Paul Sand wrote:

>The most sophisticated torture methods has been developed in grain-based
>societies (e.g. China) but probably by these members which overindulged in a
>fatty meats (?) :)

Of course, it had to be the meat....(just joking):))

>BTW my lower back pain which was killing me despite of  hours of  yoga now
>almost vanished without any specific exercises. Any idea why (I don't
>complain :)

The same thing happened for Rachel.  Since you mention China there is an
explanation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which incidentally
originated in the stone age (shamanism) and was adapted to agrarian culture.
 BTW TCM docs generally think that vegetarian diets are very unhealthy and
old Taoist medical texts teach avoidance of grains as essential to good
health.  TCM docs often prescribe various animals or animal parts for
treating imbalances.  Once I asked an old TCM doc what I should eat to
improve my condition and he recommended dog meat.  Unfortunately I couldn't
find any, so never tried it.  I did use a Chinese patent medicine with gecko
lizard in it though.  One day I was in class @ acupuncture school and a lady
brought in her big German shepard, and one of the Chinese students started
salivating and said something like "That looks like some good meat!"  of
course the owner freaked out and grabbed her "baby" dog (150 lbs!) to
protect him while the rest of us broke out laughing. :))))  Once Rachel
asked a Chinese doc (TCM practitioner) what to do for dry skin and was
advised by him to eat marrow and the fat from the face of a pig.  :))))).

Anyway back to the back problem...according to TCM, chronic low back pain is
a sign of Kidney weakness (not exactly the same as western kidneys, i.e. not
limited to the organ tissue).  In TCM it is thought that animal products are
sources of a substance called Jing (rough translation is Essence) that is
not supplied by vegetable foods and is especially important for nourishing
the Kidneys; so a vegetarian diet can cause Kidney deficiency and low back
pain, and by increasing your intake of animal products you strengthen your
Kidneys and that can relieve chronic low back pain.    Only western style
explanation I can offer is that increased protein intake strengthened low
back musculature.

One more tidbit:  In Chinese written language, the pictoraph for "blood" is
a butcher's chopping block with the broad knife on top.

Don