Audience of One

Mark Walley

Support your local market! It’s cheap! and local! and cheap!

Comment added at 08:48, March 4, 2005

Matthew

Woo yeah! Just don’t drive to get there…

Comment added at 09:22, March 4, 2005

Rory

I thought I’d take this opportunity to bring up our old food discussion… You wanted to be a vegetarian a while back not because it’s healthier, but because it’s cheaper; you said you’d become a veggie for your student years. My experiences touring here in Canada have taught me many things about food – I’ve stayed with vegans, vegetarians, and organic-food only people, to the other end of ravid carnivores who can’t imagine a meal without meat. Your ideas that organic food is better for you seems to be correct – however I’ve discovered that the human body is not designed to eat meat. Firstly, our teeth – a careful study of our dental structure shows that they’re better suited to cracking nuts than to chewing meat. Our digestive tract, likewise, is far more similar to a herbivore’s than a carnivore’s – it’s too long, meat that enters will have rotted before it gets to the other side. We only absorb ~20% of the stuff in meat – another potent sign that we’re not fully designed to eat it. We can and do eat it, however, firstly because we have stomach bacteria that help us digest it. Hence we can’t digest meat on our own – we need to “outsource”, if you’ll pardon my turn of phrase. Primative humans only ate meat out of necessity, as far as I know. Despite all of this, I still eat meat, because it’s easy and it tastes nice. I am, however, cutting down, eating less meat and more fruit. Another advantage of vegetarianism is that it provides you with more chances to eat fruit and vegetables – of which you should have at least 5 portions a day, preferably 7. Anyway, that’s my spiel finished, I’ll let you get on with your life now. Nice site by the way!

Comment added at 15:37, March 5, 2005

Matthew

Aah, but does being a veggie give you more of a chance to eat fruit and veg? I would say not necessarily. To get the right things in your diet without meat you would need to eat particular substitutes (things such as lentils or soya) and not any more vegetables than normal.

It’s a lot harder to eat a healthy vegetarian diet because you have to make sure you’re getting the proteins you need which so readily come from meat.

I’ve heard all about how our digestive system is designed though – but why are the bacteria there if not to help us? It’s almost as if we were designed not to eat meat but somehow that changed and something had to be done to help us cope… interesting thoughts.

Comment added at 12:35, March 6, 2005

Sheepie

Apparently once you’ve eaten 3 potions of fruit/veg having more doesn’t make a difference.

Comment added at 14:52, March 6, 2005

Matthew

Five, surely?

Comment added at 17:20, March 6, 2005

Sheepie

Didn’t you read that article in the paper ages ago? They discovered that the benefit peaks at three. Scientist are often totally wrong, of course.

Comment added at 16:11, March 7, 2005

Matthew

I’d forgotten. Seems not everyone can agree…

Comment added at 22:02, March 7, 2005

Rory

Scientists are frequently wrong. Very often.

So Matthew, are meat substitutes (like lentils and soya) not vegetables? Last time I checked, they were. There’s a guy here on tour, who eats mainly fruits, vegetables, rye bread or crackers, and miso (miso is a form of fermented soy beans). And he drinks pure fruit juice or just water. And he breakdances. He’s so healthy, it’s unbelievable. Oh yeah, he eats raw eggs sometimes. You should try raw eggs, they’re fun. Just don’t eat anything for an hour or so afterwards.

I’d have to completely disagree with you on the ease factor. It’s a lot easier to eat a healthy diet as a vegetarian, for several reasons. The first is preparing food – vegetables and fruit cook so much faster than meat – and they can be eaten raw too. The second is the fact that vegetables do in fact contain protein – if you eat the right ones. If animals are all protein, where do they get it from? Plants, duh. Also, your body knows what it needs – if you’re low on protein, it will crave protein-rich foods. If you’re low on vitamin A, it will crave carrots. It’s really simple, and really clever. All you have to do is learn to listen to your body.

Comment added at 05:48, March 12, 2005

Matthew

Well, soya beans are technically vegetables, but their products shouldn’t really count. Otherwise chips would count as a portion of potato, whereas they’re not nearly so good for you. As for lentils, they’re actually pulses and not vegetables. Of course, pulses are technically fruit, but not in the sense of “five pieces of fruit and veg a day” as they have different things inside them.

As for ease, “learning to listen to your body” and knowing which vegetables are “the right ones” seems far harder than just eating meat regularly.

As for your friend, good for him. You can’t say that eating meat is bad (or inadvisable, or not as good as not eating meat) just because he happens to be really healthy. I could do the same and point at people in the same situation in my school who are meateaters (or point at some really unhealthy vegetarians). It’s probably the exercise and eating a balanced diet that does it – and balanced doesn’t necessarily mean no meat :)

Comment added at 10:39, March 12, 2005

Rory

Argh! This is bad! When I read “chips” I thought you meant crisps! I’ve been in North America too long… Luckily I’ll be in Venezuela in under a month… Anyway… I wasn’t meaning to use my friend as an example except to show you his diet. While you can get all the nutrients you need from meats (with veggies as well), you can get them all from veggies. Also, your body doesn’t fully absorb everything that’s in meat – it is far more efficient, however, at absorbing nutrients from vegetables. Also, with eating meat comes a whole host of health risks – a higher risk of heart disease and cancer to name a couple. Meat is also a lot less energy efficient to produce, as you well know.

That said, I still eat meat, mainly because I’m on tour so it’s easier if I’m not picky with what I eat.

Comment added at 04:26, March 13, 2005

Matthew

I was just being difficult with the vegetables things – basically, the “five fruit and veg a day” thing implies green vegetables so I was ignoring soya and lentils etc. :)

Yeah, it’s much more efficient to not eat meat, both in terms of absorbing nutrients and land space. Health risks are also an issue. However, organic, local farming negates the latter and minimises the former (though the absorbtion is still not as efficient as with vegetables). Hence mentioning organic above.

The plan is to buy and eat veggie at uni due to cost, but I’m certainly not going to refuse meat if I’m offered it. You never know, the whole efficiency thing may get me on a completely veggie diet even once I leave – there’s always the element of being polite though :)

Comment added at 11:30, March 13, 2005

Rory

My thoughts exactly – don’t refuse meat if offered, but don’t really eat it normally anyway. I mean, if I was offered prawns I wouldn’t refuse, but I don’t normally eat them. I’m also being wary of weird ingredients in processed food and stuff – like Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils, and weird preservatives, and stuff like that… Fun fun fun. Watch yourself ;-)

Comment added at 23:19, March 22, 2005

Matthew

Do you know what Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils are? They’re basically natural oils that have had double bonds broken and hydrogen added. This does two things – one, they become less reactive and two, they become solids rather than liquids. Less reactive is slightly bad because it means they can’t break down as easily. So yeah, I guess they might be slightly suspect – no more than some unprocessed fats though :)

Comment added at 09:09, March 23, 2005

Rory

The human body is a lot more complex than basic chemistry. I would never have thought that free radicals would be damaging, but they are. Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils are more similar to plastics than they are to conventional, natural oils, and consequently the body is not equipped to break them down – so they clog up the liver, they do weird things to your digestion, and lots of other nasty things. So watch out.

Comment added at 00:10, May 8, 2005

Matthew

Seeing as free radicals are about the most reactive species I’ve come across in A level chemistry, I think I’d have guessed they could be damaging. One thing though – acid eats most plastics. Our stomach contains acids. Anyway, I don’t know what I’m talking about really :)

Comment added at 14:47, May 8, 2005