Neanderthin Diet
I met with the author of this book some time ago. His diet plan essentially
goes off the premise "If you can spear it, you can eat it." It is very
controversial, which is my just cup of tea. He and many others have personal
experience with using this diet to cure Diabetes, arthritis, unusual muscle
mass gain, extremely low Cholesterol counts, and other interesting effects
of eating nothing by meat, fruit, and vegetables grown above ground. The
author eat a pound of Bacon a day, chicken and salad for lunch, and Beef or
pork for dinner. He has a low Cholesterol count that would amaze any doctor.
The site is also controversial, with such statements like: Cholesterol does
not cause heart disease, Grains cause auto-immune diseases, and is quite
cancerous, discussion about the Kellogg Conspiracy (a conspiracy to convert
the American diet to a grain-based diet), Neanderthal diet theories, and so
on.
http://www.neanderthin.com/
Interesting afternoon reading.
and just to get the ball rolling here in this discussion, here is an excerpt
from the FAQ on the site:
"Q: I love animals. Can I practice NeanderThin as a vegetarian?
A: No. Without red meat the human body lacks the enzymes to process iron.
Iron deficiency may be responsible for the high incidence of retardation,
birth defects, and weakened physical condition endemic in vegetarian
societies. Without the proteins contained in the forbidden foods (grains,
beans, dairy products), severe protein deficiencies will occur which could
be life threatening.
As the principle cause of animal extinction and death is the plow
and not the slaughterhouse, vegetarians actually kill more animals through
starvation and habitat destruction than does the meat-eater through his
dietary habits. All the plants and animals that once inhabited the
cultivated land must be killed to provide space for vegetable crops. Plowing
accomplishes this "ecocide" very efficiently, but plowing also causes
topsoil to erode by exposing it to wind and rain. Erosion can cause even the
most fertile fields to become barren, sometimes in less than 100 years of
cultivation. Some lifeforms that inhibit good crop yields survive the
onslaught of the plow. Such organisms (insects, weeds, etc.) must be fought
using herbicides and insecticides. The more dependent a population is on
vegetable crops, the more wild animal and plant habitats it must destroy to
feed itself. Meat production is usually less damaging to plant and animal
habitats-especially when the animals are range-fed. In fact, it is for this
reason that the person wearing a fur coat has killed less than 10 percent of
the animals killed by person wearing a cotton coat (cotton is one of the
most ecologically damaging crops grown today, second only, perhaps, to
rice.). Perhaps the only species that are not endangered in our modern
world are domestic animals.
Any knowledgeable primatologist will tell you that there are no vegetarian
primates. Remember that predation is a part of nature. Humans are designed
by nature to be predators. A vegetarian diet is no more natural for a human
than a diet of Cheerios would be for a lion. And humans kill animals much
more quickly and compassionately than lions or any other predator. We have a
responsibility to treat our domestic animals with compassion and respect.
However, we cannot do this by removing ourselves from our rightful place in
the planetary food chain. "
LET'S BAN COTTON NOW!
And this question:
Q: Why have I not heard of this before?
A: Quite simply, it is a matter of perspective. As modern humans, we tend
to view all things through the lens of civilization. Our worldview is
framed by a set of social and cultural parameters of which we are largely
unaware and which distort our understanding of our biological and
evolutionary origins.
What we call civilization is a continuous process, the origins of
which lie in agrarian agricultural intensification. Cultures founded upon
agrarian agricultural intensification began in several parts of the world,
including the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, the Indus River Valley of
India, the Yellow River Valley of China, the valley of Mexico and the high
plateaus of Peru.
Just as the Roman Empire was built for the production and
distribution of bread and wine, so all civilizations promote activities that
benefit the crop species that spawn them. Anthropologists to often use the
peculiarities of the life cycles of different crops to explain the
differences found between cultures.
Agricultural plant species promote themselves through custom,
religion, politics, manners, morals, and ethics. Since Gutenberg they have
also used the mass media. Indeed a large part of all advertising is paid
for by the forbidden fruits.
Just as the English House of Lords favored the large agrarian
landholder, so the Great Compromise of 1787 insured that the U. S. Senate
gives greater representation to farmers than to urban tenants and building
owners. This unequal balance of power only increases as the number of
farmers becomes smaller in relationship to city populations (farmers
presently make up approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population.
Also, the government promotes a food pyramid, favoring the
forbidden foods, which was brought about by the same sort of political
forces that built the original pyramids.
All of the aforementioned forces have served to overwhelm the quiet
voice of NeanderThin Man, leaving his views underrepresented in ethnic and
anthropological studies. The chief reason, however, that you might not have
heard of the Paleolithic diet before may simply be that in our modern,
high-tech world, the simplest ideas and solutions often lie hidden in plain
sight.
It is only since civilization has begun to face worldwide ecological
disaster, caused by agricultural intensification, that the hunter-gatherer
viewpoint has come to light, finding its voice in both the Deep Ecology
movement and the new science of Paleolithic nutrition. "
I could of not said it better myself. It is time to ban this prolific and
ecological damaging practice of "farming", and we should throw paint on
anyone wearing cotton!
Nerd From Hell
> -----Original Message-----
> From: K. Feete [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 2:48 AM
> To: Brin Listserve
> Subject: Re: The other red meat WAS: For those of you into meat,
> animals...
>
>
> Kristin A. Ruhle wrote:
>
> >Yes, I've heard the sick joke "A vegetarian eats vegetables. I'm a
> >humanitarian." If you try eating NOTHING but meat though, you'll get
> >scurvy (unless you're an Eskimo, or a Maori herder in
> Arfrica or somebody
> >whose physiology is adapted to animal protein that way.)
>
> Um, the Maori live in New Zealand, and as far as I know they eat
> anything. Is there some tribe called the Maori in Africa too?
>
> There's quite a few problems you'll end up with besides scurvy, and
> actually that goes for most animals- ever seen a dog eating
> grass when he
> doesn't feel well? He's trying to clean out his digestive
> tract. The only
> mammalian exception, AFAIK, is cats, who are "true
> carnivores" and can
> survive on meat alone. Everybody else gets ill.
>
> >
> >Kristin
> >carnivores can e self righteous too I know
>
> I'm an omnivore. I even eat cafeteria lunches, and believe
> me, that says
> something. But, incidentally, humans aren't really adapted to
> eating only
> vegetables either- I've seen quite a few vegetarians send
> themselves into
> various degrees of malnutrition that way, especially if they were
> good-sized people to start with. It's very hard to get the amount of
> energy you need from veggies alone.
>
> Is that righteous enough? <grin>
>
>
> Kat Feete
>
>
>
> ------------------
> Now, remember. You've got to burn the HOUSES and rape the WOMEN.
> (Cohen the Barbarian)
> -Terry Pratchett
>
>
