat as you are fo being vegetaian. People forgive you for eating chicken and fish, though. Red meat, you put in a plain brown paper bag.
No matter what you do, no matter what you look like, no matter what your philosophy, you run into others who want to deride you for not being like them. So, to thine own self be true.
By dentition and digestion, we're omnivores. I'm omnivorous. But I don't care what you are. Bon appétit!!





I think people need to listen to themselves more often. I don't always, but I do know when my body doesn't want me to eat something in general. It doesn't want meat, I know that.
There's nothing wrong with people that do eat meat, at all IMO, but it doesn't hurt to look at where it's from, etc. I can respect people who hunt or raise animals and EAT what they kill. (Not put it's head on the wall and freeze the rest until it's off.) That's how my late cousin lived.
About five years ago, I had a class about biology issues that affect the economy, and we discussed some of the principles and concepts that were presented in this article. Things such as the large expenditure of energy that it takes to raise, feed, and slaughter cattle into meat. I believe my professor illustrated this point with a drawing of the energy pyramid.
On a microeconomic level, I've noticed the high prices for meat. When I was poor, I was grateful for being vegetarian...it made my food budget so much more affordable! LOL.
I have a LOT of reasons for not eating meat...they range from economic, to environmental, to nutrition, to taste, to increased risks of cancers. For example, do you know that red meat can potentially increase risks of stomach AND lung cancer?? The more that I read about meat, the more that I find studies showing how "bad" it is...yet I seem to never hear these things about consuming too many plant products. If anything, they keep finding more cures and "good health" nutrients in plants. It makes me wonder if perhaps humans were really "meant" to be nearly as carnivorous or omnivorous as we are. Perhaps meats are supposed to be eaten sparingly, just as alcohol or sweets are?...that's my theory.
^IMHO, meat is not supposed to be eaten or incorporated into your daily diet, unless it's needed for survival. It used to be necessary to consume meat to survive, thus we were "obligatory" omnivores, which is why we have canines-- most primates also have canines-- in fact the primates with the largest canines- baboons and gorillas- also have the most vegetarian diets. It's just a leftover physical attribute that we adapted years ago to help us consume meat when NECESSARY. I have a feeling that if someone were to do a study about the size of humans canine teeth over the past 100 years, they would find a decreasing trend. Canine teeth and the ability to eat meat when necessary are a defense mechanism- like cat's claws- they don't have to use them all the time, but they are there just in case.
Here is a neat little chart I found:
![]()
Gypsy74, your theory makes a lot of sense. I agree that originally we were probably only "meant" to eat meat on rare occasion that we needed it for survival purposes(e.g., a source of protein when extra protein is needed, or to eat if there's no plant foods available). I also wonder if perhaps meat was used as a "treat" type of food -- similar to alcohol or sweets -- more for celebrations or the taste, than being a staple part of our diets.
Then again, I also have a theory that humans aren't "meant" to eat nearly as much dairy, either. I do not think that dairy products are nearly as "harmful" as meats, but there ARE studies showing that too much dairy can increase risk of gastroesophageal reflux, esophageal cancer, and a few other cancers. Dairy products [in their natural form] also tend to be v very fattening, which is not good. I think originally humans did not eat dairy products as part of their everyday diet, and that dairy was only consumed regularly by the infants and small children, whom got their dairy from breastmilk. This seems consistent with the way that human women are only able to produce breastmilk for a limited time in the child's life, and the fact that dairy is most important during the years of growth(i.e., infancy and childhood).
^^ since cows were not nearly as widespread in caveman days I doubt we drank or ate dairy very much at all in the beginning.
Since humans are the only animals that drink/eat breastmilk from other species OR past infancy...I dont think we were meant to either.
Saying that however...I do love cheese, which is why I could never be vegan. I use soymilk, dont really eat ice cream or yogurt...but cheese I cant give up.
The canines and molars have decreased over the millennia. Early prehumans (australopithecines) had more robust dentition because they ate a lot of rougher stems and roots.
In fact, the australopithecine branch that got more robust ended up fading away, while the more gracile and omnivorous branch learned to make tools to chop stuff up and eventually became us. It's quite possible that incorporating more meat met the higher energy demands of hunter gatherers with an enlarging brain.
We don't have those higher energy needs, and our food is pretty much chewed for us by the time we put it in our mouths (processed food, more tender vegetables, more tender meats). I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were right and our dentition was shrinking, both molars and canines.
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