by Bangalore 69 Replies latest jw friends
@still thinking
Here's a quote from the article you linked to:
Chimpanzees are largely fruit eaters, and meat composes only about 3% of the time they spent eating overall, less than in nearly all human societies
Here's another article summarizing studies showing total meat consumption for Chimpanzees is around 1.4% of their overall diet.
http://www.ecologos.org/chimphunt.htm
Putting that in perspective the typical western diet consists of anywhere from 10%-30% meat.
I agree that we probably need to eat less meat than we generally do...but I don't agree we are not meat eaters...here is another quote from that site...
One of the main recent findings about hunting by chimpanzees was its seasonality (Stanford et al. 1994a). At Gombe, nearly 40 % of the kills of colobus monkeys occur in the dry season months of August and September. This is apparently a time of food shortage in the forest, since the chimpanzees' body weights do decline (Wrangham 1975). This is actually less strongly seasonal than in the Mahale Mountains, where 60% of kills occur in a 2 month period in the early wet season. Why would chimpanzees hunt more often in some months than in others ? This is an important question, because studies of early hominid diets have shown that meat-eating occurred most often in the dry season, at the same time that meat-eating peaks among Gombe chimpanzees (Speth 1989). And the amount of meat eaten, even though it composed a small percentage of the chimpanzee diet, is substantial. I estimate that in some years, the 45 chimpanzees of the main study community at Gombe kill and consume more than 1500 pounds of prey animals of all species. This is far more than most previous estimates of the weight of live animals eaten by chimpanzees. A large proportion of this amount is eaten in the dry season months of August and September. In fact, during the peak dry season months, the estimated per capita meat intake is about 65 grams of meat per day for each adult chimpanzee. This approaches the meat intake by the members of some human foraging societies in the lean months of the year.Chimpanzee dietary strategies may thus approximate those of human hunter-gatherers to a greater degree than we had imagined.
Facts support meat (and animal protein) being a very minor part of human diet. That doesn't make us "meat-eaters" or carnivores , rather humans are primarily herbivores that occasionally can eat meat (e.g. Once a week as a maximum).
Personally I ate meat for 35 years of my life, and probably as much or more than most people. I quit because of the negative health effects. Since starting a plant based diet, my cholesterol, and blood pressure is better than people half my age. And generally I feel I have more energy. I eat meat maybe once every two months.
My kids have never eaten meat, or dairy products. They are much taller (and stronger) than their peers at school, and seem to be much better at sport and fitness activities. Despite my eldest son being a good 4 inches taller than his cousin who is 3 years older than him, my mum always says "Are you sure they get enough protein" and "how do they get calcium if they don't have dairy". It's these types of stereotypical responses that have no factual basis, and are primarily based on propaganda from the meat and dairy industries.
I'm not quite sold on that biometrics since we didn't develop agriculture until 10,000 years ago. Humans definately didn't eat grains then. Lot's of fruits, nuts, berries, roots, wild vegetables, and whatever they got by hunting and fishing, which probably accounted for a lot of it during non-seasonal parts of the year. Lots of fiber, but probably an overall low-carb diet. Basically whatever the heck they could find or kill.
What sort or reasoning is that bio?....My son eats meat and he is taller than a lot of his peers, he is 16 and about 6'......I am not sure height is related to eating or not eating meat...it is more about genetics and all the things in our diets.
@Razziel
I try to deal in facts and current evicence, not fiction. There's actually no human records going beyond 5,000 years ago (but that's another topic, for another thread), so it's impossible to determine whether or not agriculture was developed prior to that. I'll leave it at that, but if you'd like to start another thread for that topic I'd be on it.
@still thinking
What sort or reasoning is that bio?
It's the same logic as my mum (and other people) saying "Are you sure they[my kids] get enough protein [not eating meat]" and "how do they get calcium if they[my kids] don't have dairy". I merely pointed out they are healthy, and my mother does't say a word about their (growth-stunted) cousins. In my opinion they are healthier than their peers, and certianlly don't get ill as often.
The paleo humans were omnivores. That is a fact. Heck, look at the diets of isolated tribes living as our ancestors did tens of thousands of years ago. They all eat meat. Some traditional tribal diets, like the Inuit's, are almost 100% meat based.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Diet
Here's a hint, this isn't for berry harvesting:
.jpg/727px-Bifaz_de_Atapuerca_(TG10).jpg)
Yes, well that is silly reasoning too isn't it...I'm sure you give your kids a ballanced diet. I don't think you can't have a ballanced diet without meat, in fact, I think it suits some people better...but.... I just think we are meant to have some meat in our diet.
One of the differences is that the traditional Inuit's diet is very high in Omega-3 fats while our western diet is very high in Omega-6 fats. Science has shown that the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 should be as close to a ratio of 1:1 and certainly no more than 4:1. Inuits are about the only peoples to approach the 1:1 ratio while we typically come in at 20:1 and the real junk foodists are measuring in at upwards of 50:1 ratios. A balanced Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio promotes a homeostasis, non-inflammatory state in the body while a tilt to the high Omega-6 side will promote an inflammatory and therefore disease and degenerative state.
It's a bit of a far stretch to justify a western meat diet with the Inuit's mostly raw diet of fish and seal fat. Not only that, as you've stated they've had thousands of years to adapt to that diet.
