cavemen, nomads, ancient people...

So obviously we have the ability to eat meat, but only as a survival thing, not the ability to eat it everyday like we do. We've seen the health effects of it. It's bad. But I always seem to see in archeological books and tv shows that the people typically ate meat. Even though it's not very good for our health. Now one of the diseases that are linked to excessive meat eating is heart disease, just anything that is related to overconsumption of fat. There's also osteoporosis.. I read in Diet for a New America that Eskimos had the highest rate of osteoporosis for any civilization, as they mainly ate meat, consuming up to 400 g of protein a day.

So my question is that, even if eating meat is a survival tactic, only used in situations where they are capeable of starving, why was consumed natually in the natural world?

 

sorry, your question is very confusing...

the differences is the survival mode and 'natural' world are divided by a very thin line. I doubt there's much difference at all. those in new guinea may keep pigs as pets for times of sickness, celebration or war. not that they NEED the pig for daily subsistence, but yes, this year or next they will eat it. the native american may not eat venison daily, but yes when the creator crosses their paths and food is needed they will give thanks and take the gift.

I don't know if I'm making any sense to you, but if not just rephrase your question. I just offered a few examples to possibly explain some sort of relationship between humans and meat-eating. I think the key is that there isnt much of a difference between your 'survival' and 'natural' worlds... we are always in survival mode, even if our modern conveniences trick our senses and minds, I could still die from lack of oxygen(in minutes), water(in days), food(in weeks) and thats not to even mention security or other medical situations..

hope I helped, even a little

 

By the 'natural world' you mean civilisation as opposed to the bush tribes or the people who live in almost inhospitable conditions?

Humans exploited animals and got carried away. That one pig they kept for emergencies got turned into 5. Then money came along and people saw profits of keeping and farming animals. Then it became normal to eat meat.

This is one of the reasons I hate farming ^^ All for profits and not necessary at all ^^

I hope this is of some use to you

 

All hunter-gatherer tribes ate meat because of the presence of animals in their enviornment. They couldn't have survived alone on berries or nuts. They did not have the agricultural staples that make up the vegetarian diet, thus they didn't have tooth decay or any other problems that emerged during that period. I doubt that they consumed meat every meal of the day like modern western people do, so they didn't have heart disease. Vegetarian diets are impossible in the bush conditions, as noted in modern nomad hunter gatherers.

 

Our human ancestors ate meat because it's a highly concentrated source of protein and other nutrients. I'm not saying it's the only source and I don't want to get into arguments about vegetarianism, but it's not entirely accurate to make a blanket statement that eating meat is "bad", especially once you make the distinction between eating wild game and eating Big Macs. I wouldn't count Big Macs as "food", anyway.

Studies have shown that Stone Age hunter-gatherer people get about 75% of their calories from plant material. That's not too surprising ... gathering is much easier than hunting. Chimpanzees eat meat too, but meat makes up less of their diet than the Stone Age people, presumably because they're not as skilled in making weapons for hunting.

Humans, like coyotes and great white sharks, evolved to be opportunistic feeders. They will eat the things that give the most nutrition for the least effort. Meat gives concentrated nutrition, but hunting takes a lot of effort and it's not always successful, which is why there's some optimum combination of hunting and gathering.

 

I read that on their long sea voyages the Nordics observed that the lambs on board had become accustomed to the meat and fish they were all but forced to eat and upon returning to land they no longer desired grass. There are also cases of horses and parrots who have adapted to eating animal products.


No doubt humans can adjust and, indeed, have adjusted to eating animal products but studies seem to suggest that it impaires our longevity and quality of life all the same.

 

It also depends on what you do all day and how fat the meat you eat is. Yeah, we're still in survival mode ok, but if you have a desk job and eat meat like lumberjack it gets unhealthy indeed.