Vegetarian vs. Non-vegetarian

[Pelly8910]

Why is it healthier to eat quorn or something like that rather than real meat?

[sandyRoe]

High levels of fat in meat, chemicals that might give you cancers in bacon?

[Old_Geezer]

The stress you get from avoiding meat is probably more unhealthy than if you just decided to enjoy life anyway. IMO any risks are overhyped.

[jd_1984]

I always assume (but would happily be corrected) that humans have evolved in such a way that a balanced diet, inclusive of meat, veg, fruit etc is the healthiest way? I probably eat 2 portions of red meat, 2 of white meat and quite a lot of fish weekly.

[Pelly8910]

it's just it's for my homework and I have to find out a health benefit

[R1Geezer]

It isn't. Humans are omnivors, we are designed to eat just about anything though we should get our food from a variety of sources. Excluding meat is possible and some manage it by carefully making sure they get all the nutrition from other sources but to many exclude meat and then end up with malnutriion because they don't like things they must eat to avoid it. It is also true that it's unhealthy to have too much meat but I wouldn't exclude it completely.

[Pelly8910]

ok then, what should I put? Has it got less fat? More protein or iron?

[joko]

stress from avoiding meat? oh please...

[starone]

Carnivores have their eyes facing forward for hunting purposes, herbivores at the side of their heads to avoid said hunters. We are basically carnivores (eyes facing forward) but we have evolved to eat most things (omnivores). But that is not what you want to know pelly. Quorn is healthier because it does not contain fat which is bad for you. Unfortunately it does not taste so nice so most people eat meat. Minced quorn is quite good in chile con carne because there are a lot of other flavours to counteract the blandness of the quorn.

[joko]

we are not physically designed to eat meat...

we are bipeds and therefore cannot chase down animals very easily, we dont have good long fangs, like other meat eating animals, or have strong ripping claws, we also have very long intestines, like herbivores, carnivores have short ones so the meat passes throygh quicker and does not go rancid at temperatures in the stomach..we also cannot stomach raw meat like carnivores

we only eat meat because we became intelligent enough to invent ways and tools to help us do it...without that intelligence and without skills or tools we would not be able to sustain a carnivorous lifestyle...

[ChuckFickens]

Convenient that we have the correct teeth to deal with meat then!

[joko]

imagine what condition a piece of meat - in a bag - would be in within 2-3 days if left on a countertop in very hot summer temperatures...? revolting eh?

now imagine what happens in your lovely warm guts while its being digested...

[joko]

not really chuck...they are for cutting and grinding - like all teeth - they would not be much use in tearing hunks of flesh from an antelopes back...

our 'fangs' are useless

[society]

Who said it's healthier to eat quorm rather than meat? I'm sure the meat-eater would disagree.

[Zeuhl]

Check Quorn website i'm sure they will quote 'health benefits'
ditto Natures Harvest

plus points of veggy foods; more vegetables, nuts, beans etc
cons; likely to eat more carbs and dairy fats and more processed food as meat substitutes eg quorn

[starone]

Also meat makes your breath smell and gives you a nasty taste in your mouth whereas vegetables do not. Or perhaps that is just me.

[tiggerblue10]

As long as you eat meat from a herbivore it should be healthy. Look what happened when they started feeding ground up meat to cows.

[ChuckFickens]

In fact I disagree with pretty much everything joko has said.

We have dual purpose teeth that enable us to eat meat and plants.

We have a intestine that falls about half way between pure carnivores and herbivores in length, it's longer than a carnivores but nowhere near as long as a herbivores.

In fact, everything points to us being designed to be omnivores and for our bodies to be able to cope with a variety of foods.

We physically can not digest cellulose which would be a fairly major problem if we were designed to be a herbivore.

[starone]

We started out as hunters and gatherers. What does that tell you? Omnivores of course.

[joko]

i can bang a nail in with a jar of nutella...doesnt mean i should... its certainly not the best way or the right way or advisable...but i have done it...

we have adapted to cope with meat in our diet because we had to...we had no choice but to adapt...same way sheep on an island with no greenery would just end up eating meat if fed it...

early humans were not equipped to

[joko]

i am not suggesting we cant eat meat - clearly we can..but that we are not very well designed to

as i said without help we would not be much use