Is it dangerous to eat meat?

[perseus]

Everlasting Cow Pats

I wouldn't eat too much cow. They pump them full of chemicals.

Pony can be dodgy as well.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I think the advice of better quality, but less meat in your diet is a good one generally.

 

[beorhthelm]

On which basis?

on the basis that other higher primate also eat meat and we have canine teeth which serve no other purpose. we also cannot synthesise several proteins and vitamins that we get from meat (some are available in veg but require copious amounts). we can eat raw meat just not an awful lot of it, and possibly less now than a few tens of thousand years ago as we have developed a diet with more grains from farming. we do often wake consumed with the desire to eat meat especially in pregnancy. we have adapted to be flexible in our diet.

 

[Diego Napier]

on the basis that other higher primate also eat meat and we have canine teeth which serve no other purpose. we also cannot synthesise several proteins and vitamins that we get from meat (some are available in veg but require copious amounts). we can eat raw meat just not an awful lot of it, and possibly less now than a few tens of thousand years ago as we have developed a diet with more grains from farming. we do often wake consumed with the desire to eat meat especially in pregnancy. we have adapted to be flexible in our diet.

Rather feeble and tenuous rejoinder.

Please list the proteins and vitamins.

(In the overall scheme of thinks, I would think that there should be far greater concern about the deficiencies in the mono diet of junk food (meat) eaters rather that worrying about a few vitamins that may be difficult to assimilate from vegetarian fare).

We have "canine" teeth that serve no other purpose? Rather poor response to the extensive anatomical and physiological evidence that points against your assertion

We do often wake consumed with the desire to eat (raw) meat? Really? I would suggest you've seen a few too many Hannibal Lecter films.

I agree that we have adapted to be flexible in our diet however we have not evolved as carnivores and meat consumption is a very recent addition to some human diets

 

[chucky1973]

theres nothing worng with horse meat anyway, had a few Cheval Burgers in my time and not bad at all.

 

[beorhthelm]

Please list the proteins and vitamins.

Iron, Calcium, Zinc, some of the B vitamins. i dont recall the proteins, they can be metobolised from others, but its easier to get them direct. in some cases the form of a mineral in vegtables are less suitable for us than the meat form, particularly Iron. basically eating meat is a really good way to get pre-processed high density nutrition.

We have "canine" teeth that serve no other purpose? Rather poor response to the extensive anatomical and physiological evidence that points against your assertion

so there is a purpose then? herbivores have canines?

we have not evolved as carnivores

who said that we have? omnivores, we eat everything. some anatomy points to herbivores, some to carnivores. this isnt recent and its shown in our close primate cousins.

We do often wake consumed with the desire to eat (raw) meat? Really?

did i say that? why are you distorting things? i said we can eat raw meat and that we do crave meat. my sister turned from 10 year vegetarian to carnivore overnight when pregnant, indeed it was the cravings for meat that made her suspect she had a bun in the oven.

 

[Diego Napier]

Iron, Calcium, Zinc, some of the B vitamins. i dont recall the proteins, they can be metobolised from others, but its easier to get them direct. in some cases the form of a mineral in vegtables are less suitable for us than the meat form, particularly Iron. basically eating meat is a really good way to get pre-processed high density nutrition.



so there is a purpose then? herbivores have canines?


who said that we have? omnivores, we eat everything. some anatomy points to herbivores, some to carnivores. this isnt recent and its shown in our close primate cousins.




did i say that? why are you distorting things? i said we can eat raw meat and that we do crave meat. my sister turned from 10 year vegetarian to carnivore overnight when pregnant, indeed it was the cravings for meat that made her suspect she had a bun in the oven.

Your post stated "we also cannot synthesise several proteins and vitamins that we get from meat (some are available in veg but require copious amounts)" These are all available from legumes, pulses, nuts, seeds and greens in quantities that don't require excessive or copious consumption. There is no higher incidence of iron deficiency in vegetarians than there is in meat eaters.

The overwhelming evidence is that we evolved as herbivores/frugivores; your single physiological rebutal based on our canine teeth being slightly longer than the rest could equally be used to support the assertion that we are vampire descendants.

I did not intend to distort what you stated. My original statement was "The day that you wake up and find yourself consumed with the desire to pounce upon a bird, tear its still living limbs apart with your teeth and suck its warm blood is the time when you might consider that you're designed to eat meat." I had assumed you understood I referred to raw meat, as for you to state in reply that "we do often wake consumed with the desire to eat meat" and mean cooked meat is to totally and utterly miss the point I was making.

 

[Hillian1]

 

[beorhthelm]

The overwhelming evidence is that we evolved as herbivores/frugivores; your single physiological rebutal based on our canine teeth being slightly longer than the rest could equally be used to support the assertion that we are vampire descendants.

funny how such a significant physiological attribute is so easily dismissed. funny how the point that our primate cousins also eat meat is utterly ignored. back to the main point however, is there has been evidence of hundreds of thousands of years (going on millions), which covers man and pre-man ancestors, of meat eating. there are theories that suggest eating meat in increased quantities made us evolve, and this began before advent of controled fire. we werent "designed" to do alot of things (like standing up and child birth apparently) but we get on with them rather well.

 

[Diego Napier]

funny how such a significant physiological attribute is so easily dismissed. funny how the point that our primate cousins also eat meat is utterly ignored. back to the main point however, is there has been evidence of hundreds of thousands of years (going on millions), which covers man and pre-man ancestors, of meat eating. there are theories that suggest eating meat in increased quantities made us evolve, and this began before advent of controled fire. we werent "designed" to do alot of things (like standing up and child birth apparently) but we get on with them rather well.

Dismissing your slightly longer canines argument because it pales into insignificance compared to the weight of the other far more telling attributes that I listed. I accept that chimpanzees have recently been filmed eating another chimpanzee (as I accept that in our past some humans also ate other humans) but it isn't/wasn't widespread and we were/are not designed to do so.

Back to the main point however, you originally asserted that "we are intended to eat meat" and now say that there is evidence to support "hundreds of thousands of years (going on millions)" of meat eating. What is this evidence?

I've shown that our bodies aren't designed to eat meat. Some humans may have chosen or been forced through circumstances to eat meat but the anatomic/physiological evidence demonstrates that it's learned or opportunistic behaviour. This is bourne out by the wide variation in meat that humans consume; cow but not horse in England, no cow in India, no pork in Israel, "euch, I wouldn't eat rabbit/tripe/kidney/heart/brain/whelks/caterpillars/mechanically reclaimed meat etc. etc." all driven by culture/geography/religion/health. Animals designed to eat meat do just that and don't make these finickity distinctions.

I'm not sure the point that you're making about childbirth but standing up is something that our bodies have evolved to do with reasonable success. Our bodies haven't evolved to eat meat however some humans have taken the opportunity to eat some types of it.

 

[beorhthelm]

Back to the main point however, you originally asserted that "we are intended to eat meat" and now say that there is evidence to support "hundreds of thousands of years (going on millions)" of meat eating. What is this evidence?

i wasnt going to bother, but since it took 5 seconds to type a search, heres a stab at it. down there somewhere a mention of Homo habilis, which are reckoned to have used tools for butchery.

 

[Diego Napier]

i wasnt going to bother, but since it took 5 seconds to type a search, heres a stab at it. down there somewhere a mention of Homo habilis, which are reckoned to have used tools for butchery.

Thanks, a good example of learned or opportunistic behaviour as opposed to evidence that humans are designed or intended to eat meat.

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i wasnt going to bother, but since it took 5 seconds to type a search, heres a stab at it. down there somewhere a mention of Homo habilis, which are reckoned to have used tools for butchery.

Thanks, a good example of learned or opportunistic behaviour as opposed to evidence that humans are designed or intended to eat meat.