Thursday, July 26, 2012

Ancient Humans Were Mostly Vegetarian, says critic

Where once the vegetarian diet was all the rage, now the Paleolithic diet seems to be the new trend in the West. A brief explanation of the diet for the uninitiated, courtesy of Wikipedia: 

"The paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils."

There are however, still believers in the vegetarian diet and that our ancestors, ate mostly a plant diet. One of them is Rob Dunn, who is a critic of the paleolithic diet and by the sound of it, a dedicated vegetarian. He presents a credible case for vegetarianism in his recent article in the Huffington Post. 


Monday, July 16, 2012

Vegetarianism and the French Revolution

We don't typically associate the French Revolution with vegetarianism, but according to this post in NPR, vegetarianism was alive and kicking during the era:

"...nearly lost to history were the middle and upper class opponents of the political system, some of whom were reported to have used vegetarianism — not the guillotine — to protest the monarchy.  
Vegetarianism during the French Revolution is most often traced to the political writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a philosopher who greatly influenced the revolutionaries, says Tristram Stuart, author of the book The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism: From 1600 to Modern Times.
Rousseau writes in Emile, his treatise on education:
"The indifference of children towards meat is one proof that the taste for meat is unnatural; their preference is for vegetable foods, such as milk, pastry, fruit, etc. Beware of changing this natural taste and making children flesh-eaters, if not for their health's sake, for the sake of their character." "