Diet for a new America

Factual Questions
1

I read this 10 years ago. A lot of interesting info. I learned a lot. Tried veganism, but since I hate vegetables and love meat and potatoes, it didn’t last long.

There were a few things he said which made me wonder and this seems the best place to get the answers.

  1. He claims our digestive system, especially the long intenstine, the colon, etc was not built for a carnivore. That monkeys are vegetarians. That meat eaters have digestive systems resembling tubes rather than complicated stuff like us. Any truth to that?
  2. He said that high protein causes calcium to be leached from the bones. True or False?
  3. Didn’t he also use the eskimo’s to back up his case just like Protein Power did? Don’t these 2 sides advocate opposite diets? Sorry I’m not sure of this again because it’s been 10 years since reading DFANAmerice.
2

For your first question at least, I can point you to Cecil’s take on it:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_087.html

Basically, the human digestive tract is significantly longer than that of a pure carnivore, and significantly shorter than that of a pure herbivore, suggesting that a human’s natural diet is whatever he can get his hands on.

–sublight.

3

I am a vegan and know a little about this book. I would say that a lot of the info in it is accurate but only to an extent. He has an agenda so he probably has skewed some statistics and interpetations a little. I.E. with the first one our digestive tracts are in between since we are not naturally herbivore or carnivore but omnivore.

I know that some of his outrageous statistics are higher than the ones I found in individual research through objective sources. I don’t have the time to look it up right now, but from everything I have seen, an excessive protein intake will mess up other things. A more scientific source for info on this may be http://www.pcrm.org/health/Info_on_Veg_Diets/protein.html which is the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. They certainly lean towards the vegetarian side but their research appears sound to me.

As far as that book, any agendas the author(John Robbins) may have are kinda conflicting since he was the heir to Baskin Robbins and then sold off the company because he didn’t want to be a part of the dairy industry. Since he had so much to profit from the other side I wouldn’t personally consider his work completely skewed.