Dear Bob,

I'm sorry I haven't the time to do a full critique of the piece but 
there are many holes in it.  The physiology argument is old and perhaps 
someone can invite the author to beyond the law of the excluded middle 
and embrace his fuzziness: we are omnivores, not ruminants and not 
carnivores.
The evidence of this to my mind is the fact that we are still here, 
unlike our less adaptable hominid cousins.

> His Aberrant Behavior Ruins His Potency
>
> Eating meat diminishes sexual performance and masculinity.  The male 
> hormone testosterone that determines sexual development and interest 
> has been found to be 13 % higher in vegans (a strict plant diet – no 
> animal products of any kind) than in meat-eaters. 18

the abstract continues that the elevations in T were "...offset by 
higher sex hormone binding globulin, and there were no differences 
between diet groups in free testosterone, androstanediol glucuronide or 
luteinizing hormone."

  but anyway,  when is one study proof of anything?  another study found 
no statistical difference:

Key TJ, Roe L, Thorogood M, Moore JW, Clark GM, Wang DY.
Testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin, calculated free 
testosterone, and oestradiol in male vegans and omnivores. Br J Nutr. 
1990 Jul;64(1):111-9.

and another study contradicts the author's findings:

Raben A, Kiens B, Richter EA, Rasmussen LB, Svenstrup B, Micic S, 
Bennett P.
Serum sex hormones and endurance performance after a lacto-ovo 
vegetarian and a mixed diet. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1992 
Nov;24(11):1290-7.

selective scientific reasoning - pretty standard fair actually.  First 
the belief, then the hypothesis, and then selective reasoning based on 
lower order logistics.

>   Meat-eaters are likely to become impotent because of damage caused 
> to the artery system that supplies their penis with the blood that 
> causes an erection. 19   Erectile dysfunction is more often seen in 
> men with elevated cholesterol levels 20 and high levels of LDL "bad" 
> cholesterol 21 –both conditions related to habitual meat-eating.

this is a rehash of a long tired argument.  The author proves nothing, 
and the conclusion he draws about meat eating aren't related to the 
actual findings re: dyslipidemia, and nor do they correspond with my 
clinical experience, where by implementing a low CHO diet ends up 
reducing cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides.  In the latter case Gerald 
Reaven states that serum  insulin levels more or less parallel 
triglyceride levels in the syndrome X pattern, which is assoc. with 
impotence.

I generally find that vegans who have switched back to eating a little 
meat immediately feel more "grounded" and have an enhanced ability to 
focus and concentrate, and are generally less sensitive (to drugs, 
toxins) and to other people.  In Ayurvedic medicine meat is considered 
to be tamasic, the energy of inertia, darkness and heaviness, and thus 
vegetarian diets are recommended in some yogic traditions to loosen up 
one's attachment, to embrace spiritual energies and move beyond the 
confines of physicality.  This of course is all very well is one is 
planning on leaving the life of the "householder," but for the rest of 
us schmucks stuck in samsara we need a some inertia to simply be 
effective in life.  IMHO those idealists who become vegans are exactly 
those that need to eat more meat, and for those who only visit that 
salad bar as an excuse to get more blue-cheese salad dressing, bacon 
bits and jello are those that need more vegetables in their life.


On Saturday, September 20, 2003, at 09:08  PM, Bob Avery wrote:

> This article poses some interesting challenges to the paleodiet
> nutritional theory, based primarily on comparative anatomy and
> physiology.
>
> http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030700pumeatinthehumandiet.htm
>
> Comments anyone?
>
> Bob Avery
>
>
Todd Caldecott, Cl.H., AHG
Clinical Herbalist
Wild Rose Clinic
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