Anyone who promotes 'fad' eating, such as all vegan . . . .
One of the most prominent differences between
Homo sapiens and our predecessor species is our complete adaptation to a predatory, carnivorous diet. We do not have the long intestinal tract of the other Great Apes, with their symbiotic bacterial culture, that allows them to digest modest quantities of raw cellulose. Much less the anatomy-dominating four-chambered stomach that allows cattle to subsist entirely on raw cellulose. We are "built," as it were, to eat meat. The only reason we eventually became able to extract the protein and calories from leaves, roots and grains is that our distant ancestors managed to tame fire and our more recent ancestors invented food processors. Cooking cellulose breaks down the cell walls, as does grinding it into dust.
So vegans, who insist that they have adopted a "natural" diet, have in fact made themselves totally dependent on the fairly recent--and most horribly unnatural!--technologies of fire and electricity.
Oh, did I forget to mention that gorillas and chimpanzees eat a lot of bugs, as well as small, raw vertebrates? They are not
efficient herbivores, so they need to augment their diet with protein.
. . . . or all organic . . . .
There's nothing ostensibly wrong with organic agriculture... to support a world population of perhaps five hundred million people. If the back-to-nature advocates are willing to live up to their creed, they're going to have to enter a lottery in which six out of every seven of them will be put to death in order to free up the space for organic agriculture. Otherwise, welcome to "Better Living Through Chemistry," the slogan of the 1950s.
. . . . or all raw . . . .
See my above explanation of why it's impossible for our metabolism to extract the nutrients from raw cellulose. That makes virtually all plant tissue useless to us except fruit, which is designed by nature to be attractive to animals, so we'll spread the seeds around in our stool.
Raw meat, on the other hand, is fine, if you can keep it clean without using antibiotics that destroy the pathetic little bacterial culture our abridged intestines manage to maintain. But somehow I don't think the raw food crowd is talking about raw meat. When they say "back to nature" they haven't got a clue as to the true "nature" of human digestion!
Our poor Paleolithic ancestors had to make do with raw meat because it was the only thing on the menu. Remember that their flint blades were no match for our modern dining utensils so they were gnawing on slabs of raw meat, and you'll understand why it's estimated that getting a day's ration of nutrients out of raw meat required them to spend three hours every day in the activity of eating.
. . . . or similar is probably a food quack.
At the very least, their claims of "natural" are blatantly fraudulent. Human "nature" requires meat and/or cooked plant tissue.
