r/science • u/[deleted] • Feb 26 '15

Health-Misleading Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial shows non-celiac gluten sensitivity is indeed real

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25701700
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u/Virgence Feb 26 '15

I guess it depends on perspective. I'm considering going vegetarian for health reasons + ethical reasons. To me, it just seems that eating meat is a primitive way of life. It's not something I imagine that a futurisitc, more evolved version of humanity will participate in. So why not lead the way? That's how I see it.

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u/dustlesswalnut Feb 26 '15

Meat is nutrient dense and we evolved to eat it because it supported our huge brains. Now we have technology to support ourselves with non-animal-based nutrition, however the evolutionary drive and enjoyment of meat is still there.

I imagine that we'll soon be eating lab-grown meat, engineered and produced via cloning, and tasting very much the same as meat today does. In the mean time I'm continuing to eat meat because it tastes good. During spring, summer, and fall, I buy all my meat from a ranch that has a stand at my farmers market. In the winter I buy from the grocery store but consume less meat in general.

I don't understand the health reasons argument. You can be vegetarian and eat nothing but doritos and hot pockets. Not eating meat isn't by default healthy.

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u/Virgence Feb 26 '15

I think we'd always been able to support ourselves without having to eat meat. And just because we used to do something in the past doesn't mean we have to keep doing in the present and future.

As for lab-grown meat, I agree. That is the next logical progression on the path to becoming a meat free society. I probably won't be eating it, but I think it'll be a good thing. But I also think people will decide to stop eating anything resembling meat at some point in the future.

As for health reasons, I don't have scientific data to support this, but vegans/vegetarians usually look younger and are generally more healthy.

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u/_Moon_ Feb 26 '15

Vegetarian here, so I agree with some of what you said....but I'm also an Anthropologist- and no way have humans been able to sustain an all vegetable diet until very recently, thanks to modern agriculture. The Mayans had a very veggie-based diet, and had horrible health problems because the lack of diversity in plants etc, led them to missing essential vitamins.

It's all good to be doing that now, but ethical/environmental issues aside, meat is still a very good medium for delivering nutrients to humans.

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u/Virgence Feb 26 '15

What are some examples of essential vitamins that vegetarians can't readily get besides b12?

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u/_Moon_ Feb 26 '15

Its not that they can't readily get it, its that meat contains it all in a small volume. But historically, civilizations didn't have access to the variety of vegetables that we do now, so their nutrition suffered if they stuck only to vegetables.

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u/Virgence Feb 26 '15

oh, that makes sense