>For most of human history, before canning and modern transportation
>systems changed things, humans ate virtually no vegetable material during
>winter.  For most of the world during winter(and without modern
>technology), all that is available is the meat of animals and the fat
>they stored during summer.

You speak as if the only humans in prehistory lived in northern Europe.
"For most of the world during winter..."? NF: It is summer in the southern
hemishpere (and may as well as be in the tropics) while it is winter in the
northern hemisphere. Most of the world never has winter, except possibly
during the ice age--which may be a better arena in which to couch your
arguments.

>A human can be very healthy eating nothing but meat and animal fat.  A
>clinical experiment on this was conducted at Belvue Hospital in NYC and
>the subjects tested were found to improve their health considerable (see
>Leib JAMA article in the bibliography at my web site for details).

Many humans are also very healthy eating much less than 50% animal foods.
We are an adaptable species.

>Eskimos have been eating this way for thousands of years - with no ill
>effects!

Eskimos died much earlier than is common today. They also prized plants
foods when available (even eating the plant contents of their hunted
animal's stomachs). It seems a reasonable hypothesis that the limited plant
food was the greatest limit on their longevity. I'm a big fan of Eskimo
cultures but only of their longevity matched their strength and endurance
would I be willing to hold them up as the be-all and end-all of human
nutrition. Further, they were eating from a selection of pristine wild
animals, many extremely high in EPA, DHEA, etc which is mostly absent from
supermarket hamburger.

Don't get me wrong--an all-meat diet probably has it's place (just as an
all fruit diet may prove beneficial to some as a short-term "remedy") but
humans are likely more omnivorous than carnivorous. That said, I admit that
if I had to choose one category of food to live on indefinately it would be
animal foods....

And FWIW, it is reported by the (deservedly) much-maligned instinctos that
when obese people start eating according to pleasure--selecting from an
array of raw foods--they usually choose beef and pork for days/weeks/months
until much of their weight has melted off. Mineral water reportedly tastes
_sweet_ during this period.

Cheers,
Kirt

Kirt Nieft / Melisa Secola
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