Vegetarianism and the role of meat in human evolution?

Question

I've considered a vegetarian lifestyle. It would be preferable to anybody with reverence. This much concerns me: eating meat has been hard-wired into our bodies over innumerable generations, and our bodies are ours because of it.

The points most scientists agree that human brains gained a distinct advantage were at the introduction of meat and at the introduction of cooking into the human diet. The easiest way to explain why is to say that there is a finite amount of energy that can be worked into a humanoid, and that energy was used to make more intestine back then. If it wasn't, the resulting humanoid didn't fare well, and likely didn't reproduce. Eating easier-to-digest foods changed all that, and suddenly the big-brained ones didn't drop like flies. Eventually: enter Homo Sapiens.

I AM NOT saying that vegetarians unintelligent. My question is, does anyone worry over long term effects of taxing their "fuel" system through successive vegetarian generations?

I'm very sorry to point this out, but the first answer had absolutely nothing to do with my question, which reflects a pretty significant understanding of the meaning of the word in the first place.

To clarify: the answer I'm seeking doesn't deal in opinion. It is objective.

Vitamins and minerals are dandy. I am talking about the irrefutable role that eased and pre- digestion has played in human evolution.

I appreciate your opinions, but only one of them even approached the (wow, this is a bad pun) analytical meat of my question. You feel too strongly to. That's lovely, but it disqualifies your answer because it isn't objective, and that's precisely what I'm asking for.

Please don't take it personally if you don't like the conclusion you draw from the material I dig up.

I'll leave this here for a few more days and see what comes of it.

Let me make it clear that I definitely do not need to know anything about the history of human vegetarianism unless that history belonged to everybody and re-shaped the human body.

Answer 1

That's quite a complex question.

I do know that with a herbivorous diet we wouldn't have been able to grow such large brains, and eating meat contributed hugely to our evolution, but I'm unsure of how that would affect successive generations NOW. I know that there would be very serious problems with veggie diets were fortified foods or supplements not around, our body cannot digest all types of plant matter or get everything from plants alone. That does correspond to whet you mentioned about the link to digestion and brain size, as that affected the evolution of our digestive system. I don't believe it's as good a diet nutritionally, even with supplements (especially considering that the nutrients aren't as good quality when taken in such unnatural forms), and obviously nutrition affects following generations, but beyond that I have no idea.

I'll just give you this link, it's quite a long and complex article (or series of articles) on meat and evolution. The answer to your question is bound to be in there somewhere, although a bit of digging may be required.

http://www.beyondveg.com/index.shtml

Answer 2

uh...okay, so supposing you made it thru the first person's answer that was like 18 pages long...geez...I'm a vegetarian. No, I have no worry whatsoever over the long-term effect of taxing my fuel system. Granted, I also don't have kids so maybe the generational thing is different for me, but here ya go...there is a 10% energy transfer between most levels of the food chain, i.e. a cow has to eat 10 pounds of grass to produce 1 pound of edible flesh. Look to nature--who are the "workhorses" in the animal kingdom? Is it the carnivories, i.e. the lion? No. The lion is good for short speed bursts, but otherwise spends his entire day sleeping (not a bad life huh HAHA!). Herbivores, on the other hand, say, an ox...toils sunup to sundown, no problem. Our intestines are also built differently than other carnivores, such as a dog's. Their intestines are MUCH shorter because they cannot process food the way we can; with our much longer intestines we can get more of the nutrients from more fibrous sources. The only vitamin/mineral NOT found in abundance in a vegetarian diet is B-12 (which is in dairy & eggs, so if you're lacto-ovo, that's not an issue there either). But no, there should be no long-term energy issue unless there is a pre-existing medical condition or unless your diet is crappy. Yes, there are plenty of vegetarians with crappy diets (french fries are vegetarian, after all!!! LOL) just as there are carnivores with crappy diets. It's all about making good food choices from the foods avaiable to you and that you find acceptable in terms of morals/ethics, etc.

Answer 3

No, because we're not trying to eke out a mere existence from the land: we're not straining our digestive system to get enough energy from the plants, and if our behaviors did affect our genetics , it would take several hundred generations for any evolutionary difference to show up; probably longer than you all are going to be carrying on that vegetarian legacy.

Answer 4

People can survive off of milk and potatoes. It has everything that the body needs to survive, is it healthy hell no.

Do vegetarians eat more than milk and potatoes, hell yes.

Eating from the bottom of the food chain is healthier, does it make us weaker, no, its smarter. The lower you eat on the food chain the more energy and nutrients you absorb from that matter. Cultures have survived and thrived without meat. Why do we eat it, cause people like the taste, nothing more.

Answer 5

being a vegan or vegatarian is actually healthier for you than if you eat meat. Your body absorbs more calcium, you are at less risk for some types of cancer and high colesterol... and it is good for the animals :-) There is nothing wrong with the diet of a vegetarian or a vegan if they eat right. they are most likely to get all the vitamins and minerals ect from their food that people who eat meat.

Answer 6

Wow...I think Irina C swallowed an encyclopedia.

Ok, my turn to pontificate: My honorable distant ancestors (who were likely yours, too!) didn't claw their way to the top of the food chain so that their distant great granddaughters (that's you & me) could eat wheatgrass and use a pocket calculator to see if they are getting enough protein.

Do watch what you eat, but also have some fish, some beef and a little chicken! Our honorable distant progenetors will nod and smile on us!

Answer 7

I think you are right we all need meat to live the veget.get animal fat in other forms if they go out of their house to eat the don't know what their food is cooked in if they drink milk eat cheese or eggs how can they say they are vegetarianism ,eat meat be happy.

Answer 8

A Vegan lifestyle is healthy. Meat is an ignorant craving

Answer 9

Meat was aquired through evolution, not required as once believed.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-aninsidelook.html

http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/nutrition/veg.htm

Answer 10

no its fine and dont think it does anithing bad