Column #91

Science or Belief?

Science is based on physical laws that can be demonstrated in the lab. In science labs, students learn how to conduct experiments, analyze and record results, and compare outcomes.1

I’ve been a student of science for over 65 years, and sell grass-fed and Omega-3 meats based on nutritional science. My summaries of science are continually being challenged as self-serving. Are the naysayers out of touch with nutrition, biology, chemistry, agronomy, animal science, and anthropology? They certainly fail to realize I market grass-fed and Omega-3 meats because of nutritional science and a powerful desire to do good.

In contrast to science, many beliefs include:
      ●    Man is a vegetarian.
      ●    Humans are not homogeneous; they have different nutritional requirements.
      ●    No one knows what mankind ate 200,000 years ago.
      ●    Meat causes chronic diseases and should be avoided.

See footnoted links below for scientific literature that strongly discredits these beliefs.

Life began in the sea when single cells developed the ability to absorb energy from the sun. Those cells were the beginning of plants. Afterwards animals developed that acquired energy from eating plants and animals. Plants and animals require common elements to survive, mostly Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Hydrogen. Next in quantity are Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur, Calcium, and Magnesium. Only minor quantities of Boron, Chlorine, Cobalt, Chromium, Copper, Fluorine, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Selenium, and Zinc are required. 2 3 4 5

Since the beginning of animal life, green leafy vegetation has been at the bottom of the food chain for animals. Because the chemistry of animals and green leafy plants are so similar, animals are good food for other animals. Ditto for humans.6

There are always minuscule differences in the composition of foods required by one animal species to the next. But when it comes to the same species, their needs are the same. All cattle breeds require the same nutrients, all breeds of dogs (descendants of gray wolves) require the same nutrients, and all ethnic groups require the same nutrients.7

Anthropologists have dated stone tools for butchering meat and also animal bones with corresponding cut marks at 2.5 million years old. DNA studies prove that early man ate meat as well as vegetation. The shotgun-sequencing of ancient DNA from five specimens of Neanderthal calcified dental plaque (calculus) from the Spy cave in Belgium, confirms the Neanderthal diet was heavily meat based and included woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep (mouflon), characteristic of a semi-arid environment.8 9

The human stomach has a very low pH (very acidic). It’s nearly as acidic as many carrion eaters such as buzzards. Even some primates are meat eaters. It’s not an anomaly that humans eat meat.10 11

Man can not only survive but thrive eating a diet of only meat. Early Inuit ate virtually nothing except meat and fat yet heart disease and other chronic issues were virtually nonexistent. Dr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, anthropologist and Arctic explorer, lived with the Inuit during the winter of 1906-1907 and recorded what they ate. Their diet was mostly raw meat from the wild. Stefansson later participated in a controlled, one-year study where he ate nothing but meat.12 13 14

Early American Indians depended on hunting, fishing, gathering, farming, and some domesticated animals. Yet most of their calories came from meat. After Indians started eating modern grain-fed meats and more grain products, their incidences of diabetes and other chronic diseases soared.15 16

Anthropologists recently discovered evidence that humans did some rudimentary farming as early as 23,000 years ago. But it wasn’t until about 12,000 years ago farming became more commonplace with the “Domestication Syndrome” of both plants and animals. As a result, humans rather abruptly changed their food mix but their physiology remained the same.17

Nutritionists point to changes in the diet away from wild meats and vegetative plants as the cause for many modern ailments. Today’s diet is higher glycemic with a significant reduction in Omega-3 fatty acids relative to Omega-6 fatty acids. These changes cause chronic diseases.18

Belief or science? You decide.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

1. Laws of Science from Wikipedia

2. How the First Plant Came to Be

3. Green Algae and the Origin of Land Plants

4. Essential Trace Elements for Plants, Animals and Humans

5. Plant and Animal Evolution by The University of Waikato Biology Department

6. Homologies: Cellular/Molecular Evidence of Animals and Plants

7. Minerals for Plants, Animals, and Man from Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development

8. Neanderthal Behavior, Diet, and Disease Inferred from Ancient DNA in Dental Calculus

9. The Critical Role Played by Animal Source Foods in Human (Homo) Evolution by Katharine Milton

10. The Evolution of Stomach Acidity and Its Relevance to the Human Microbiome

11. The Predatory Behavior and Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees by Dr. Craig B. Stanford, Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California

12. The Inuit Paradox: How Can People Who Gorge on Fat and Rarely See a Vegetable Be Healthier than We Are? By Patricia Gadsby Biology & Medicine

13. Vilhjalmur Stefansson from Wikipedia

14. Prolonged Meat Diets with a Study of Kidney Function and Ketosis by Walter S. McClellan and Eugene F. Du Bois.

15. Native American Food

16. Diabetes Among American Indians and Alaska Natives from CDC

17. The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming

18. The Importance of the Ratio of Omega-6/Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids by A.P. Simopoulos