Vegetarianism and Shaolin monks

punkbass2000 said:
Um, what? You cannot be completely carnivore and expect to live for very long.

Ditto. I have a feeling intestinal cancer will pop up after a few months of pure meat eating.
 
punkbass2000 said:
Well, I can see how it relates to the topic, but it seems rather superfluous.
Uilier states that vegetarian monks appear to be in great physical shape, even though he heard that a strict vegetarian diet is unhealthy. My contribution to the thread is that I believe an omnivorous diet is best.

I'll tell you one thing: this asinine discussion of what the topic is, is OT and boring.
 
Arctic peoples eat almost purely animal products for most of the year, I think. Humans really are quite versatile.

I'm not sure how the monks get around the B12 problem if they really are vegan.

Renata
 
Bozo Erectus said:
Which seems to indicate that nature favors an omnivorous diet.

Is that not what I have said consistently through this thread? I've said several times now we are omnivores. Should be easy enough to understand. However, we don't have to be. The choice is ours. We can be herbivores or carnivores. It's just much easier to have an omnivorous diet.
 
Renata said:
I'm not sure how the monks get around the B12 problem if they really are vegan.

Indeed. They might actually eat seaweed, or something. Either that or perhaps they evolved to be able to do without it? B12 may be essential, but it is only needed in ridiculously small quantities. I don't think you can get it in multivitamins that give you less than fifty times the daily recommended dosage. Also, effects from lack of B12 take years to show up and most commonly result in dimentia, which is precisely how many would describe monastic life and many eastern religious beliefs :D
 
blackheart said:
Ditto. I have a feeling intestinal cancer will pop up after a few months of pure meat eating.

And how can you see that? I have not seen a shred of evidence for that.
 
ironduck said:
Is that not what I have said consistently through this thread? I've said several times now we are omnivores. Should be easy enough to understand. However, we don't have to be. The choice is ours. We can be herbivores or carnivores. It's just much easier to have an omnivorous diet.
So where did you get this odd idea that Im arguing with you?
 
Bozo Erectus said:
So where did you get this odd idea that Im arguing with you?

I don't know. Glad I was wrong, people here seem to be more interested in 'winning' a discussion than just learning stuff.
 
ironduck said:
Tell that to the traditional inuit.

For some reason I can't select parts of the text, but nonetheless this article shows that Inuit were not completely carnivorous. http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant476/papers/Tinnon.pdf#search='Inuit%20diet'
Page four mentions that southern inuit would gather berries in the summer and preserve them in seal oil for the winter. It is not as specific in regards to northern Inuit, but it does say "not entirely from plants", indicating that there is some sort of plants that are eaten.
 
punkbass2000 said:
For some reason I can't select parts of the text, but nonetheless this article shows that Inuit were not completely carnivorous. http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant476/papers/Tinnon.pdf#search='Inuit%20diet'
Page four mentions that southern inuit would gather berries in the summer and preserve them in seal oil for the winter. It is not as specific in regards to northern Inuit, but it does say "not entirely from plants", indicating that there is some sort of plants that are eaten.

Interesting paper you found..

I am aware that southern inuit take various things they can eat from land, especially berries. But in the north these are almost non-existent, and yet the inuit have thrived there for thousands of years. I think it's safe to say that they have developed the ability to live on an exclusively or almost-exclusively carnivorous diet.

It's really a remarkable testament to the adaptability of humans in my view :)
 
punkbass2000 said:
Also, effects from lack of B12 take years to show up and most commonly result in dimentia, which is precisely how many would describe monastic life and many eastern religious beliefs :D
You've found the correct word: dimentia!!! :goodjob:
 
Bozo Erectus said:
One question though: Why do we have teeth specifically designed for cutting meat?
Well maybe they elvolved because humans were eating meat.....

Design it is not.
 
ironduck said:
And how can you see that? I have not seen a shred of evidence for that.

No fiber in their diets, the gunk builds up in intestines, I took an educated guesstimate.
 
blackheart said:
No fiber in their diets, the gunk builds up in intestines, I took an educated guesstimate.

Maybe the reason it's not a problem is that their diet is not 'pure meat' (I overlooked that part of your post since I figured you basically referred to the non-vegetarian diet of inuits). Inuit tend to eat almost everything from the animal, rather than focus on muscle tissue. In fact, I believe the muscle is considered the least interesting part (which makes a lot of sense from a nutritious viewpoint). The same is true for polar bears' diets btw..
 
I'm a vegetarian (not a vegan) for about 8 years now
Being a vegetarian is a lot healthier than eating meat if (and only if) it is done correctly. Meaning getting all the healthy nutritions meat offers in different foods.
B12 is the only vitamin meat offers that is very hard to find in non-meat products. It can be found in eggs and certain wheat products, yet all vegetarians must keep an eye on their B12 level, as it can be very dangerous if the body's supply runs out (the human body can store B12 for about 6 years)
Every other healthy nutrition meat has to offer can easily be found in other foods.
Nuts, almonds, soy and many others contain loads of proteins (although the average vegetarian will still be less massive than a non vegetarian)
Iron can be found in many foods- green pepers are my favorite
Same goes for everything else meat has to offer
Therefore, you can get all the nutritions meat has to offer without all the fat, cholesterol and whatever junk is in there without eating meat- thus living a healthier longer life.
 
I would GUESS (and it is a pure guess) you can get around B12 by eating the right fungi, or the right bacteria growing on the right sort of food.

Inuit get their vitimin C from raw fish, so I would think there would be some sort of B12 like replacement that doesn't come from meat.

Also, Shaolin are, shall we say, not quite mainstream monks. Getting feedback from a regular monk might not tell you that much about a Shaolin diet.
 
Yaniv said:
I'm a vegetarian (not a vegan) for about 8 years now
Being a vegetarian is a lot healthier than eating meat if (and only if) it is done correctly. Meaning getting all the healthy nutritions meat offers in different foods.
B12 is the only vitamin meat offers that is very hard to find in non-meat products. It can be found in eggs and certain wheat products, yet all vegetarians must keep an eye on their B12 level, as it can be very dangerous if the body's supply runs out (the human body can store B12 for about 6 years)
Every other healthy nutrition meat has to offer can easily be found in other foods.
Nuts, almonds, soy and many others contain loads of proteins (although the average vegetarian will still be less massive than a non vegetarian)
Iron can be found in many foods- green pepers are my favorite
Same goes for everything else meat has to offer
Therefore, you can get all the nutritions meat has to offer without all the fat, cholesterol and whatever junk is in there without eating meat- thus living a healthier longer life.
Good post :goodjob:
 
Bozo Erectus said:
One question though: Why do we have teeth specifically designed for cutting meat?
Hmm, actually we have the smallest "canine" teeth of any primate. My dad made a similar comment at the dinner table when I first became vegetarian about two years ago. So I said, "designed for ripping flesh, eh?" and I turned to my GF and asked her to try to rip a chuck of flesh out of my arm with only her teeth. She didn't do it at the dinner table (would've been weird) but later I had her try it and she couldn't even draw blood (my arm just got red and had teeth marks in it for about 15 minutes :D). Now imagine how much tougher a cow's skin is then our own (think leather) and rethink your question.

By the way, chimpanzees (whose digestive system is most akin to our own) eat mostly fruit and wild greens with about 1-5% meat (much of that from insects).

If you're really bored you can search my posts from years ago and hear me agrue against vegetarianism but eventually the weight of the facts overwhelmed me.

Dr. Atkins (now dead - autopsy revealing heart complications) and others can argue meat is 'necessary' but to over half the world it is quite obvious it isn't. Every amino acid (protein), vitamin and mineral can be traced back to a plant source.

The Sholin monks (and Chinese and Indian culture in general) show that with meat absent (or used sparingly as a condiment) the risk of heart attack, cancer and most other degenerative diseases falls dramatically. : Check out The China Study

And in terms of brute strength and muscle vegetarian/vegan is plenty sufficient too. Muscle is gained by working out, food is just the fuel, and plant food contains all the aminos and minerals necessary to facilitate growth in a more absorbable form than cooked animal flesh.

Here's one strength building website (with photos) for a couple seconds of Googling : http://www.europeanvegetarian.org/evu/english/news/news002/meatless_muscle.html

Yaniv said:
Being a vegetarian is a lot healthier than eating meat if (and only if) it is done correctly.

That's the conclusion I came to as well. I think many people might meet one or two vegetarians who eat nothing but twinkies, Ramen noodles and white rice who don't like healthy and form an instant opinion that "vegetarianism is unhealthy/undoable".

Now, if it doesn't appeal to you, that's understandable, it didn't appeal to me for most of my life, however once I was convinced that meat mostly gets in the way of physical, mental, emotional, "spirtual" growth than I cut out my beef, chicken, ostrich, crab and sushi pretty much overnight. I figured if I craved it I would trust my body and try it again but I haven't. I still buy raw fish for my cats occasionally but never have the urge to eat it.

Oh, and in terms of the B12 issue, vegan sources include seaweed (dulce, nori, kelp, etc.) and algae (spirulina, chlorella, etc.). Also B12 is not a true vitamin but a bacteria found in the gut, it will be present in small quantities in a healthy system and takes years to deplete. I suppliment once a week or whenever I remember just in case. I don't worry about it.

Someday I'd like to visit Sholin. I always thought they were cool even when I used to live off of Burger King and White Castle.
 
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