From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Apr 30 2003 - 21:26:13 MDT
--- gts <gts_2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> > There is a 3rd "rational" argument [for vegetarianism].
> > Animal food sources are simply inefficient!
> > (Perhaps you include this in "scientific").
>
> If you mean animal foods are more expensive then I won't disagree.
> People have a right to save money at the expense of their health,
> but that is not optimizing the diet.
The problem with plant food sources is specifically that they are so
efficient. It is this efficiency which is the cause of the plague of
obesity. Obese people don't get that way from meat, they get that way
from corn, wheat, and sugar overloaded in their diets. You don't become
a carbo-addict from eating meat.
Furthermore, the excuse that its wrong to eat animals because they are
less efficient sources of energy and nutrition is also false from an
environment perspective. The most healthful animals are free range
animals, i.e. those that specifically do not live in fenced in areas
devoid of diverse plant and animal life.
If you want to reduce farmed areas, fine. You don't need them to
support a free range animal herd anyways. So we can have meat diets and
a healthy and natural environment.
>
> I notice that time and time again here on the extropian list that I
> have a
> greater appreciation for the theory of evolution than many others.
>
> I believe we are as perfectly adapted to a paleo diet as a giraffe is
> perfectly adapted to eating the leaves from tall trees. In these
> threads,
> however, few people are willing to grant that 4,000,000 years of
> hominid
> evolution has optimized the human genome for a prehistoric diet.
>
> I recall similar objections in the thread about DNA and personality.
> I was
> arguing that our DNA is integral to our personalities, while many
> others
> were arguing otherwise.
>
> There seems to be a general tendency among extropians to think that
> natural
> selection is not efficient even over millions of years -- that our
> genome is
> our enemy in need of being overcome by our powerful intellects,
> rather than
> our friend in need of being seen as a partner in our development. I
> see a
> tendency here to distrust nature in favor of the intellect, and yet
> it was
> nature that gave us that intellect.
>
> Our intellects have very limited knowledge of proper diet. Many
> questions
> remain unanswered. Nutritionists themselves cannot agree on proper
> diet.
> They argue on television and at national health conferences. There is
> however no way to argue with millions of years of evolution.
>
> -gts
>
>
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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