RE: vegetarianism and transhumanism

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 19:02:31 MDT


arctic.fox@ukgateway.net wrote,
> There are loads of anti meat web sites out there - most fairly rational
but some more than a little emotional. What I'm looking for is some pro meat
web resources. My google skills are usually OK but after a lot of tries I
only found one site that was basically saying that meat wasn't too bad. Even
though there is a huge amount of pro meat marketing, when it comes down to
detailed debate I can't find a thing. No wonder there are crackpots if there
is nothing to keep them in check. The scientific side of my mind wants to
get both sides of the story.

This was my reason for researching my book. I tried vegetarianism on a bet
with a friend, and felt great after a week. However, I found that all the
nutritional book I could find seemed very unscientific. They promoted one
side over the other. They gave only reasons to take more nutrients, without
giving warning signs of taking too much. Basically, I was afraid to risk my
health by following their advice.

I used the Florida Tech. biochemical abstracts and research paper repository
to research into actual published nutritional research. I skipped the
published books altogether. I started compiling a database of nutrient
information for my own use. I focused on finding experimental results
showing what deficiency symptom each nutrient addressed, and also the
symptoms of overdosing on a nutrient.

I found major differences between published books and actual research data.
I also found major veins of research that seems to have never made it to the
book stage. I finally concluded that nutrition books are only written and
promoted by nutrient salesmen. Their formulas and recommendations seem to
be skewed toward which nutrients are cheapest to produce rather than on any
academic proportions that are experimentally derived. These books are
mostly pep-talks giving grave warnings to eat more nutrients, but almost
never any warnings about eating too much. Often, they even use a theory of
"purging toxins" to claim that taking nutrients will make you feel worse,
and that means you should take even more!

--
Harvey Newstrom <http://HarveyNewstrom.com> <http://Newstaff.com>


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