Why humans need nutrient dense animal foods for good health

[Polaris]

A really interesting video interviewing Lierre Keith, author of the book, 'The Vegetarian Myth'.

youtu.be/rNON5iNf07o(Not working as expected?)

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Have to confess to being a vegetarian but I do eat cheese and egg - love cheese - but really have huge problems with the thought of eating and trying to digest meat - just haven't been able to do that since my 20s. Like the smell of bacon but the thought of eating it just makes me turn pale!

Never was vegetarian for ideological reasons which I always felt were a bit mixed.

[Polaris in reply to Gambit62]

It must be difficult Gambit to swallow meat if you're not used to it any more - I know that my sister felt the same and her vegetarian friend, who is very ill with ME cannot bring herself to eat it even though she knows it would help her. Next to liver and beef, fish and shellfish, etc. have very high levels of B12 though....I must admit I loved bacon sandwiches too much to ever contemplate being vegetarian!

From the perspective of old age, I must say that I've been amazed at the number of vegans/vegetarians I've known or heard of who have become ill with ME, MS, thyroid disease, etc. and it all begins to make sense now. Some authors and doctors, e.g. Dr Amy Myers and Dr. Terry Wahls, (who wrote about her recovery from MS by following a hunter gatherer type diet) were both vegetarian until they became ill. In his book"The Miraculous Results of Extremely High Doses of Vitamin D3", Jeff Bowles records that his health began to fail after he became vegetarian.

I was interested that Lierre quoted Weston Price, the dentist who discovered K2 in 1939, and who is mentioned in many books on nutrition. It is one of my favourite websites.

I'm really not sure though that it's not now too late to be able to feed the whole planet if we adopted the methods advocated.....

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Polaris]

I wasn't convinced by the comments on diabetes as Type 1 is genetic in the sense that if you have the gene you will develop the disease ... but would probably have died - as most is early onset - so may just be that the gene wasn't i the groups that were quoted.

Not so sure it's just psychology - think its probably physiology as well as I do feel quite awful after accidentally having meat in terms of problems digesting. Have Indian friends who are the same.

Personally was never convinced by argument that we should be vegetarian because that way we can feed more people - it is a holistic thing about life-styles as a whole ... haven't tried insect protien but that definitely seems to have possibilities - and was part of the hunter-gatherer that has definitely been lost in 'the West'

[Chancery]

Well, I can unintentionally testify to the dangers of vegetarian eating. Over the years, because of poverty and the fact that my partner is the cook, I have eaten a demi-vegetarian/vegetarian diet, i.e. very little meat and mostly lentils, pulses and cheese/eggs. Oftentimes we would be vegetarian for long stretches. Ironically, I never really enjoyed the food as much as meat and fish (partner won't eat fish), but hey, it was tasty enough and cheap!

Many, many years of this go by. By the time I am in my late forties, I have got fatter and fatter, despite the 'healthy' diet, and by my early fifties I have gallstones that are so advanced I am in constant pain. Ironically, while trying to save my gallbladder, I can eat only fish, so I do, but my diet is meat-free and fat free. I lose all my excess weight, but also nearly all my muscle mass. I am weak, permanently cold, tired, in pain and bent over like an old woman. Eventually, I give up and have my gallbladder out. In a desperate attempt not to regain all my weight I go vegan! Yay, for healthy vegan!

Nope. Suddenly I am struck down with 'the worst pain known to man' - trigeminal neuralgia. I can't eat ANYTHING, I am eating Ready Brek and literally starving. I get a diagnosis and am doped up with wonderful, wonderful drugs that kill the pain, almost, but turn me into a vegetable. This goes on for 10 months, until I discover Vitamin B12 deficiency and badger my doc to give me the injections, although the NHS says I don't merit them - lo and behold! I'm cured - almost. I start eating meat and never touch another lentil. Fast forward to today and I'm still currently taking one of said monstrous drugs, but steadily lowering the dose and still pain-free, thanks to B12. Although my doc believes that it is a placebo. No kidding.

Since then I've discovered I also have chronically low Vit D, hypothyroidism, Neutropenia and low Haematocrit, which denotes anaemia, but what kind, no-one knows.

So the moral of that long story is, if your body craves meat and nothing but meat that probably means you should be eating meat. Ignore it at your peril or you will end up like me – minus a body organ, with a screwed up thyroid gland, and inexplicably low white blood cell count and malnutrition. You have been warned!

[Polaris]

What can I say Chancery....and it's also sad that you are still having to battle for adequate treatment....I hope life gets better for you.

I've just been listing to radio - they're talking about John Nash, the mathematican - having seen the film, I wonder now if his Schitzophrenia was brought on by long periods of not eating properly whilst absorbed in his work ?