The Nicefication of Eating Meat

[Monica]

Human beings have evolved as meat- eaters.....since we must eat to live, there have been many times in human history where plant sources of food were unavailable due to drought and lack of technology to store food.  So animal foods have kept human beings alive.  That for sure is something that even today we can have gratitude for.  Anyone in a human body is here because of animals gift, they have been life- giving for humanity.

Indigenous peoples did indeed need to kill animals, for clothing and shelter, especially in colder climates, where, as you say, plants weren't always available. But, the role of meat in human evolution has been overrated:

Diet and Civilization by Dr. John McDougall MD

Regardless, we no longer need meat for survival, and we no longer need animal skins for clothing or shelter. There may be exceptions in primitive communities, but I'm speaking in general here, about 'civilized' humans.

We recently got a vitamix blender.  It is awesome for packing in the highly dense nutrition of fruits and veggies .  Highly recommended that everyone get one and have smoothies everyday. I think the key to moving away from animal protein is densely nutritious foods, very important.

I love my Vitamix! It's my 2nd fav kitchen appliance...gets used several times each day. I would take it further, though, and say that nutritionally dense foods are important now, for anyone, whether veg or not, due to the depletion of nutrients in foods overall. If anything, it's even more important for meat-eaters to eat lots of greens, to partially counteract the cancer-causing properties of animal protein.

As the above video by Dr. McDougall shows, it isn't complicated or difficult to thrive on a plant-based diet. A common mistake made by new vegans is not eating enough calories. Given enough calories, it's virtually impossible to not get enough protein.

I have one co- worker who is a vegetarian.  She is having scary neurological symptoms.  I talked to her about B12 deficiency ( her symptoms are caused by demyelination which can be caused by B12 defiency).  Her levels are adequate according to tests however.  I want to talk to her more though, there are more sensitive blood tests that can confirm the deficiency.  ( low homocysteine and something else).   I think it is unfortunate because she became vegetarian in recent years and to have such scary symptoms is very discouraging.  

Why do you assume that her symptoms have anything at all to do with being vegetarian? In my business, I encounter a lot of people with health problems, and I've encountered several, over the years, who had neurological problems. All were meat-eaters.

If it is B12-related, that can happen to meat-eaters too. If she is vegetarian but not vegan, it's not even an issue at all. If she ate meat until just a few years ago, it's not likely a B12 deficiency, because B12 stores take awhile to run out.

Vegans do need to supplement with B12. Not doing so is a common mistake among vegans. The reason we have to supplement is that we wash our produce. The human body can synthesize B12 from bacteria, just like animals do.

More on B12:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/nov/b12.htm

I agree that it is possible it's B12 deficiency, in which case it can be easily remedied.