Are Humans Naturally Veg Or Non-veg ?

[savramesh 37]

Humans are naturally plant-eaters according to the best evidence: our bodies

Read here

Some arguments on Meat Eating

Read here

Eight Arguments in Favor of Eating Meat and Objections Thereto

Read here

Edited September 21, 2009 by savramesh

[commonman 228]

All really good arguments. From the point of view of respective authors.

But they all omit one basic form of non-veg. Fish.

The longest living persons of modern age all come from one single country. Japan. And they don't eat meat, they eat fish.

Fish has soft but multi-layered flesh. So you don't need sharp canines. But you need strong jaw bones and also need to pre digest the food before it reaches the stomach.

Palaeontologists say that somewhere in the evolution of Humans, we took to the sea. Which explains the shape of our feet and our lack of body fur. It also modified our respiratory system to help develop the vocal chord. And in sea, the only available food is fish. And the fish protein also helped develop the brain to make us what we are today.

So by that logic, we are neither vegetarian nor meat eaters but fish eaters.

[ani_meher 42]

Along with fish, I also like chicken-fish and goat-fish

Good thread btw.

[kshah 452]

Good thread but I am vegetarian (from 1984 to 1990, I had been non vegetarian -when I was doing lots of exercise - but could not prove myself that meat and eggs are good for body building and strength, so quit and became vegetarian again). My body feels more comfortable being vegetarian. I dont know about others. I believe vegetarianism is more eco friendly too - this is yet another reason for me converting to strict vegetarianism.

[ani_meher 42]

I absolutely respect vegans, and more so converts who aren't hell bent on converting others like PETA. Hats off kshah! Being a non-veg eating person, in my heart I know that eating vegs is perhaps more suited to the body than nonveg, but till the time I don't feel so from the inside, shifting to veg by peer pressure is just another adjustment.

Though glad to know fishes are good for man

[savramesh 37]

Becoming vegetarian is one of the most important and effective actions you can take to ease the strain on our Earth’s limited resources, protect the planet from pollution, prevent global warming, and save countless species from extinction.

According to Dr. David Brubaker, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future, “The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs. The results are disastrous.”

As the Sierra Club put it in their 2002 report on animal factories, “environmental violations by the meat industry add up to a rap sheet longer than War and Peace.”

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“Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.”

--American Dietetic Association, June 2003 position paper

[savramesh 37]

Link between meat eating and climate change

Video

You can't be a meat eating environmentalist

Video

World Food Crisis: Is Meat Consumption a Major Cause

Video

World Food Crisis: Another Major Cause

Video

whats the best action to take on Earth Day?

Video

Earthlings (download)

If you can't download Earthlings, you can watch it in several parts on You Tube

"Vegan - Vegetarian Solutions for a Sustainable Environment" podcast

[kshah 452]

When I was studying for brief period I was attracted to a project run by Prince Charles or may be he was one of the member named "HUNGER PROJECT" there I came across statistics of impact of meat production over agriculture.

[KumaarShah 143]

@savramesh,

Thanks for your educative and informative thread.

I do not have much time currently to go through all your links and videos etc. I will see it later when I have sufficient time.

I am a Jain and a pure veg from birth and I also strongly believe in vegetarianism.

I read somewhere that if all mankind becomes pure grass eaters, then maybe more than half the world's population will have to go hungry without food as so much food cannot be produced for all.

[savramesh 37]

I read somewhere that if all mankind becomes pure grass eaters, then maybe more than half the world's population will have to go hungry without food as so much food cannot be produced for all.

Please read the second link.. you will get answers..

Just think, for meat we are populating the animals more.. and to get every KG of meat so much quantity of food are given to the animal. if all the resources used for producing meat is used for producing veg foods then it will feed more people.

[savramesh 37]

Cereal grains and cancer - No primates other than humans ordinarily consume cereal grains, but from the introduction of agriculture onwards grains have been the single most important contributor to human food energy, providing from 40 to 90% of human caloric requirements. In doing so they have displaced fruits and vegetables which, until the Neolithic, had been the dominant energy source for Stone Agers, earlier hominids and our antecedent primate ancestors for 50 million years. A recent comprehensive analysis (150 scientists reviewed 4500 research studies) puts this phenomenon into perspective (World Cancer Research Fund & American Institute for Cancer Research, 1997). The influence of dietary variables on 18 different cancers was assessed. Vegetables were found to exert a convincing preventive effect for five cancers, a probable preventive effect for four others, and a possible preventive effect for another seven. For fruits the analysis revealed four convincing, four probable and four possible preventive relationships. But for cereal grains there were no convincing or probable preventive relationships, only one possible preventive effect and, for one cancer (of the esophagus) grains may possibly have increased risk.

In short, the best available evidence suggests that vegetables and fruits have far more cancer-preventing potential than do grains. This probably reflects the phytochemical content of fruits and vegetables, phytochemicals to which current human biology became adapted through many million years of evolutionary interrelationships. The phytochemicals of grains have interacted with the human genome for only 10,000 years, hence substitution of grains for vegetables and fruits in human diets might readily diminish our resistance to development of neoplastic disease.

[savramesh 37]

Some humans eat plant based food.. some humans eat animal based food also.. now what do that animal eat ? Yes plant based food.. carnivore eats herbivore, herbivore eats plant based food.. if we see the food cycle, all are depending on plant based food either directly or indirectly.. even the basic food for sea life is plant based.. algae or plankton.

[Shabz 8]

In one of the arguement for veg food it says "the largest carnivore was T rex (where is it now?)" My question is The largest herbivore was Brontasaurus where is it now

[savramesh 37]

In one of the arguement for veg food it says "the largest carnivore was T rex (where is it now?)" My question is The largest herbivore was Brontasaurus where is it now

Avian infection could have killed Tyrannosaurus rex

Source

Contrary to popular belief that bacterial bone infection or bite wounds from other tyrannosaurids could have killed Tyrannosaurus rex, a study suggests that they were killed by a common avian infection (Trichomonas gallinae).

Nothing new

This study provides evidence for the “ancient evolutionary origin of an avian transmissible disease in non-avian theropod dinosaurs,” notes the paper published in PLoS One journal.

The study shows that cross-species infection is not a modern phenomenon but was present even millions of years ago.

The paper is based on a study of ‘Sue’ — the Tyrannosaurus rex that is exhibited at the Field Museum in Chicago, and other specimens.

Ewan D.S. Wolff from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the first author of the paper, found similar lesions in 15 per cent of the 61 T. rex individuals examined.

Though concrete evidence of how the infection killed the tyrannosaurids is not available, the authors note: “These animals died as a direct result of this disease, mostly likely through starvation.”

Tell-tale marks

Most predatory dinosaurs exhibit bone traumas on the head. They also show cranial abnormalities that are very different from injuries caused by biting. The lesions have a very distinct shape — smooth-edged erosive lesions that are commonly seen in the mandible.

Similar abnormalities in the mandible are seen in modern birds that are infected by the avian parasitic infection. It is commonly seen in both wild and domestic pigeons, and even in turkeys and chickens.

They suggest five possible scenarios for transmission: water-borne transmission, feeding of tainted prey to nestlings, consumption of infected prey, cannibalism, or snout to snout contact between two individuals. However, little proof is available for of the most scenarios.

“Evidence supports the possibility of transmission via snout-to-snout contact in a modification of the bill-to-bill transmission that can occur in living birds,” they write.

The study of the dinosaurs makes one thing clear: T. gallina-type infection followed the same route of disease development. Immaterial of the route of infection, the infection within the oropharynz could have spread to other tissues by invading the mucosal surface. This is what is seen in modern birds.

The infection could have then become chronic in the mandible, which in turn could have made feeding very difficult, as is the case with modern birds infected by the bacteria. The T. rex could have ultimately died of starvation.

[petar 15]

intresting thread/