From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue May 14 2002 - 08:58:49 MDT
On Tuesday, May 14, 2002, at 09:45 am, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> Yes, this was the traditional diet for the serf classes. Then again,
> they also averaged around 5 feet high and had an average life expectancy
> of 35 as well. I don't suppose you want to emulate that, do you?
I'm not. I have been a vegetarian for 16 years. Since turning
vegetarian at the age of 23, I have grown even taller than before,
compared to my twin and older brother who are now at least an inch or
two shorter than I am. You are assuming a cause-and-effect that isn't
there. I have seen many medical comparisons of vegetarians and
omnivores. None of them mentioned height differences, only weight
differences.
>> There are many veggie sources of protein that are more protein dense
>> than meat. Soy protein isolate(82%), soy protein concentrate(64%),
>> spirulina seaweed(58%), peanut flower(53%), soybean flour(51%), soy
>> meal(49%), freeze-dried tofu(48%), wheat gluten(41%), almond meal(40%),
>> soybean nuts(40%), yeast(39%), soybean flour(38%), roasted pumpkin or
>> squash seeds(34%), etc.
>
> I notice that you are listing all processed goods, not the raw goods
> they came from. I am sure that chicken and beef can both be processed to
> extract pure protein.
Only the top few. Ground flour, tofu, wheat gluten, and seeds are
ancient foods that do not require any more processing than butchering an
animal would take. I know that we tend to imagine wheat or corn for
bread in modern America, but many cultures ground other seeds, legumes,
nuts and beans for bread. These "high-processed" flours and meals
simply became a peasant's home-made bread. Their poor-bread had a lot
higher protein content than we imagine given today's bread content. A
peasant gathering grain could easily get as much protein as equivalent
hunting could provide. Although this wasn't as popular in the West,
ancient eastern cultures were often vegetarian for religious or economic
reasons with little difficulty. Such a diet is certainly possible and
historically known.
> Not in the 21st century, but then we were talking of the 1880's.
> Furthermore, not all protien is equal. People with certain blood types
> cannot follow a vegan lifestyle specifically because of the difficulty
> in digesting plant protiens, among other problems like iron digestion.
I personally don't believe in the blood-type diets. Blood-types are
pretty specific to antigens on the surface of red-blood cells that
reject foreign blood cells only. They tend to react negatively to meat
and animal blood much more than to vegetables. I find the blood-type
diets to be pseudo-science based on the assumption that ancient cultures
had the perfect diets in their surroundings. While this might make
sense in terms of evolution, I see no reason to link this to blood type
any more than with skin color, eye color or height.
They use the logical fallacy of "cum hoc ergo propter hoc". They assume
that food types and blood types originated in the same area, therefore
one causes the other. There are no clear lines that match food types
and blood-types, nor do the lines clearly changes as groups migrated. I
don't see history supporting this supposition. I think environment,
such as spicy foods in hot climates, or high-fat foods in cold climates,
makes a lot more sense. You correctly pointed out this latter one,
which I support a lot more than the blood-types. Eskimos may have
migrated from Asia, but they have a totally different diet than Asians
due to a totally different climate.
> Finally, it's rather clear that the modern US problem with obesity is
> not because of meat eating, it is specifically because of too much sugar
> and starch in the diet with no exercise to burn them off.
This, I agree with.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> Principal Security Consultant <www.Newstaff.com>
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