Here’s a great article about human evolution and eating meat.

With being vegetarian, it was more from a dietary perspective, and from my reading at the time, that we don’t really need meat, and it can promote ’sluggishness’ in the digestive system. Subsequently better uptake of nutrients from vegetables and fruit. There was also in interesting comparison of digestive tract of herbivores and carnivores compared to humans. Where humans digestive tract is more like that of herbivores.

If anything I could agree that we are reasonably equipped to be omnivores and ’scavengers’, but we aren’t like the meat eaters of the animal kingdom such as wild cats etc. …but I’m still open on that one. I know I feel somewhat heavy and sluggish after I eat meat and it even gives me stomach ache these days. So I keep it as little as possible.

I’m aware that I need to be more conscientious when it comes to ensuring proper intake of amino acids to make up complete proteins, but after a while it just becomes habit. Just like anything I guess. As an athlete that is constantly travelling though, it does become very difficult and I invariably eat more meat while I’m touring because there are simply no other appropriate sources of protein. I will generally have more fish though.

I’ll look forward to having a read of your article on vegetarianism.

I don’t know if I’ve already written in one of my posts, but congratulation on a fantastic site. The wealth of information on here is amazing. I’m going to be here for quite a while doing some reading. I look forward to enjoying future blogs.

Your argument of us living longer now is a common one. Although it’s a valid point, there are a few reasons why lifespan is not a good measure of health.

The primary reasons why we live longer today is because modern technology makes life easier and safer and modern medicine allows us to survive infections that would have been fatal for our ancestors. Modern medicine has also greatly reduced infant mortality which is of particular importance because having a lot of deaths at age zero obviously has a tremendous effect on average lifespan statistics.

The most important consideration in this regard is quality of life. Sure, many people live into their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond, but many are already living a very compromised and limited life by their 40s and 50s. In studies of primitive cultures, it’s not uncommon for people to live as long as we do today, and when they do, they are still physically functional, mentally sharp, and they don’t have heart disease, cancer, or any of the other conditions that are so common in modern society.

I completely agree with your common sense approach that foods provided by nature are typically the healthiest choices. Meat and saturated fat are part of this!

There have been a number of primitive cultures who thrived largely on cow’s milk or goat’s milk. Based on the notion that it was most likely not a significant part of our evolution, I agree that dairy is not the best choice, but it can be part of an excellent diet, particularly for people who are capable of digesting it well.

I think it’s great that you haven’t simply dismissed these issues and are willing to read more about them. I suggest that you check out the work of Dr. Weston Price and also check out the Weston A. Price Foundation. They have a lot of great information on their site.

The Fat Head documentary, which is the subject of this article, is great as well. The article I wrote about cholesterol myths might also be helpful.

I don’t know your reason for being a vegetarian, but I appreciate your choice. While some people do well on this type of diet, it’s important to realize that some don’t, and being an athlete makes it even more of a challenge. Here’s a bit more of my opinion on vegetarianism. If animal cruelty is your primary motivation, you can avoid this issue by buying meat from conscientious farmers which is something that we all should be doing anyway.

There are so many things to consider when it comes to our diet and history I think? …it’s quite valid to look back at history to look at what people ate 100’s, even 1000’s of years ago. And of course they survived. But it’s also known that we live much longer these days …so we’re still not quite comparing apples with apples in a way.

For me, a common sense approach really needs to be taken to the things we put in our bodies. If it’s provided by nature, pretty safe bet it’s good for us …well, either that or it will kill us outright! So, we’ll learn quickly to avoid those! :/

Vegetables, fruits, nuts etc and then meats I guess (I have been vegetarian for about 24 years now). For me, drinking cows milk (and milk products) just seems completely wrong and ‘un’ natural. When you look at it, mammals that drink milk do so as new born infants, These new born infants are eventaully weened off milk to then eat more solid foods and never drink mothers milk again. So why do we, as *adult* humans drink milk ….and why then are we drinking ‘cows’ milk? …cows don’t even drink it!

on the issue of being vegetarian …I do so more from what I consider to be an appropriate dietary perspective. With a high does of raw foods, I will eat meat occassionally. I’m not adverse to it, I just don’t think it’s good for us to eat too much of it.

On the issue of fat …..hhhmmmm, I’m out on that one. I would say that high amounts of anything wouldnt’ be good for us …be it saturated fat, unsaturated fat, sugar, fruit etc etc

….again, if in doubt ….if it’s overly processed or needs a lot done to it before we can eat it, then maybe it should be questioned whether we should be eating at all? When I use oil, I use virgin cold pressed olive oils. …or what ever oil.

sorry, I think this reply got a bit disjointed! …I felt like I wanted to say 100 things and just wanted to keep it brief. Let me work on that!

It is very sad to think that fast food took an unneccessary turn for the worst when saturated fat was unjustly named the villain. Our bodies got turned onto trans fats, fake oils and too much sugar and carbs in the place of good healthy animal fat.

At any rate, fast food is just that: fast. it was never meant to be part of a nutritious diet, but it could certainly be much better than it is now if we went back to our old fashioned food values.

I would love to go back to the old fashioned McDonald’s french fries. They were the best for taste and as it turns out, much better for you than canola or vegetable oil fries.