Comparative Anatomy and Physiology Brought Up to Date

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T A B L E   O F   C O N T E N T S   F O R

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PART 8
Further Issues in the Debate over
Omnivorous vs. Vegetarian Diets

• Preface and overview

• Two fruitarian claims
  
  • Anti-protein theories: prime examples of crank science
    
  • Fruitarian straw argument: a pristine preindustrial world

• Hunter-gatherers: examples of healthy omnivores
  
  • Environmental factors
    
    • Malnutrition and starvation
      
    • Occupational hazards of hunter-gatherer lifestyles
      
  • Chronic diseases rare in hunter-gatherer societies
    
  • Incidence of specific diseases
    
  • Biomarkers
    
  • Health status of the Aborigines of Australia: O'Dea [1991]
    
    • Health of Australian Aborigines as hunter-gatherers (chart)
      
    • Comparison of lifestyle and diet of Australian Aborigines as hunter-gatherers and after Westernization (chart)

• Which omnivore diet? The "omnivorism = Western diet" fallacy.
  
  • Fallacy prevalent among scientifically oriented vegans as well as extremists
    
  • Clinical studies implicitly use those eating Western diets as the "omnivorous control" group
    
  • Omnivorous hunter-gatherer diets differ from the standard Western diet in important respects

• Logical fallacies and the misinterpretation of research
  
  • Common logical fallacies in studies that compare omnivorous vs. vegetarian diets
    
  • Results from studies using domesticated/feedlot meat cannot be generalized to all omnivore diets
    
  • Logically invalid extrapolation from SAD/SWD diets to all omnivore diets
  • How reliable are animal studies that use domesticated/feedlot meat?
    
  • Clinical studies based on the standard Western diet
    
    • Fallacious claim: One type of veg*n diet vs. all omnivore/faunivore diets
      
    • Unconscious double standard
      
  • Examples of incorrectly citing clinical studies based on the SAD/SWD diet

• Drawbacks to relying exclusively on clinical studies of diet
  
  • Narrow-minded and discounts other important evidence
    
  • Clinical studies are based on statistical averages of group data and thus vulnerable to uncontrolled-for individual (genetic) differences
    
  • Successful long-term veg*ns are self-selecting; dropouts or examples of "failure to thrive" automatically excluded in longitudinal studies of pre-existing veg*n groups
    
  • Widespread prevalence of moral ostracism by successful veg*ns results in self-censoring of negative results by dropouts
    
  • Anecdotal observations suggest dietary (animal-food) "exceptions" not unheard of among veg*ns (commonly overlooked in clinical protocols with respect to deficiency issues)
  • Other factors in evaluating clinical studies

• The Cornell China Project: authoritative proof, or misinterpretation by dietary advocates? Examining the vegan claims.
  
  • Statistical and other limitations of the China Study
    
  • Attempts to use the China Study to prove that all omnivore diets are bad is yet another logical fallacy
    
  • Cancer, veg*n diets, and the China Study

• Instinct vs. intelligence in diet: where is the line?
  
  • The difficulty of distinguishing between instinct and intelligence
    
  • Eating animal foods, part 1: instinct or intelligence?
    
  • Eating animal foods, part 2: an evolutionary view
    
  • Eating animal foods, part 3: morality and naturalism

• Examining fruitarian claims about instinct in food selection
  
  • Claim: Humans are limited to a narrow diet (nearly 100% fruit) by our genetic code.
    
  • Claim: The "instinct" to hunt and kill animals is not found in every human, hence it cannot be an instinct.
    
  • Claim: Children instinctively choose sweet foods, like fruit.
    
  • Claim: Eating meat is a learned behavior, and not instinctive. Humans have been eating meat for "only" 2 million years.
    
  • Claim: Some humans are disgusted at the thought of eating meat. How could that happen to a true carnivore?
    
  • Claim: True carnivores often eat (only) their prey's internal organs and leave the muscle for the vultures. Why don't human meat-eaters behave this way?
    
  • Claim: Primates have adaptations exclusively for fruit eating--vision, hands, etc. True carnivores usually do not have adaptations for fruit-eating.
    
  • Claim: True carnivores hunt by smell alone; they don't need technology.
    
  • Claim: The great apes, except for chimps, are strict vegetarians.
    
  • Claim: Hunting by chimps is not instinctive.
    
  • Claim: Meat-eating by humans cannot be instinctive because humans don't eat the specific monkeys that chimps hunt.
    
  • Claim: Humans cannot eat meat because we lack fangs, claws, sharp teeth.
    
  • Claim: Humans are fully upright and bipedal, and this makes us ineffective at hunting.
    
  • Claim: Due to body size "rules," large mammals (like humans) don't have to eat flesh.
    
  • Claim: Cooking was needed because eating raw meat introduced parasites.
    
  • Claim: (twisted misquote of expert) Humans are not adapted to be omnivores.

SEE REFERENCE LIST

SEE TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:
PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART 6 PART 7 PART 8 PART 9

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GO TO PART 1 - Brief Overview: What is the Relevance of Comparative Anatomical and Physiological "Proofs"?

GO TO PART 2 - Looking at Ape Diets: Myths, Realities, and Rationalizations

GO TO PART 3 - The Fossil-Record Evidence about Human Diet

GO TO PART 4 - Intelligence, Evolution of the Human Brain, and Diet

GO TO PART 5 - Limitations on Comparative Dietary Proofs

GO TO PART 6 - What Comparative Anatomy Does and Doesn't Tell Us about Human Diet

GO TO PART 7 - Insights about Human Nutrition & Digestion from Comparative Physiology

GO TO PART 8 - Further Issues in the Debate over Omnivorous vs. Vegetarian Diets

GO TO PART 9 - Conclusions: The End, or The Beginning of a New Approach to Your Diet?

Back to Research-Based Appraisals of Alternative Diet Lore