Cultural: 'Carnivorism' - anti-vegetarism

It is interesting how Carnivorian makes everyone think of red meat. But due to health reasons it is more likely to exist in the form of a fish, shelfish, and other sea product diet.

And strictly speaking algae isn't a plant. Sooo... that can be included in the diet as well.

It would not suprise me if this diet actually exists in some isolated groups.
 
Yet the majority of people in the world are able to do it, especially in societies where traditional gender roles are still followed and women are expected to spend pretty much all day preparing food. Even in some modern cultures (especially in Asia) where the people are able to afford plenty of meat the majority of meals are still nearly vegetarian (though that's changing now due to Western influence).

As I said, it is doable but takes more effort and time. Yes, if one partner stays at home they can spend more time preparing meal than if both work long hours.
 
As I said, it is doable but takes more effort and time. Yes, if one partner stays at home they can spend more time preparing meal than if both work long hours.

I'm sorry dude, but this just isn't true.

Provided you live in a warm enough climate, and are from a culture where protein-rich legumes like beans, lentils, or chickpeas were a normal part of cultivation, it is just as easy to subsist on on vegetarian diet as a mixed one. Indeed, given most traditional diets developed over time, they've pretty much "evolved" to offer full nutrition. So there is a fairly complete agricultural package in the Middle East, Mediterranean, India, East Asia, Mesoamerica, etc - which allows for a healthy Vegetarian diet.

On the other hand, a totally meat-based diet is near impossible without really catholic tastes. The Inuit come close to doing it, but largely because they ate a lot of fat like blubber, which counteracted possible protein poisoning, along with eating things like fish oil, liver, brains, and whale skin (all raw) which allowed them to get vitamins A, C, and E which are generally lacking in cooked mammal muscle tissue. Even in their case, they eat seaweed and forage wild plants in the summer, which help somewhat.

I can also say, having been a vegan for 15 years now, and a vegetarian for 19, from personal experience that although I generally eat what I want, and rarely take supplements, every time I get bloodwork done all the vitamins and minerals are where they should be. Really, besides B-12, zinc, calcium, D (in high latitudes only), and iron (for women only, as you typically only lose iron when you bleed), a vegetarian diet is naturally complete . And in traditional diets, most of that was taken care of, as trace minerals used to be gained because they didn't wash produce very well, or because people got enough B-12 from bacteria on the food.

Finally, I don't think people realize how bland a meat-only diet would be. Taking it to its logical conclusion, you wouldn't be able to use any herbs or spices widely used in modern cuisine, except for salt. Maybe a whole different set of seasonings would have to come into being, made of things like say crushed beetles, but this would necessitate the development of a significant "carnian" subculture which would experiment and appropriate.

Edit: My basic point is that a totally meat-based diet would ultimately require even more planning to work, in the modern world, than modern vegetarian diets do. And unlike vegetarianism, I think it would be practically impossible for someone in the pre-modern era, who didn't understand nutrition, to survive on it if they didn't come from a heavily carnivorous culture which ate a lot of "offal" already.
 
As I've become involved in the organic agriculture movement the past few years, I've discovered the interesting claim that a vegetable-heavy vegetarian diet (i.e. one that focuses principally on garden vegetables like beets, lettuce, carrots, beans, etc. - your classic "rabbit food" stuff) is very complete in terms of proteins & nutrients, even in cold climates lands like we have here in Maine. The biggest problem is actually getting sufficient calories, not getting sufficient nutrients. You've gotta eat a hell of a lot of celery to actually gain any weight off it! And that's where grains and pseudo-grains come in. Especially stuff like corn, which has terribly few nutrients but whose calorie per acre yield is tremendous.

And when it comes to a balanced vegetarian diet requiring effort to organize, it should be noted that the "Irish diet" of milk and potatoes actually provides every single nutrient that the human body needs. Now, they're not quite in the correct ratios, so you've gotta eat quite a lot of milk and potatoes. It's not a diet you want to go on if you're trying to lose weight, is what I'm saying. But it contains a complete set of essential nutrients. That's all the effort it takes, guys: milk & potatoes.

So milk might be regarded as cheating, since it's an animal product. But again, a bread-and-garden-veggies diet is both nutritionally and calorically complete. And so the "difficult" skill-set of making a balanced & nutritious meal is subsumed into the (admittedly already difficult) skill-set of managing a functioning farm & garden. Which, being fucking peasants, they probably ought to be doing already.
 
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