Eating Animals is Making us Sick

Humans were meant to be omnivores vs. humans were meant to be vegetarians...

How about humans were meant to have a free choice and to decide for themselves what they should eat?

So make your decision, stick to it and don't try to impose it on other people against their will.

But for heaven's sake, make an informed decision. Don't just go with the flow cause you were "meant" to eat this or that, or cause your mama said it's good for you.

Oh and by the way, me-------> vegetarian. Maybe not by design, but by informed decision.

Edit: spelling...

[edit on 28-10-2009 by Wallachian]

reply to post by Rawhemp

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Dude, we need meat for many reasons. One of which is to get adequate zinc. It's virtually impossible to keep a healthy copper to zinc ratio without consuming meats. All sorts of problems happen when zinc gets too low and copper gets too high. I know because I tried to stop meats a couple of years ago and I went psychotic! Vegetarians are slowly killing their selves through their deprivation.

reply to post by Tallsorts

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What flesh did you eat then?

Human?

What do you eat to replace the meat, if you don't mind me asking?

I went vegan for three days this year, It was a lazy fast actually for some cleansing I felt my body needed, the first thing I noticed was that I was always, always hungry(I am not normally a large eater, usually eat only one meal a day.), also noted I began to feel like total crap. Just my experience.

reply to post by HunkaHunka

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I think the CNN title is a bit misleading.

The article is about the negative effects of eating factory farmed meat, not meat in general.

I know you didn't title it, though.

[edit on 28-10-2009 by Point of No Return]

reply to post by HunkaHunka

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The contamination of the food supply is what is killing us not meat. With the invention of GMO soy, now is not a good time to be vegetarian unless you want to bulk up.

People need to be educated, factory farming is something we should be ashamed of. If people were not so content in eating crap like mcdonalds,burger king or microwave meals and instead bought good pieces of meat we wouldn't have this problem. Yes it's more expensive, but if you can't afford to eat good meat all the time then simply cut down like i have. Just makes it all the more enjoyable when you get a nice big grilled rib eye. A small change people can make that is not as expensive as red meat is free range chicken. They are so cheap nowadays that it should be the norm for people to buy free-range chicken and eggs. I would be wary though and some advertised as free-range are not what you imagine. As for all the vegetarians, humans are omnivores..that's just a fact.

And i'm a vegetarian, not an omnivore. Also a fact. Does that make me un-human?

Again, the thing is, i have a choice. I can choose what i eat. A cat for instance can't. And even if it somehow decided to eat only grass, a cat can't survive on anything but meat.

I on the other hand, not only survive without eating meat, but i actually live a pretty good life without eating meat, and have been doing so for a long time now.

I'm not a nutritionist or a biology major or a doctor or a geneticist....so I can't comment on whether or not we "need" meat to survive and be healthy, but I CAN tell you what I know to be unhealthy...and that is our attitude toward food. Humans are the only organisms that I know of to eat out of pure "entertainment".

"Hey Jim, whad'da do this weekend?"
"Aw, you know...took my old lady out to [insert Steakhouse name here] for our anniversary. I tried their 52oz Beltcrusher! ...it was a blast!".

This kind of attitude towards food needs to change. People need to eat less (scientifically proven to lengthen your lifespan), and bring back "responsible" Animal Husbandry.

Whether you eat meat or not....we can all agree that the methodology of it currently sucks.

I would never suggest changing diet from animal products to Vegetarian or Vegan, without reading up on the nutritional information.

A nutritionally balanced vegan diet is very varied, and no less enjoyable than a meat based diet. There should be no need to feel hungry, if you have eaten properly, whatever your diet.

There are a great number of misconceptions as to what a vegan diet comprises, but you can eat vegan in Italian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, English & American.

Eat meat if you want; it's none of my business. But for anyone seriously interested in Vegan, Google vegan and Images too, and you'll be amazed at the variety of food available.

reply to post by Wallachian

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You know exactly what i meant when i said humans are omnivores, we can eat pretty much anything hence we are omnivores. Im not talking about what people choose to eat simply what they can.

Yes, you survive, because you have the luxury option to replace the meat with something else to provide you with essential nutrients.

I don't know what you replace meat with, but I don't think the natural hunter-gatherer, of the old days, had the luxury to pass on the meat.

From a natural standpoint, humans are omnivores, and meat eaters.

It's just that we're not living naturally anymore.

reply to post by Tallsorts

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I did very indepth research into it before I did it and followed nutritionists' advice on preplanned meals etc...never felt satisfied and got really sick. Could never ever do that again...now someone pass me the mcdonald's lol...

Absolutely. People that choose to be vegetarian do so only because they are afforded that choice in the land of plenty. In the wild, a human will eat whatever they can get...not by choice, but by survival instinct.

reply to post by Solomons

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You're right, I know what you meant, i was just making a point that even though people can eat everything, they don't have to. By saying "humans are omnivores" you make it sound like it's the law of gravity or something else that can't or must not be broken.

Oh and by the way i do agree with everything else you said, about factory farming, free range chicken, mcdonald's and so on. The world would be a much better place if all meat eaters thought like that!

Except for one small point.

We ain't bears, and bears ain't primates.

A couple of species of chimps eat meat, but that's about it.

That has to be about the worst argument I've seen on here regarding the eating of meat

We actually need very little meat, and only for protein - we can get the same protein and everything else we need from plants.

The fact is people CHOOSE to eat meat because it's tasty, not because they HAVE to.

Truth is 1c I realized as a young child that all our meat is slaughtered I felt bad for the animals like there is not some other way to eat other then how we do. I would try and put my mind state in that of the cow walking its last walk to death, and wondered does that cow know its about to die. I felt iF these animals do know they are about to die then we are building up some SERIOUS BAD KARMA WITH MOTHER NATURE. LORD I HOPE NOT

Also A HEALTHY FRUIT AND VEGGIE. DIET WOULD INCREASE global health and save on healthcare in our futures. I am down to stop eating them I just need to figure out how to do so.

[edit on 10/28/09 by Ophiuchus 13]

Well i wouldn't exactly call giving up on something a luxury but yeah, i have the luxury of choice. There are many people in the world who don't have the luxury of choice, nor the luxury of eating meat.

As for hunter-gatherers, we've come a long time from them. Your average hunter gatherer may not have been a vegetarian, but then again he didn't see too many fast foods and burgers in his life either. Different times, different lifestyles and food choices.

Oh and about the fact that human have canine teeth and therefore we must be meat eaters... Let's take my friend Mr. Gorilla here:



Oh my, those are some big teeth Mr. Gorilla! And you say you're a vegan??

Fact is, you guys are saying we have always been omnivores, but the truth is nobody knows for sure what the first human beings were eating. Human species have been through a lot, including an ice age in which vegetation was scarce. Humans adapt to basically anything, they might have adapted to eating meat during the ice age.

[edit on 28-10-2009 by Wallachian]

Actually, our teeth are perfect for an omnivorous diet. Just compare our teeth to that of a gorillas (who are herbivorous). Their teeth are totally flat. Plus, our diets are really more comparable to that of a chimp. We can pretty much eat anything.

I would also suggest looking at Native American civilization before western contact. Free range buffalo hunting and little sickness.

I once talked to a guy who tried to go totally vegetarian. He said that he began to crave raw meat and bone marrow!

Soon meat will be grown from stemcells in large containers that will produce sheets of muscle to be consumed. Every part of an animal that is farmed can be produced using stemcell tech without the need for the brain.

This is why aliens are not here to eat us or steal our brain juice.... because they can make an infinite quantity themselves artificialy.