[370] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: Length of intestine and what you should eat
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ed Piekos)
Mon Feb 20 19:32:52 1995
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 19:32:11 EST
From: Ed Piekos <espiekos@MIT.EDU>
Yup, I'd tend to agree that we may have messed up in starting to eat meat
(biologically, that is. It is clear this habit is messing other things up
due to the way we go about it these days, but that's off-topic). I have seen
study after study showing that meat does this or that nasty thing to you but
few modern studies have reached that conclusion about vegetarianism. Actually,
I can't think of any off-hand except for one that concluded that vegans tend to
suffer from a higher incidence of dental caries. If those canine teeth of ours
are meant to chomp flesh, how come it is so bad for us? A meat-eater may argue
that you need vitamin B-12 and that comes mainly from meat. I'd counter that
we have trouble getting B-12 these days from non-meat sources because we are
just too darned sanitary; B-12 is manufactured by bacteria and there is lots
of it in dirty veggies, tempeh processed in certain countries that aren't
quite so careful about cleanliness in manufacture, etc. We've even discussed
on this list previously how B-12 is manufactured by our own intestines but,
alas, downstream of where it is absorbed, so it probably not available to us.
Another evolutionary goof?
I guess meat-eating makes sense if you are wandering around in the jungle and
running from predators, however, because it is very calorie and protein dense.
If you put yourself at risk looking for food and you don't know when your next
meal will be, I suppose primitive man might have logically chosen something
dead for lunch. I saw someone write once, in fact, that that's why we crave
fat (you know, the fat-free cookies never taste *quite* as good as the killer
kind). Fat has more than twice the calories per gram of carbohydrates or
proteins. It therefore has the most bang for the buck. If you happen upon
a food source but you don't know when you will have to leave it because
something chases you away, you will go for the fat first. Needless to say,
however, I have yet to be chased out of a restaurant, so I think we have
the luxury of making more cognitive food choices based on what is good for
our bodies. If you are running around in the jungle, rather than sitting
in front of a computer, there is probably a bit more leeway in what kind
of nutritional abuse you can tolerate.
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