h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chimpanzees in the wild have been known to hunt & eat other monkeys - closer to cannibalism than most humans would care to tread.

"In fact, during the peak dry season months, the estimated per capita meat intake is about 65 grams of meat per day for each adult chimpanzee. This approaches the meat intake by the members of some human foraging societies in the lean months of the year. Chimpanzee dietary strategies may thus approximate those of human hunter-gatherers to a greater degree than we had imagined." - more info here -> http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html


;^)#

Perhaps it's a California thing, but I haven't noticed all that much tension between the omnivores and vegetarians lately. I have numerous vegetarian friends, and we can all have meals together just fine. Everyone respects each other's choices (if it's even really thought about much (It's just not much of an issue)).

I have a vegetarian friend that doesn't really eat vegetables. She mostly subsists on cheese... Is there such a thing as a "lactarian"?

Chocolatarians next?

;^)#

Aren't scorpions built to withstand all popular forms of armageddon too?

There was a story in a magazine somewhere about a girl who ate chocolate with a proper meal only every ten days or so. I doubt it was true, though. Is there still that fashion in US high society of pretending to be lactose-intolerant?

In relpy to the person wanting to get back to lots of veg and little meat.

I'm veggie, my partner isn't. There are lots of recipes out there that can be adapted to suit both diets. Stir fry is one example and pasta dishes are usually easy to adapt.

And I really wish people would just let others eat what they want. I only get annoyed with meat eaters when they start trying to make fun of me and my habits. I don't eat meat because I choose not to. If you want to eat meat, well that's OK by me, just don't expect me to.

Would you have the same attitude to someone who said I'm not going to eat anything with tomatoes in because I don't like them?

And fanatical veggies get up my nose just as much as fanatical anti-veggies.

I only got into this because of that Prunesquallor bloke trying to use physiological data to prove that eating meat is wrong. The only thing I object to about vegetarians the fact that they've got a special word to refer to themselves with. "Meat-eater" is two words joined together badly. Not fair.

You know, that's actually an interesting point there, that last one about vegetarians having a special word. It's actually something I would hesitate to call myself.

I haven't eaten meat in 6 weeks, as a sort of experiment to prove to myself the notion that I don't care whether or not I eat meat, something I've thought for a while. Seems like it's true. It's also an experiment to see if I can make any sustainable change in what I eat. For some reason with this one I'm not tempted to stop and eat meat again. Well, not tempted probably isn't right. I miss the tastes, a bit. But I can resist, even though I'm surrounded by meat choices, even though I went to eat in a steakhouse and ordered the vegetarian pasta dish on the menu, etc. It's somehow fascinating to me.

So I don't avoid meat for ethical reasons, really. It's certainly not for any of the perceived "humans aren't meant to eat meat" reasons. And not really for health reasons, at least, I don't really think I could call it that considering how many things I eat with cheese and such. It's just a choice. It's kinda like my choice not to drink alcohol. Funny that. For all the talk about vegetarians being somehow persecuted for their choice, certainly this choice is far less alienating than not drinking.

I'm not sure that it is though. I know loads of people who don't drink and no one seems to mind. OK, so they are usually asked why, but people seem more prepared to let it lie, even if the answer is, I just don't feel like it.

As for words, you could call yourself a non-meat-eater. Infact, I think I prefer that as vegetarian always seems to make people think I'm a member of the ALF.

I dunno if people seem more prepared to let it lie. Maybe about the same amount of people would let it lie as would let lie not eating meat. But I'd argue that even in this somewhat tolerant age there's still a certain suspicion laid on you if you don't go drink with your colleagues or friends or whomever. Or at least it prevents you from getting to be better friends.

I've been a veggie for about 10 years or so and I still get hassle from people about it. I feel like putting up a big sign saying "I'm veggie because I don't like meat and never did, and couldn't care less if you eat a 12oz raw steak every day."
I also find that if I get a cold it is blamed on my being vegetarian - why? Meat-eaters are often told to eat more vegetables as a way of warding off colds!
I have never been to a vegetarian restaurant, I hate tofu with a passion and even have difficulty eating some Quorn. I need protein yet all vegetable protein is made to look like and taste like meat. I want to start a campaign for the Carrot flavoured Quorn!

Bruce is quite right. Very often eggs (free range ones at least - and what vegetarian would eat battery eggs..?) are fertilised. I hardly use any eggs (don't like them much) but about a third of all I use for baking have a characteristic brown spot in the middle of the yolk.

Guess what that is..?

"Vegetarians live on average 20% longer than meat eaters."

You've got to remember, doc, that the average vegetarian is more wary of what they eat that omnarians (more accurat term than meat-eater) purely because of the type of people likely to be vegetarians. Boozing layabouts stuff their faces with chips (fries), burgers and pizza.

But of course it's the meat content that makes them unhealthy, isn't it....

Okay, what the smeg is Quorn anyway?

Yeah, there is an awful lot of soy-based stuff that's made to taste like meat (even though it actually doesn't ). Some of it's okay, like meat-free corn dogs. But yeah, doesn't work if the trouble is you don't like the taste of meat.

It is too bad people give each other trouble over this, in both directions. Vegetarians need not be militant about it, and the, well, we need a better word for the people who eat meat, come on, we're creative around here, someone think of one! Anyway, they need not be so questioning, skeptical, etc. of the decision not to eat meat.

I have been to vegetarian restaurants; they're not all tofu. And hey, some great ethnic food can be vegetarian very easily, like Indian, Thai, etc.

One point that I find about dealing with both meat-eaters and vegetarians is one that is potentially poisonous.

Fats and oils, when cooked at high temperatures, become oxidised, forming highly toxic aldehydes. This happens at carbon-carbon double or triple bonds, the _unsaturated_ bonds of the molecules. This means that there is more breakup of the molecules into aldehydes, which are also then smaller and easier for the gut to absorb .

To provide for vegetarians, the average chippie (fried food take-aways common in Scotland) is now using vegetable oil in place of the traditional lard. Chippies have their oil on the heat continually, throwing more food in as they go.

It may be worth pointing out now that the most common embalming fluid in use in recent times is methanal - also known as formaldehyde.

Why do we have to have food made with veg but looking like meat?
Veggie sausages, burgers and such - yuck!
When was the last time you saw a bag of spuds in Sainsburys that
was actually made with chickens brains?
Appreciation of food has a lot to do with how it looks.
Carrots look colourful and pointy. Broad beans are green, shiny and round.
Sausages look like something that has already been eaten once already.
'nuff said.

The human race is not going to evolve very much in the forseeable future, because medicine is saving the genetically weak and putting them back into the reproductive cycle. This means that all the genes - good and bad - that exist in one generation will exist somewhere in the next.

You seem to have the wrong idea of evolution. It works because undesirable traits die out, not because something else would be better. Just because you eat plants doesn't mean your children will have have, for example, multiple stomachs for ruminating; grinding plate molars as in a sheep's mouth, shorter canines.

Even if we havn't evolved as meat eaters, just give it time

Quorn is a vegetable protein made from mushroom like things - for this read mould!

Ten years as a vegetarian. Ten years loving meat and not eating it. Why do I do it? Morality - that wore off years ago. Habit - probably. What I can't stand are preachy vegetarians who make other people feel uncomfortable about eating meat. The whole point of being a vegetarian is that we have the choice and freedom to do so. Trapped on a desert island and only a cow to keep me company? The cow gets it!