Stuart Stone
Just found this thread (catching up on some reading here & missed one)...but it raised a couple of questions for me, from the common sense/logic base as opposed to the scientific fact basis:
1. If we need to eat meat to acquire certain minerals/vitamins & trace elements (Beef jerky being used as an example here), and the meat products we are eating come from a herbivore, then where did the herbivore acquire the necessary minerals from if not from its diet?
I am aware farmers feed their cattle mineral salts/rock salt etc to account for mineral deficiencies, so if vegans/vegetarians use similar mineral salts, is it sufficient to cater to their health needs (obviously not for the woman and baby in the article that started this thread) and at what level is this considered part of a 'normal' vegetarian diet & at what level is it considered supplementation?
2. If gorillas & elephants, herbivores that drink water, have the strongest skeletons (most dense bone matrix) of all the land based mammals, where do they derive the necessary minerals/vitamins & trace elements in their diet to maintain a healthy skeleton as well as hormonal & physiological balance?
Biochemistry is not my strong point, so do these herbivorous mammals have sufficiently different biochemistry, physiology & anatomy from humans (bowel length & enzymes being 2 examples) to extract sufficient nutrition from the plant matter they eat to cater to their needs?
Consequently, over time, is it possible that humans could evolve accordingly?...or a similar/better question may be: In response to the availability/absence of certain nutrients in our diet, are we capable of sufficient adaptation in our genetic expression to deal with this availability (or lack) or would we die out before such an adaptation could take place?
Thoughts please?
Printed copy · Anthology Volume 1, page 420 · cut by a page break
