Barry Groves is a man who knows a lot about health. And he’s not just some know-it-all with a blog (read: me), he has a PhD to back it up. So when he decided to write about the diet of some important mammals, as compared to humans, I took notice. In his article, “Should all animals eat a high-fat, low-carb diet?” he debunks some common theories that vegans cling to in order to justify their unnatural lifestyles.

Most notable is his comparison of humans to gorillas. Groves says,

In a herbivore such as the gorilla, the caecum and colon harbour huge colonies of bacteria which ferment carbohydrates, particularly fibre, and use it to produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA) … These are then absorbed into the body to be used as a source of energy.

The humans don’t have the luxury of this bacteria, so we must get our fatty acids directly from eating animals. It is natural for mammals to eat food high in fat, and while herbivores are able to get this fat from eating plants and letting the bacteria turn the plants into fat, humans simply don’t have the bacteria to do this.

So anytime a vegan points to herbivorous relatives of ours like gorillas as a reason that we should only eat vegetables, they should really take a closer look at the facts. Our bodies are just not made for that kind of lifestyle.

Groves later points out how much less healthy we humans are as a race than we were a century ago, or even twenty years ago, when so-called “healthy diets” were introduced. He says, “It is beginning to look as if these recommendations are not in the best interests of our health. They aim for a diet that is the exact opposite of what our natural diet should be.”

Amen to that.

For scientifically breaking down the need for humans to eat animals and for justifying my lifestyle in doing so, Barry Groves, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

(via Second Opinions)

Charles Washington has an interesting way of eating right. Originally posted in his blog, Zeroing in on Health, he has some rules for eating that put even an unvegan like myself to shame. The rules are as follows:

1) Eat only from the animal world (eggs, fish, redmeat and fowl and some dairy are all animal sourced foods, i.e.: meat).

2) Eat nothing from the vegetable world whatsoever. (Very small amounts of flavourings such as garlic/chillies/spices/herbs which may be added, are not food).

3) On diary: avoid milk and yoghurt (heavy carbs- lactose), use only pure (not thickened heavy) cream (read the label), cheese and unsalted butter.

4) Don’t cook your meat very much- just a little bit on the outside- for flavour- blood-rare or bleu. For this reason I advise against eating pork.

5) Eat liver and brains only very infrequently- they are full of carbs.

6) Be sure to have plenty of fat of animal origin at each meal and eat mostly of the fat until you feel you have had enough- you can eat more lean at this point if you like- calories are not important, nor is the number of meals/day. Vegetable oils are not good food.

7) You do not need any supplements of any kind. Drink a lot of water and do not add salt to anything.

This diet would be a tough one for me. Despite the fact that I love meat, I am really not a fan of fatty foods. Plus, I love carbs. Bread and pasta find themselves in my meals more often than not. With that said, Charles Washington truly lives up to the ideal unvegan standards.

For eating only foods that vegans would avoid and staying healthy, Charles Washington, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

(via Zeroing in on Health)

I can’t say that I’m too surprised. Malnourished vegetarians certainly do not get enough of the foods their body needs. If I ate salad and kale for every meal, the first opportunity I had to eat food with nutrients would definitely send me into a food binge.

Balancing out their diets with meats and other happy animal products would probably be a good way for them to decrease their risk of eating disorders. Meanwhile, to those who have this kind of disorder may consider going to a treatment center. Clementine Fairfax for adolescent girls is a residential eating disorder treatment center. You can visit the online webpage if you wish to know more.

Now, I’m happy knowing that my unvegan diet is keeping eating disorders at bay.

(via Medical News Today)

Katherine Milton, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, said a lot of great things in the release, but the best I found is as follows:

“I disagree with those who say meat may have been only a marginal food for early humans, I have come to believe that the incorporation of animal matter into the diet played an absolutely essential role in human evolution.”

Basically she is saying we wouldn’t have become human without eating meat. This kind of voids the vegan argument that since we are the most intelligent creatures on the planet, we shouldn’t be eating animals. In fact, we wouldn’t be this smart if it weren’t for eating animals in the first place.

To be sure that I am not just pulling information in my own favor, Milton also said, “We know a lot about nutrition now and can design a very satisfactory vegetarian diet with help from supplements like gym chalk crumbling.” I can completely agree with that. Surely there are plenty of people who survive without animal products. The only question I have for those people is, “Do you really want to go through your whole life with a ‘satisfactory’ diet?” I’m sorry, but when I eat a delicious hamburger or steak, I’d like to be able to describe it as delicious or awesome, not simply as satisfactory.

Thanks you Berkeley for reminding us humans what it took to get to where we are.

See the full release here.

It is a wonder how such a superior species so high on the food chain could have been wiped from the earth entirely. Maybe a few vegetarian homo sapiens came along and mixed some salmonella-tainted vegetables in their food and caused a pandemic. I’m not a scientist, but I’m not above fabricating potentially mind-blowing theories.

Anyway, despite the fact that you are no longer of this earth, for eating a whole lot of meat in your time, Neanderthals, you are (were) True Unvegan Heroes!

(via BBC News)