From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Sun Apr 13 2003 - 11:16:20 MDT
gts wrote,
> To clarify: we fortify dairy products with D to prevent
> *rickets*, and we
> fortify agricultural products with B to prevent *pellagra*.
>
> Notice that we fortify both food categories artificially to make them
> worthwhile components of the American diet. They have little intrinsic
> value.
Agreed! We fortify dairy with vitamin D3, butter with vitamin A1, bread
with vitamin B3a, kids drinks with vitamin C1, salt with iodine, water with
fluoride, other things with calcium....
gts wrote,
> Practically any vegetable is more nutrient-dense than any agricultural
> product. As for getting all your calories from vegetables, I am not
> suggesting a vegetarian diet! On the contrary I consider
> vegetarian diets to be unhealthy (though still more healthy than the
> typical American diet).
I think most vegetarians are ignorant of nutrition and therefore eat a very
poor diet. They assume that it is more "natural" or "healthy" and they
don't bother to make sure they eat enough protein and vitamin B12. Thus,
most vegetarians have these two critical deficiencies.
However, I see vegetarianism as a perfect Extropian diet. (Hmmmm.... a new
best seller: "The Extropian Diet" )
It is an easy form of slight calorie restriction, which is very good. It
avoids most of the problems with modern diets, being high-fiber, low-cal,
low-fat, low-salt, high-antioxidants. etc. The top killers today seem to be
diet related in ways that the vegetarian diet solves. Plus, it is easy to
find high protein processed veggie foods today. They are modified into fake
meats, burgers, hot-dogs, slabs of veggie protein steak, etc. It is
relatively easy to eat a good vegetarian diet. It is much easier than being
on a weight-loss diet where you have to be hungry all the time. A typical
complaint from new vegetarians is that they have to eat more. Vegetarians
also tend to have slightly lower body temperatures (possibly due to being
thinner or having less fat insulation), but which might also be good for
longevity.
Behalf Of Barbara Lamar wrote,
> One more point about the diets of hunter-gatherers: most wild
> game is far leaner than domestically raised meat. The Texas
> historian J. Frank Dobie, writes of an ailment known as "rabbit
> fever" (not to be confused with tularemia, which goes by the same
> colloquial name), which frontier people got when they were away
> from civilization, living mostly off wild game. It was a wasting
> ailment, indicative of a lack of calories; symptoms also
> included impaired judgment. One could avoid rabbit fever when
> on the trail by carrying along enough corn meal and lard to
> supplement the wild game diet.
I have often concluded that the problems with a modern meat-based diet is
more due to the horrible composition of meat which is radically different
today than in previous centuries.
Damien Sullivan wrote,
> I have recently been seeing reports of studies saying organic
> vegetables have higher levels of vitamins or cancer-fighting
> chemicals than ones raised with pesticides, possibly from the
> latter not needing to produce defenive chemicals because the
> bugs didn't get to them.
I am not sure that pesticides cause this as much as farms being totally
devoid of nutrients in the soil due to generations of farming. The soil is
empty of organics, and only has the minimum amount sprayed on to sustain the
crops.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC <www.HarveyNewstrom.com>
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