[extropy-chat] what is the upside / advantage of meat ?

[spike]

Ensel your comments are mixing two different things here:

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Ensel Sharon
...
> 
> As a result, I have been cutting out a fair amount of animal products...
> 
> However, certain thoughts keep nagging me, such as:
> 
> - setting aside overconsumption, which leads to obesity and western-style
> ailments...

Definitely.  Eat light, live long.

> ...increased meat consumption in the developing world has led to
> greater average heights, body masses and physical robustness...

Hmmm, lots of assumptions here that need proving.  Increased meat eating
goes along with lots of things that lead to greater average heights,
physical robustness etc, such as better health habits in general.  I see
little evidence that eating more meat by itself causes more robustness.

...

> 
> My own well being and positive results suggest I will continue to remove
> meat, and animal products in general, from my diet, but I'd like to have a
> better grasp of what I am giving up, and what, in most basic terms, meat
> is good for.  All comments appreciated...


I can assure you that you can be very healthy with little or no meat, and
can show you maaany examples of people who do so.  They grew up big and
strong eating no meat ever in their lives, and I do mean no beef, pork, fish
nor foul, nothing that ever had a face.  

I have ethical issues with my own diet: red meat is farm grown, and these
beasts would never have lived at all had we proles no desire to devour them,
and some life is better than none I would suppose.  Fish on the other hand
are mostly taken from the wild.  I eat a lot of fish but little red meat, so
I do have a bit of a guilt thing about that.  This can be assuaged by simply
eating less food of all kinds.  Most of us can get by on less food, and
there are health benefits.

Summary: you don't need red meat.  Take an iron tablet occasionally, and a
B12.  Eat light, live long.

spike