Well Chris, I'll tell ya' this. All that beneficial meat processing bacteria is certainly not doing its job as efficiently as one would be led to believe, considering the several pounds of undigested meat found in the lower intestinal track and colon of dead meat eaters [Western diet meat-eaters who have died] (Diet for a New America, John Robbins).
Yes, it's rather easy to see that different diets in different environments would be metabolized in variant fashions and would take some indeterminant period to completely adjust to. After all, every living thing is one big biological and chemical equation. Try going from 3,000' on any diet to 14,000 feet over night and see if you get fully "acclimatized" before a two week period has passed, no matter how much your continual fluid uptake. If your body and your mind are accustomed to something, they will certainly take notice of its absence or any deviation from it. I think the part I had most difficulty with was the suggestion with such certainty that a departure from a heavily meat concentrated diet (Western diet) would create harm, perhaps catastrophically. > > > What is easy is harming one's health by trying. I suppose that's why I'm getting older by the day.........If I had only visited the meat counter with greater frequency this never would have happened. Todd Swearingen ----- Original Message ----- From: Christopher Witmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 8:54 PM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Which is better for the environment? > Todd, > > In a rare twist, it is a lot easier to find information on this in > Japanese Internet than in English; this may be due to Japanese > researchers' language limitations. > > Japanese-only link at Chiba University: > http://photo-m.tp.chiba-u.ac.jp/~adeno/sci/bio.htm > > I first heard about this on a Japanese television program -- > Japanese-only link to the television program's webpage on this subject: > http://www.ntv.co.jp/FERC/research/19980208/f0518.html > > I wasn't able to find anything in English on the Internet, although I > did find passing references to one of the key studies in this area: > > Bergersen, F.J. and E.H. Hipsley (1970). "The presence of N2 - fixing > bacteria in the intestines of man and animals." Journal of Tropical > Pediatrics 11: 28-34. > > To summarize the theory, the Papua highlander diet consists primarily of > yams and taro (average of about 1.5kg per day), from which they are able > to *directly* assimilate only 15g of protein. The amount of directly > assimilated protein is simply insufficient to maintain their heavy > musculature (and these people tend to be very muscular) let alone the > minimum level needed for survival over time. A professor Mitsuoka of > Tokyo University theorizes that the intestinal flora of the Papua > highlander are different from those of peoples accustomed to eating > meat. Indeed, when people from outside the region try to eat the Papua > highlander diet, they suffer from extreme flatulence, to the great > amusement of the Papua highlanders, who have very little or none. > Conversely, consumption of pork can make Papua highlanders ill, > sometimes fatally so, whilst people accustomed to eating meat suffer > from no ill effects. Analysis of feces of Papua highlanders reveals > total nitrogen content to be double that of the pre-assimilated food. > This increase is in all likelihood due to the presence of > nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the intestines of Papua highlanders. > (Apparently the same sorts of bacteria associated with leguminous > nitrogen fixation are taking atmospheric nitrogen and fixing it in the > intestines of the Papua highlanders.) These bacteria then in turn become > the source of adequate protein for the Papua highlanders. Another > possibility is that ammonia is somehow being converted into protein > (pigs and cows have this ability); Papua highlander feces are found to > have twice the ammonia content of Japanese. It is suspected -- though > hardly conclusively proven -- that half of the protein in the Papua > highlander diet comes directly from yams and taro, and the other half > from nitrogen fixing bacteria and/or ammonia conversion. Otherwise, it > is hard to explain how these people are able to survive. Reportedly, it > is possible to for meat eaters to adjust to the Papua highlander diet; > however, it takes half a year for the intestinal environment to get to > the point where adequate nutrition can be derived. > > (You can feel free to draw your own conclusions about whether this > theory constitutes rationalization of meat eating.) > > Christopher Witmer > Tokyo > > Appal Energy wrote: > > > Okay....I may be gullible enough to accept some things at face > > value, but this theory seriously pushes my "probability limit.' > > > > Plausible? Perhaps. Harmful if tried? > > Uhhhhh........yahhhh.....right. > > > > Is that a printing press I hear in the background? Sounds like > > hand tooled metal plates on rag bond. B-o-h-h-h-h-h-g-u-s! > > > > I think those sounds of Westerners "starving" is more like a > > passle of whiney nosed snots who don't know what the first pang > > of hunger actually feels like, radically envisioning death throws > > within moments if they don't get a dead meat fix....the greasier > > the better. > > > > I suppose that federal governments are next going to step in and > > force organic vegetable markets to supply bottles of bovine > > bacteria to their customers with every ten heads of lettuce....or > > face severe financial penalties for reckless endangerment? > > > > I'd like to see where this particular theory has been submitted > > for professional scrutiny. (Key word is "professional" here, not > > a bunch of home biofuel officianados.) > > > > The things some people will do to rationalize meat eating.... > > 8-( > > > > Kinda' like telling people that they can't survive without their > > Prozac. > > > > Todd Swearingen > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Christopher Witmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> > > Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 5:45 PM > > Subject: Re: [biofuel] Which is better for the environment? > > > > > > > >>Some people are able to thrive on diets containing such > >> > > extremely low > > > >>levels of animal protein that most Westerners would starve to > >> > > death on > > > >>them. The people that thrive have different intestinal bacteria > >> > > than > > > >>meat-eating Westerners; the bacteria digest the vegetable > >> > > matter and > > > >>then the people digest the bacteria, which turn out to be their > >> > > source > > > >>of complete protein. If one eats a high animal protein diet > >> > > those > > > >>particular bacteria will be replaced by a different set of > >> > > bacteria, and > > > >>it will no longer be possible to get the necessary nutrition > >> > > from > > > >>vegetables alone. It is probably possible to change one's > >> > > intestinal > > > >>bacteria to those conducive to surviving on a non-animal diet, > >> > > but it is > > > >>not going to be easy. What is easy is harming one's health by > >> > > trying. > > > >>Christopher Witmer > >>Tokyo > >> > >>Ken wrote: > >> > >> > >>>http://www.beyondveg.com/ > >>> > >>>More on that, and believe me I've tried... > >>>Ken > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>>>Not everyone can stay healthy on a vegan diet. While I don't > >>>> > > eat a lot > > > >>>>of meat, I do require a 6 ounce serving, five times a week. > >>>> > > Even the > > > >>>>doctors that pushed the vegan diet have come to recognize > >>>> > > this fact. I > > > >>>>have a friend who is bipolar and she has to live on the high > >>>> > > protein > > > >>>>Adkins [sp?] diet, the drugs have given her problems with > >>>> > > carbohydrates. > > > >> > >> > >> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > >> ADVERTISEMENT > >> > >> > >> > >>Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > >>http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >> > >>Biofuels list archives: > >>http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >> > >>Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > >>To unsubscribe, send an email to: > >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > >>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of > >> > > Service. > > > >> > > > > > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > > > Biofuels list archives: > > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > > > > Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Your use of Yahoo! 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