Are We Really Carnivores?

[drubin007]

too much reading but I skimmed a lot of it...

time to interject my 2 cents into the pot before I go back into my recluse of anomomnity once again....

We do not need to eat flesh to survive... It is a tradition taught to us by our parents and their parents before them...
One can read the bible and intepert that it says animals were provided for our consumption.
Personally, I do not take it for that. I am a vegeterian, have been for about 3.5 years now.
What caused me to change my ways after nearly 40 years of eating animals? Of all things, the media. Watching how animals were treated
prior to their cruel and inhumane totured death was enough to keep me up at night for days. It was then I came to the realization that I would
not endorse the barbaric behavior by supporting it.
Ironically enough, I have a son who just turned 12. In Kindergarden (age 5) he learned about the food groups and shut down as well. 7 years for him now...
I cannot lie, I do miss a good BBQ or a nice rack of ribs, however I do take comfort in knowing that no animals were killed for my benefit...
I get razzed about the poor plants that are being sacrificed for me, however plants are not flesh of a living creature.
I know preaching my gospel in here will not change the World or the dietary habits of anyone in here, however as I stated above, I sleep with a clear conscience knowing bambi can live to see another day because she is not being boiled alive for her meat so I can rip into her with my family at night.
You would be surprised how many tasty dishes you could create using "fake" food... We eat "burgers", "chicken", etc... condiments help of course, but it is a different lifestyle.
I know my philsophy will not put job loss to any slaughterhouse, but do hope at some point others will do the research and make their own informed decisions. It is one thing to sacrifice an animal for your own primal urges for meat, however in the fashion so many of them do it is something I would not wish upon my own worst enemy.

[Guest]

This discussion is making me hungry.

Off to my favorite restaurant for the House Salad & 16 oz New York Strip

[StevenXXXX]

This discussion is making me hungry.

Off to my favorite restaurant for the House Salad & 16 oz New York Strip

Not sure why my post posted as a "Guest" - but it was ME

StevenXXXX

[gasp]

too much reading but I skimmed a lot of it...

time to interject my 2 cents into the pot before I go back into my recluse of anomomnity once again....

We do not need to eat flesh to survive... It is a tradition taught to us by our parents and their parents before them...
One can read the bible and intepert that it says animals were provided for our consumption.
Personally, I do not take it for that. I am a vegeterian, have been for about 3.5 years now.
What caused me to change my ways after nearly 40 years of eating animals? Of all things, the media. Watching how animals were treated
prior to their cruel and inhumane totured death was enough to keep me up at night for days. It was then I came to the realization that I would
not endorse the barbaric behavior by supporting it.
Ironically enough, I have a son who just turned 12. In Kindergarden (age 5) he learned about the food groups and shut down as well. 7 years for him now...
I cannot lie, I do miss a good BBQ or a nice rack of ribs, however I do take comfort in knowing that no animals were killed for my benefit...
I get razzed about the poor plants that are being sacrificed for me, however plants are not flesh of a living creature.
I know preaching my gospel in here will not change the World or the dietary habits of anyone in here, however as I stated above, I sleep with a clear conscience knowing bambi can live to see another day because she is not being boiled alive for her meat so I can rip into her with my family at night.
You would be surprised how many tasty dishes you could create using "fake" food... We eat "burgers", "chicken", etc... condiments help of course, but it is a different lifestyle.
I know my philsophy will not put job loss to any slaughterhouse, but do hope at some point others will do the research and make their own informed decisions. It is one thing to sacrifice an animal for your own primal urges for meat, however in the fashion so many of them do it is something I would not wish upon my own worst enemy.

I agree with you on many points. I now take a different approach by only eating animals that have been treated well, are fed non-pesticde/treated grass, truly free range organically fed chickens, etc. I was a vegetarian for many years using food pairings for as complete a protein as possible, but my regular physician and naturopathic doctor agreed that I needed animal protein to correct medical issues that developed such as anemia and severely low B12, even after going lacto-ovo. It is possible that many generations of meat eaters genetically predisposed me to having a body that is meat eating.

Anyway, glad you can do without meat because so much of the protein out there is so harmful. Especially now that non-organic meat also includes GMO!

[snuginarug]

We can extract the fats, starches and sugars and anything that's water or fat soluble from them, so long as they're thoroughly chewed, but the vast bulk passes right through undigested

That is supposed to happen. If, by your definition, we were 100% efficient, we would not excrete any feces at all. There is not single animal on this whole wide earth that can claim that efficiency. Nature does not create inefficient animals, just animals that fit different niches.

where does Man fit in? Certainly not an herbivore. Not strictly a carnivore, I'll grant you.

You have answered your own question. Are humans carnivores? No we are not. Not herbivore, not carnivore, therefore omnivore.

[mars]

Hi All

First of all I want to thank LinkC for his excellent elucidation, and I am in full agreement with Drubin. This thread may well get me back to being a vegetarian again .

As always, there is a spanner lying around somewhere just asking to be thrown into the works -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3e5wueoN4U

and this lady is still going strong -

http://www.rickross.com/reference/breat/breat07.html

and so you can make up your own mind about her -

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=jasmu ... =firefox-a

and we still have -

http://www.gondwananet.com/australian-a ... -food.html

Versatility and imagination are the hallmarks of humans, and I guess that includes nutrition, but as far as health is concerned then vegetarianism beats flesh eating any day of the week, prejudices or predilections notwithstanding.

My diet of potato chips, mars bars and custard pies may not suit everybody, but hey ..........I am still here and full of health.... .... well, perhaps not exactly full of health...... .........or even slightly full............. ...........but who cares as long as there is another custard pie to be eaten

cheers

Mars

PS One thing I love about this Forum is that I get to use words I have never used before

[napstress]

We can extract the fats, starches and sugars and anything that's water or fat soluble from them, so long as they're thoroughly chewed, but the vast bulk passes right through undigested

That is supposed to happen (. . . .) Nature does not create inefficient animals, just animals that fit different niches.

Well said, snug.

I get razzed about the poor plants that are being sacrificed for me, however plants are not flesh of a living creature.

I used to worry about this, too, when I was a vegetarian. Plants are living creatures whose bodies we eat. I believe they absolutely do take it as personally as any other creature who dies so that another creature can live. I finally resolved the issue by connecting with the fact that life on Earth means eating other creatures in order to thrive (lucky for us: what a pleasant activity eating is!). The best I can do is withhold my support from the sustained torture of the animals I eat (too many chickens confined to cages; baby cows deprived of movement and light so as to provide the most tender veal, etc.) and eat only those creatures that are not threatened with extinction. And I look forward to giving back generously when I die to anyone who might find me tasty and nutritious. I've eaten so well, here on planet Earth! I'd love to give back.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think...

as for the ad Hominem at the end of your post,

SBF, Don't you mean ad Houyhnhnm?

[BlackSpinner]

Humans are like a car from one of those chop-shops. Evolution took a chassis from a herbivore that ate mostly fruit, added some meat functions, increased the brain size, made it bipedal (note those two mods meant child birth became a REAL pain for the females, but hey it worked - not perfectly but it worked). One of the things that shows we were herbivore is our vision, we can spot an unmoving fruit at a hundred paces. Carnivores have a different kind of vision.

Evolution doesn't care about perfection, just efficiency in reproduction.
Humans use their brains to adapt to their environment and to adapt their environment to their needs. Right now we need to deal with the environment (mostly human made) that is killing people with bad nutrition. You could look at in an evolutionary terms - people who can't handle a fast food urban lifestyle are being killed off at a high rate due to obesity and other related ills. That will leave only the ones who adapted, either mentally or physically. Considering the worlds population this might not be a bad thing.