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From: curran@barnum.DEC (Karen Curran)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Evolution
Message-ID: <1538@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 09:37:34 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1538
Posted: Thu Mar  6 09:37:34 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 02:54:55 EST
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I've been an observer in this newsgroup for several months
now, and would like to thank everyone for the interesting
discussions on "eating meat".   
I'm not a vegetarian but almost one.   My reasons for cutting 
my meat consumption have not been ethical, (although I could 
never eat veal after I heard what they did to get it), they've 
been more out of concern for my health.  
My husband and I have been following the Pritikin diet.  I 
haven't seen this mentioned although I've seen remarkable
similarities in some of the postings, especially the one
where they recommended a 5% fat intake, (you can't eat much
meat if your going to adhere to this one).
Anyway the reason I'm writing, is that last week I saw a show
on public television, concerning the evolution of man
from ape.  I didn't get to see the whole show, but I will
try to summarize what I did see.  
The theory started with chimps/apes living in trees.  Somehow
they developed a taste for meat.  To get meat they would
drive off the lions (or whatever) that had killed an animal.
They would do this by banding together and using sticks as weapons.
The interesting part was the effect that eating meat had on their 
lifestyle.  It gave them more time to do other things than 
just gathering their food.  Meat provided them with better
nutrition at less of an expense.  
It went on to explain how they progressed to living more and
more on the ground and this progressed to standing upright,
to watch for predators. 
That was about all I saw.  
It seems that without eating meat we might have never become
what we are today.  But, it seems that we no longer need to eat
meat, we now have ways of getting our food, that doesn't require
an all day effort.
I'd like to agree with Mr Cramer's friend, It's just a passing fad.


Karen Curran