Japan's whaling fleet returns from Antarctic with 333 minke whales including pregnant females

[Unkotare]

... How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? ....

Neither of those are necessary for eating meat.

 

[Confounding]

How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? It makes more sense that early humans survived eating fruits and other vegetables.

They ate it raw at first, often in the form of bone marrow they acquired from scavenging .

 

[Vikrant]

Actually, our brains grew after we began walking upright.

That may be true. We certainly are unique in that regard (walking straight). But we are not unique in eating meat. That is for sure.

Of course not, it's delicious.

Just because meat is delicious does not change the fact that it is a product of pain and suffering that was inflicted on an animal. That pain and suffering matters to some people and it does not to others. Those who are not OK with this pain and suffering become vegetarian. It is as simple as that.

Everything that lives also dies. Carrots as much as caribou. Only a hypocrite values the life of a lemur over that of a legume. Get down to it everyone and everything is made of the same stuff. Nothing is truly lost, it just changes form.

I am talking about pain and suffering. If you think the suffering of a carrot is comparable to the suffering of a whale when the latter is harpooned for hours before it is killed then you need some serious reflection my friend.

 

[Unkotare]

Actually, our brains grew after we began walking upright.

That may be true. We certainly are unique in that regard (walking straight). But we are not unique in eating meat. That is for sure.

Of course not, it's delicious.

Just because meat is delicious does not change the fact that it is a product of pain and suffering that was inflicted on an animal. That pain and suffering matters to some people and it does not to others. Those who are not OK with this pain and suffering become vegetarian. It is as simple as that.

Everything that lives also dies. Carrots as much as caribou. Only a hypocrite values the life of a lemur over that of a legume. Get down to it everyone and everything is made of the same stuff. Nothing is truly lost, it just changes form.

I am talking about pain and suffering. If you think the suffering of a carrot is comparable to the suffering of a whale when the latter is harpooned for hours before it is killed then you need some serious reflection my friend.

You ever asked a carrot about that? No more than you've ever asked a whale. Life is life.

 

[Vikrant]

How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? It makes more sense that early humans survived eating fruits and other vegetables.

They ate it raw, often in the form of bone marrow.

Humans are not equipped with organs that can cut through meat. Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools. Humans started to eat bone marrow much later after they started to build tools from stones.

 

[Confounding]

Humans are not equipped with organs that can cut through meat. Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools. Humans started to eat bone marrow much later after they started to build tools from stones.

I'm not going to get through to you so I'll stop trying. I suggest you do some research and find out what most scientists have to say about it.

 

[Vikrant]

That may be true. We certainly are unique in that regard (walking straight). But we are not unique in eating meat. That is for sure.

Of course not, it's delicious.

Just because meat is delicious does not change the fact that it is a product of pain and suffering that was inflicted on an animal. That pain and suffering matters to some people and it does not to others. Those who are not OK with this pain and suffering become vegetarian. It is as simple as that.

Everything that lives also dies. Carrots as much as caribou. Only a hypocrite values the life of a lemur over that of a legume. Get down to it everyone and everything is made of the same stuff. Nothing is truly lost, it just changes form.

I am talking about pain and suffering. If you think the suffering of a carrot is comparable to the suffering of a whale when the latter is harpooned for hours before it is killed then you need some serious reflection my friend.

You ever asked a carrot about that? No more than you've ever asked a whale. Life is life.

You are side stepping the issue. It is not about life is life. It is about cruelty and inhumanity that goes on in killing an animal like whale. We (humans) have evolved enough where we (some of us) have developed traits like compassion, mercy, etc. It is this trait which objects to torture of whales. It is this trait which trains us to see the difference between carrot and a whale. To be frank though, compassion is not limited to us humans. I was talking to a girl in San Francisco not too long ago. She has spent considerable number of years in Africa studying behaviors of wild animals. She says that she has observed water buffaloes gallantly taking on lions in an attempt to save other water buffaloes. According her, there have been instances where water buffaloes have intervened and saved one lion from getting killed by another lion. This I found fascinating.

 

[Vikrant]

Humans are not equipped with organs that can cut through meat. Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools. Humans started to eat bone marrow much later after they started to build tools from stones.

I'm not going to get through to you so I'll stop trying. I suggest you do some research and find out what most scientists have to say about it.

I am glad you are saving us all some wear and tear

On the contrary though, it is you who needs to do some research because your knowledge of evolution is half baked.

 

[Confounding]

On the contrary though, it is you who needs to do some research because your knowledge of evolution is half baked.

Your opinion regarding meat and the evolution of our brains is at odds with scientific consensus. That's fine, but I want to reiterate that point. The majority of people who are most qualified to have an opinion on this matter disagree with you, and with that I bid you adieu.

 

[Vikrant]

On the contrary though, it is you who needs to do some research because your knowledge of evolution is half baked.

Your opinion regarding meat and the evolution of our brains is at odds with scientific consensus. That's fine, but I want to reiterate that point. The majority of the people who are most qualified to have an opinion on this matter disagree with you, and with that I bid you adieu.

This tells me that you have not read enough on this topic.

 

[Confounding]

This tells me that you have not read enough on this topic.

Drop some credible links and make me look foolish.

I'll be waiting.

 

[Vikrant]

This tells me that you have not read enough on this topic.

Drop some credible links and make me look foolish.

I'll be waiting.

Look in the mirror and tell me which part of your body can skin an animal without using a tool

 

[Vikrant]

Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians

Going through the comments of some of my recent posts, I noticed the frequently stated notion that eating meat was an essential step in human evolution. While this notion may comfort the meat industry, it’s simply not true, scientifically.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus at Cornell University and author of The China Study, explains that in fact, we only recently (historically speaking) began eating meat, and that the inclusion of meat in our diet came well after we became who we are today. He explains that “the birth of agriculture only started about 10,000 years ago at a time when it became considerably more convenient to herd animals. This is not nearly as long as the time [that] fashioned our basic biochemical functionality (at least tens of millions of years) and which functionality depends on the nutrient composition of plant-based foods.”

That jibes with what Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine President Dr. Neal Barnard says in his book, The Power of Your Plate, in which he explains that “early humans had diets very much like other great apes, which is to say a largely plant-based diet, drawing on foods we can pick with our hands. Research suggests that meat-eating probably began by scavenging—eating the leftovers that carnivores had left behind. However, our bodies have never adapted to it. To this day, meat-eaters have a higher incidence of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other problems.”

There is no more authoritative source on anthropological issues than paleontologist Dr. Richard Leakey, who explains what anyone who has taken an introductory physiology course might have discerned intuitively—that humans are herbivores. Leakey notes that “[y]ou can’t tear flesh by hand, you can’t tear hide by hand.... We wouldn’t have been able to deal with food source that required those large canines” (although we have teeth that are called “canines,” they bear little resemblance to the canines of carnivores).

In fact, our hands are perfect for grabbing and picking fruits and vegetables. Similarly, like the intestines of other herbivores, ours are very long (carnivores have short intestines so they can quickly get rid of all that rotting flesh they eat). We don’t have sharp claws to seize and hold down prey. And most of us (hopefully) lack the instinct that would drive us to chase and then kill animals and devour their raw carcasses. Dr. Milton Mills builds on these points and offers dozens more in his essay, “A Comparative Anatomy of Eating.”

The point is this: Thousands of years ago when we were hunter-gatherers, we may have needed a bit of meat in our diets in times of scarcity, but we don’t need it now. Says Dr. William C. Roberts, editor of the American Journal of Cardiology, “Although we think we are, and we act as if we are, human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us, because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores.”

Sure, most of us are “behavioral omnivores”—that is, we eat meat, so that defines us as omnivorous. But our evolution and physiology are herbivorous, and ample science proves that when we choose to eat meat, that causes problems, from decreased energy and a need for more sleep up to increased risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Old habits die hard, and it’s convenient for people who like to eat meat to think that there is evidence to support their belief that eating meat is “natural” or the cause of our evolution. For many years, I too, clung to the idea that meat and dairy were good for me; I realize now that I was probably comforted to have justification for my continued attachment to the traditions I grew up with.

But in fact top nutritional and anthropological scientists from the most reputable institutions imaginable say categorically that humans are natural herbivores, and that we will be healthier today if we stick with our herbivorous roots. It may be inconvenient, but it alas, it is the truth.

Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians

 

[Unkotare]

How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? It makes more sense that early humans survived eating fruits and other vegetables.

They ate it raw, often in the form of bone marrow.

Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools.

Of course we are.

 

[Confounding]

Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians

That's an opinion piece from the Huffington Post. Is that more credible than legitimate scientific sources? Nah, I don't think so.

Eating Meat Made Us Human, Suggests New Skull Fossil

Eating Meat Made Us Human, Suggests New Skull Fossil

Fragments of a 1.5-million-year-old skull from a child recently found in Tanzania suggest early hominids weren't just occasional carnivores but regular meat eaters, researchers say.

The finding helps build the case that meat-eating helped the human lineage evolve large brains, scientists added.

"I know this will sound awful to vegetarians, but meat made us human," said researcher Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, an archaeologist at Complutense University in Madrid.

Sorry, vegans: Eating meat and cooking food is how humans got their big brains

Sorry, vegans: Eating meat and cooking food is how humans got their big brains

Vegetarian, vegan and raw diets can be healthful, probably far more healthful than the typical American diet. But to call these diets “natural” for humans is a bit of a stretch in terms of evolution, according to two recent studies.

Eating meat and cooking food made us human, the studies suggest, enabling the brains of our prehuman ancestors to grow dramatically over a few million years.

Although this isn’t the first such assertion from archaeologists and evolutionary biologists, the new studies demonstrate that it would have been biologically implausible for humans to evolve such a large brain on a raw, vegan diet and that meat-eating was a crucial element of human evolution at least a million years before the dawn of humankind.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120420105539.htm

Meat eating behind evolutionary success of humankind, global population spread, study suggests

Carnivory is behind the evolutionary success of humankind. When early humans started to eat meat and eventually hunt, their new, higher-quality diet meant that women could wean their children earlier. Women could then give birth to more children during their reproductive life, which is a possible contribution to the population gradually spreading over the world. The connection between eating meat and a faster weaning process is shown by a research group from Sweden, which compared close to 70 mammalian species and found clear patterns.

 

[Vikrant]

How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? It makes more sense that early humans survived eating fruits and other vegetables.

They ate it raw, often in the form of bone marrow.

Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools.

Of course we are.

You will lose your teeth after few tries and then you will starve You were evolved to be a herbivore whether you like it or not.

 

[Unkotare]

... It is not about life is life. .....

It is to me. If you don't value life, that's your moral failing to address.

 

[Unkotare]

How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? It makes more sense that early humans survived eating fruits and other vegetables.

They ate it raw, often in the form of bone marrow.

Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools.

Of course we are.

You will lose your teeth after few tries and then you will starve You were evolved to be a herbivore whether you like it or not.

Sorry champ, but it's omnivore all the way.

 

[Vikrant]

Confounding,

There is a range of issues with your links. For example, your links are not taking into account physiology, our response to different types of diets, etc. On the internet, you can find links to support pretty much any thought. So links can be pretty much useless unless they are logical and credible. Earlier you were talking about giving up on me but it looks like time has come for me to give up on you. I am not an arrogant person but I have to point this out: you lack basic understanding of biology.

 

[Vikrant]

How would have humans managed to eat meat before they invented weapons or fire? It makes more sense that early humans survived eating fruits and other vegetables.

They ate it raw, often in the form of bone marrow.

Humans are neither capable of hunting nor cutting through an animal even as harmless as a deer without using tools.

Of course we are.

You will lose your teeth after few tries and then you will starve You were evolved to be a herbivore whether you like it or not.

Sorry champ, but it's omnivore all the way.

You cannot even make sushi without tools. Forget about skinning a deer with your teeth and nails. Good night! I have to hit the bed. I have to work tomorrow.