Everything Else

toxygen wrote: I simply don't believe that killing animals is right

porter wrote: Feed the body what it requires to function.

noisetonepause wrote: I don't see what that has to do with eating meat, though?

QuicksilverG4 wrote: No meat? And give up the benefit of being at the top of the food chain?

Toxoplasma gondii infects over half the world's population. Each of Toxoplasma's victims carries thousands of the parasites, many residing in the brain.

half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma, a parasite shown to alter the brain function of rats, inducing them into behavior that benefits the parasite but is suicidal for the rat. So what affect does it have on humans? Article comes complete with Heinlein 'Puppet Masters' reference

Toxoplasmosis is considered to be the third leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States. More that 60 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite

QuicksilverG4 wrote: No meat? And give up the benefit of being at the top of the food chain?

sybrfreq wrote:
*DING!*

Humans evolved to eat both meat and veggies.

sybrfreq wrote: Not eating a balanced diet will most likely lead to questionable health, maybe not in 5 years but perhaps 20.

sybrfreq wrote: What about the vegetarians that eat fish, are fish not animals?

sybrfreq wrote: We eat beef, chicken, fish, because they taste good, if we were not supposed to eat it it would taste bad.

sybrfreq wrote: We eat beef, chicken, fish, because they taste good, if we were not supposed to eat it it would taste bad.

toxygen wrote: that's very true. but people used to be pure herbivores for 50 million years. just after then they adapted to meat. they started eating it, their digestive system adapted (bacteria in stomach to process meat). however, their outer preferences did not alter - you do not have teeth, body, or general digestive system adapted to eating meat.
at some point, hunting, processing meat on fire and eating, meant a lot to human kind - they could populate areas, which they couldn't before because of insufficiency of food. these were times, when meat was essential for their lives.

but now, we are living in different times, meat is not an necessity anymore.

toxygen wrote: but what do you know about balanced diet? does it imply eating meat? i don't think so. many experts, better than me or you, think it does not.
as i'm not educated in this area very much, i would rather not oppose you or make any statements.

toxygen wrote: they are. i do not eat them. only because we do not hear them screaming while they are tortured, it does not mean they do not suffer.

toxygen wrote: carnivores like the smell and the taste of decayed meat. do you? do you like eating carrions?
or better said, do you like eating raw flesh?

toxygen wrote: you do not have teeth, body, or general digestive system adapted to eating meat.

porter wrote:

toxygen wrote: you do not have teeth, body, or general digestive system adapted to eating meat.

Eh? We have canine teeth.

nvukovlj wrote: Ah, I love it when people with no real knowledge of the subject (e.g. diseases of humans / animals, etc.) find something on the Web and start quoting it to justify whatever their current beliefs may be.

e.g. Toxoplasmosis. Yes, a lot of people have it and many other parasites. Parasites are successful precisely because they rarely cause their host real problems (provided they are reasonably healthy).
Parasites do not come just in meat.

Another couple of scenarios for contracting Toxoplasmosis:

1. You Grow your own vegetables because it is healthier
2. A cat infected with Toxoplasmosis goes bye and takes a crap
3. You don't wash your vegetables too much because hey, they're organic
4. You eat the vegetables -> hello, you're infected

1. You have a cat
2. One day it contracts Toxoplasmosis (it ate something that had it)
3. You clean its litter tray but forget to properly wash your hands.
4. You grab a snack -> hello you're infected

Conclusion. To be safe from this particular disease:
1. Wash your vegetables in bleach
2. Shoot cats on site.
3. Don't eat undercooked meat

The first scenario I mention is of course fairly far fetched. The second one actually isn't although by far the most common way to get this particular parasite infection is from undercooked meat.
After all I don't want anyone going out there to shoot cats. I make some of my living by treating animals (I have a Veterinary degree).
I have also seen first hand how animals are slaughtered for food. It isn't pretty, but these days there are laws that in most cases ensure that it is done quickly.
Vegetarianism and even more so veganism by choice seems to be a lot more prevalent in affluent heavily urbanised societies where people find it hard to reconcile the food they buy in supermarkets (all wrapped nicely) with the reality of how it got there. That leads to the guilt when they think that the cute pig/chicken/cow they usually see only on TV is one day likely to end up as a slab of meat...

Anyway, enough of a rant for one day

It is estimated that between 30% and 65% of all people worldwide are infected with Toxoplasmosis. However, there is large variation countries: in France, for example, around 88% of the population are carriers, probably due to a high consumption of raw and lightly cooked meat.