On Mon, 20 Jul 1998 07:21:57 -0400, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Mon, 20 Jul 1998, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
>> Humans don't have the right gut equipment in the gut
>> to kill parasites in the meat - like cats for ex.

>I have read that this is the actual purpose of gastric HCl, which
>is not to say that it is completely effective.  I believe
>parasites would have been a common cause of death among
>paleolithic people.
>
Yes, it seems that the gastric HCL in humans is not as strong as in
cats, for example, and there shurely are more defense mechanisms
cats and other predators have, that humans don't have.
Bladder worm in an example.

I think the parasitic threat is a major agrument against
eating large animals as an adaption of humans.

Similarily the cows getting BSE didn't seem to have some factor
preventing that desease, I'm shure predators have.
Beeing fed infected meat as a plant eater they could get the desease.

This doesn't speak against eating small animals or at best insects.
They seldom resp. newer have parasites that could infest humans.

A question to the Antropoligists. How do nowadays h/g prevent
parasite infections? Do they avoid raw meat?
Do they eat small animals only? !kung for example?

>Todd Moody
>[log in to unmask]

Amadeus