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From: spp@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Stephen P Pope)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Vegetarians
Message-ID: <11344@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 3-Jan-86 13:10:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.11344
Posted: Fri Jan  3 13:10:08 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jan-86 05:28:28 EST
References: <75900002@hpfclg.UUCP  <325@uwai.UUCP  <326@uwai.UUCP <328@uwai.UUCP>
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 40

> Vasant Honavar
> 
>     Some more sound reasons for being vegetarian:
>     
>     	1. Solving the world hunger problem
>     	Information from USDA's economic research service shows that we get
>     	1 pound of beef for 16 pounds of grain. 

Faulty reasoning.  Cattle can graze on land that is unsuitable for
cultivation, and are very efficient in converting various low-protein,
human-inedible grasses into high-protein, human-edible meat.  Therefore,
consumption of the meat of grazing animals increases, not decreases, 
the potential world food production.

Fattening them up in a feed lot is probably wasteful, however.


>     	3. Health 
>     	Because the alimentary canal of humans is about 3 times as long as
>     	that of typical carnivores, meat, which decays very fast, is retained
>     	in the stomach for a much longer time, producing undesirable toxic 
>     	effects. The organ that is worst hit by this is the kidney which has
>     	to extract these toxins from the blood.

Man is an omnivore, not a carnivore.  Big difference.  Our digestive
track is also a lot shorter than that of a lot of vegitarian animals
such as the above-mentioned cattle.  

>     	Since the human body is very limited in its ability to deal with
>     	excess animal fat, fatty deposits accumulate on the inner walls of
>     	the arteries producing arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the 
>     	arteries. Since this constricts the flow of blood to the heart, the
>     	potential of heart attacks and strokes is significantly increased.

Good argument for not consuming a lot of animal fat.  Unfortunately
most vegitarians in this country are ovo-lactoids and consume as much
if not more animal fat than the rest of the populace.


steve pope