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Bubble Up Bears!Amen. 
PennsylvaniaRodents have sharp incisors that they use to gnaw wood, break into food, and bite predators. Most eat seeds or plants, though some have more varied diets.
Humans also have incisors as well as canines and grinding molars.
We have teeth fit for eating MANY kinds of food.
Oral masochism refers to a behavior where one deprives him or herself of various kinds of food, substituting unpalatable foods in place of the usual foods in order to reduce a perception of guilt or anxiety due to over consumption. These people believe that they can compensate for past abuses by depriving themselves of food. It's a form of self-flagellation through food.
It is known, medically as "Orthorexia Nervosa". "The neurosis of correct eating."
Orthorexics become convinced that they must eat unpalatable food because it is somehow, "better" for them.
The truth is that comparatively few of them actually do eat a healthy diet. They merely eat foods that they think are better, not because of any medical or scientific study on their part but often derived from fallacious beliefs passed from one person to another.
It should be pointed out that this type of behavior is almost entirely limited to people from developed countries where food is over abundant. It almost never occurs in developing countries where food is in average supply. It is logical to rule out undeveloped countries because, when people are starving, they have to eat what they can get.
Secondarily, orthorexia is rare in places where commercial mass media is not prevalant.
Images of young, skinny men and women, presented ad infinitum, tend to skew a person's self image, creating a feeling of inadequacy, creating a need to compensate for lack of youth, and sexual desirability. The truth is that most people are not inadequate or undesirable. They just THINK they are because they have been bombarded with imagery all their lives that tends to make them seem so.
If you think I am telling you that everybody should go out and hunt down an animal and eat its raw flesh, you are mistaken.
While I agree that the average American and Western European diets are too dependent of processed foods and red meat, I do not agree that depriving one's self of food is the answer.
If we want to lose weight we should reduce our caloric intake... Eat less!
If we have too much fat and cholesterol in our diet we should eat more veggies... Maybe even a predominantly vegetarian diet!
I could stand to do both of those things! And I am trying to do it, although with varying degrees of success. I'll just keep on trying. That's the best anybody can do.
On the other hand, I am certainly not going to cut one food or another completely out of my diet because of some strange sense of over consumption guilt.
Benson BearsMy diet is far from one of deprivation, if anything it is richer and more varied, as it's not based on the "Meat and Three Veg" common to Western diets, it certainly is not unpalatable. I am a cook book junkie, and love trawling through my recipies for inspiration and wonderful regional, mostly vegetarian cuisines. I don't know how anyone can say a meal rich in fresh local produce, flavoured with wonderful herbs and spices can say it's deprivation. I take great pleasure in, and my family enjoys eating, my cooking. My six foot four son is testament to the nutrition a vegetarian diet provides, he's fit, healthy and muscular, certainly not your average carnavore's perception of a vegetarian! I'm not saying everyone should be vegetarian, but I AM saying it's my choice and the choice of many and why the hell should we have to justify our choice!
Angela's Bear Garden
Wow, this topic is really bringing out some interesting ideas!
The shape of our teeth doesn't tell us that we are designed for meat! Check the digestive tract...ours is long and compex, made to digest plant based foods. A carnivore has a short and simplified digestion, to reduce the transport time of a low fibre diet! Carnivors can digest and eliminate a meat meal in about 8-12 hours. That same meat meal takes a human up to 4 days to eliminate! Eewww! We can digest a plant based meal in less than 8 hours...do the math! Vegetarians and vegans aren't so bad off!
Anyway...'the China Study' is an amazing book, based on reams of scientific and medical research over the past 18 years or so. It is the most extensive research ever done on diet and lifestyle and the effects to our health and longevity. There is a smaller book available that summarizes this study I think it's called 'the China Project'. It's a real eye opener! I didn't think I would ever quit eating meat, but I'm glad I did!
Dolls N Dreams
That same meat meal takes a human up to 4 days to eliminate! Eewww! We can digest a plant based meal in less than 8 hours...do the math! Vegetarians and vegans aren't so bad off!
That is what I meant when I said I don't feel sluggish or bloated anymore since giving up meat. I knew it took the body a long time to digest it. 
PennsylvaniaOh, good! The China Study!
Glad you brought it up first.
Look here to read about it: http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/com … t-8e.shtml
And, by the way, you should read the third paragraph of the first section:
The size and scope of the China Study are impressive. As a result, some dietary advocates have aggressively promoted the China Study as "proof" that vegan diets are optimal or best. However, a closer look at the study reveals important limitations that impact the reliability, usefulness, and interpretation of the study results. Many dietary advocates are quick to cite the China Study without discussing the limitations inherent in such a study.
Here's a more direct link to the information in the study:
http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/com … t-1a.shtml
And if you want to cut right to the chase, use this link:
http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/com … ing%20meat
The bottom line is: "Eat meat... Don't eat meat. It doesn't matter very much unless it makes you feel better."
But do not claim that a vegetarian diet is superior when there are no facts to back up the claim.
Bubble Up Bears!Hey Linda I'm a cook book junkie too! I have over 300 cookbooks. 
Let me know if there is ever a recipe you might like or need and possibly can't find.
Cyndee
Benson BearsWow! And I thought I had a big library of cookbooks!!!! I'm impressed, Cyndee! I love watching cooking shows on telly too, Lifestyle Food is one of my favourite Channels. Chris gave me a wonderful Moroccan cookbook for Christmas, and my daughter gave me a Tagine, so some lovely flavourful food has been happening lately YUM!
Angela's Bear Garden
300! That's a lot of cookbooks! I have a lot too...but not 300! Sometimes it's hard to decide what to make, with too many choices!
Now with the internet, I can just google a recipe if I can't find it in my collection!
Dolls N Dreams
Now with the internet, I can just google a recipe if I can't find it in my collection!
That is what I usually do, you can google just about any recipe 
Bubble Up Bears!Yes the internet makes it easy but I'm addicted to my cookbooks! I always check there first and since I know them inside and out I can remember what book has what recipes. I have several cookbooks from the early 1900's and 2 from the late 1800's. If you think 300 is a lot of books my total library is over 800 books!! What can I say. I love to read. I have one old cookbook and for the apple pie recipe it even tells you to put the pie in the window to cool but be sure to watch out for bears!!! hehe!! :crackup:
Dolls N DreamsYes the internet makes it easy but I'm addicted to my cookbooks! I always check there first and since I know them inside and out I can remember what book has what recipes. I have several cookbooks from the early 1900's and 2 from the late 1800's. If you think 300 is a lot of books my total library is over 800 books!! What can I say. I love to read.
Now that would be cool, I love OLD books of any kind!!! Lucky you!
PennsylvaniaI find my incisors are a perfect fit for the grooves between the squares of a bar of chocolate...
Can't agree with you more!
