Kara & Michael’s Blog

I’ve been a sort-of vegetarian for a year now. I’ve elminated almost all dairy and eggs from my diet, but still eat fish or fish broth (like in miso soup) occasionally.

I just read an article from someone advocating a “caveman diet” as the healthiest diet available. He cites several pieces of evidence, but I think it’s a load. The article is here, for your perusal.

Before I get into the wastefulness of eating meat (especially the way the author does), let me start by saying this one fact – everyone’s body reacts differently to diets – because everyone has a different body. This should be the fundamental starting point of any discussion about diet.

People have historically eaten differently around the world because different foods have been available to them. Each group of people had a different diet based on what was available around them. The Native Americans ate squash and corn and whatever animals they could hunt, because that’s what they had. In Japan, they eat rice and fish and pickled root vegetables, because that’s what they have. People who eat the diet traditional to the place they have historically lived and get regular exercize tend to be healthy. So I understand wanting to take that thought logically back to the beginning of man – and eat what cavemen ate. (Personally, I’d like to take it back to monkeys and eat bananas, bugs and nuts all day)

But this man isn’t eating what caveman ate – he’s eating prepared steaks, tunafish and corned beef in a goddamn can. He’s not going out and hunting. He’s not eating only the nuts and fruits that would grow near where he lives. He’s not a caveman: he’s a git going to the supermarket and eating some slab of animal raised to be very fat and then slaughtered. It’s not the same thing.

Even living like a pioneer is closer to being a caveman. Eating the wild animals you shoot yourself. Eating the food you grow yourself. Raising animals for milk or eggs. My aunt, who raises chickens and has cherry trees and pecan trees and pear trees and apple trees is closer to a caveman that the author of that article is.

I think it’s also important to note that the author judged his health by the loss of his fat and gain of bulky muscle. I have acquaintances on similar diets who don’t touch vegetables, and don’t do cardiovascular exercize and I’m not lying when I say that I secretly await their first heart attack as further evidence against this stupid trend.

Maybe that makes me a bad person, but the meat people eat today is nothing like eating wild game or even like eating livestock you raise yourself to slaughter. Maybe it is if you go to a local butcher or an Amish market, where they do raise their own animals and produce their own meat. But the commoditization of meat not only produces tons of waste, it also probably isn’t all that healthy for us, anyway.

I guess my real point is that no one will stumble onto a diet that will help everyone. And if your only goal is to lose weight – without concern for the affects your diet has on the environment, I think that’s a bit selfish.

Also, you’re not eating like a goddamn caveman. If you want to, go out and hammer bunnies and antelopes to death and eat them.

K.

The contents of this blog entry may not reflect the views of the Webmaster of Doom, Michael.

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