On 9/4/2013 4:48 AM, Brian Swale wrote:
> ...
> I guess I have to take issue with two aspects of what Ken wrote.
>
> 1) 'Protein', by which I assume that he means 'meat', is not the main part of
> a healthy meal, although I have often noted that chefs (and recipe books)
> seem to categorise main course meals according to what kind of meat is in
> them.
> 2) Ken omitted any mention of green, root and seed vegetables (eg beans);
> these are the most nutritionally valuable components of a main course meal.
> 3) In my book (ie according to my judgement), potatoes are a valued meal
> item on their own and don't necessarily need anything else.
>
> I'm no longer a vegan, but am well aware of what makes a safe meal,
> health-wise.
>
> IMO; YMMV.
Indeed it does. I disagree with all four statements.
For some perspective on the vast range of firmly held opinions on diet, from
reading many, many books on the subject, I
refer to the addendum to this post.
<http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2013/09/to-the-vegans-followup-ot.html>
No one actually knows all that much that's generally applicable.
There's a book you might find interesting, /Sex, Time and Power/, by Leonard
Shlain, (MD). It's an inquiry into the
evolution of humans to find explanations for our characteristics that seem on
the simple face of them to be anti-survival.
One need not agree with his theories as to why it happened to find the story of
our evolutionary changes in metabolism
after splitting from the apes interesting and informative. No need to read past
chapter 11 or 12, for this purpose.
What's fascinating is his evidence (he is a prodigious researcher) that we
evolved from primarily vegetarian to
carnivores that supplement vitamins and minerals from plant matter. (This is
all before we learned to make grains, many
roots and other raw plant matter digestible by cooking in water.)
His discussion of dietary energy efficiency in a species evolving a brain that
will use 25% of all bodily energy was an
aspect I'd never considered before, as are some of his other pieces of
metabolic information.
I find his discussion of the similarities and differences between the details
of our metabolism, those of our closest
relatives and other plant and animal eaters quite persuasive. If, as he has
persuaded me, we spent millions of years
becoming primarily carnivorous (whether for the reasons he proposes or not)
then intentionally avoiding or severely
limiting meat in ones diet and eating the sort of thing we evolved away from
eating puts unnatural stresses on our
metabolism.
He makes no arguments about what one should eat, weight, etc. His purpose is
elsewhere. But I find what I learned there
playing an important part in my dietary choices.
You might also find this talk by Christopher Gardner, PhD. of Stanford
interesting. As a 25 year vegetarian, he was
quite surprised by the results of his tests comparing some different types of
diets.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo>
These sources, primarily, have led me to move my diet gently toward more meat
protein, while decreasing the amount of
carbs and grain proteins, at least when not eating with my veggie and vegan
friends.
Carnivorous Moose?
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|