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Hot take for Nostr: the claim that all plants are dangerous to eat doesn't make logical sense.

Yes, even edible plants may produce compounds that are toxic. Every toxin is toxic in its own particular way. The body is a complex system; sometimes a chemical may benefit the body in one way while detracting from it in another. Sometimes a compound may only be toxic in certain concentrations or health conditions. Sometimes a toxin is quickly broken down in digestion and has no ill effect.

Even without that level of nuance, the belief that all plants are unsafe to eat doesn't make logical sense when you look at the animal kingdom and human history. Obligate herbivores, like cows, live their whole lives eating nothing but plants in perfect health. This should not be possible if plants are unsafe to eat because of their toxins.

You can tell which animals are naturally carnivores, omnivores, or herbivores by studying their teeth. Humans have omnivore teeth, and despite enormous variation, almost all human cultures have omnivorous diets -- yes, including nomads that get held up as the hunters living under a theoretically perfect meat-based diet. They are called hunter-gatherers because they gather (forage) as well. The closest culture I know of to living carnivore, the Inuit, still ate vegetable matter like berries at the rare times when they could.

Clearly, meat is health-giving for most people. Some can live well (but do we know for how long?) on a diet of meat alone. Carnivore and other high-meat diets are documented to have corrected serious health issues in many individuals.

I'm just suggesting to the more aggressively carnivore: take a step back and a deep breath, because you are coming across very arrogantly. Your diet may not be ideal for every individual, and to insist that it is because plants are toxic does not reflect the broader perspective I've touched on above.

There's no call to get rude about dietary choices. Save that anger for tyrants who want to be your master.

#diet #carnivore #thoughts #grownostr

Dr. Fernando Morales 1y ago

Humans have beem opportunistic omnivores for most part of our existence, nonetheless, nitrogen and carbon isotope testing on human fossils dating back hundreds of thousands of years reveal our diet was mainly meat. In fact, depending on the geographic location, our diet was composed of at least 70% meat, giving us the status of hyper carnivores. Amongst omnivores, there are species that are more plant heavy and others that are more meat heavy, we are of the latter. Not enough time has passed for evolution to regift us with full plant processing digestion.

Cow's GI tract is very different from that of a human.

Humans had no evolutionary pressure to develop razor sharp teeth or claws thanks to our thumbs, tool crafting abilities and ability to strategize.

I agree that there's no need to be religious about diets, as it can turn people away from improving their health. My takeaway is, eat mainly meat and stay away from the processed stuff. Fermented foods are also great.

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Discussion

789e4172... 1y ago

Humans have been leaving on a plan based diet for thousands of years with variable amounts of meat consumption based on various factors like availability.

If we live in a cold climate where plants don't grow for most of the year, it is obvious that our diet will be primarily made of meat.

But when we live in a warm climate that allows for an abundant variety of plants to grow we eat more plants than meat.

Humans had no evolutionary pressure to develop razor sharp teeth or claws thanks to our ability to eat a wide variety of plants. Our tool crafting abilities and ability to strategize allowed us to improve our plant production capabilities and to supplement our alimentation with meat.

The takeaway is that we are perfectly adapted to live on an plan base diet. So eat plenty of legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, grains, mushrooms, herbs, and spices. Supplement with dairy products, meats, and fishes as you like.