Our Ancestors Ate ... Everything!

[cran]

Our Ancestors
New Technology Shows Our Ancestors Ate ... Everything!
'Using a powerful microscope and computer software, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins, the University of Arkansas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere has developed a faster and more objective way to examine the surfaces of fossilized teeth, a practice used to figure out the diets of our early ancestors.' from ScienceDaily.com

"pass the bark salad, please...?" :blink:

[jayfb]

Well, I could tell you that one without a microscope People do eat anything - even at McD...
Anyway it is so

[cran]

Don't get to McD, myself...I'll take your word for it, though..."would you like flies with that?"

[suitti]

I'm an omnivore, though not exclusively so.

Yes, i've been to the Scottish drive through.

[cran]

..."and survived to tell the tale", eh suitti? :P

[buzzlightbeer]

proof is that knowing what goes into sausages, hot dogs, spam and chicken mcnuggets we still gobble them up

[cran]

Hang on, Buzz, wadda ya mean, &#39;we&#39;? <_<
Omnivorous, I may be... but I do have my limits&#33; :P

[Sp1ke]

Count me out too.

Knowing what goes into sausages, hot dogs, spam etc. gives us the basis for a decision as to whether we want those ingredients inside us, or whether there might be a better option.

Just because someone makes them doesn&#39;t mean anyone has to eat them

[cran]

Welcome to the feeding frenzy, Sp1ke&#33;

[buzzlightbeer]

haha i thought the &#39;we&#39; would stir up a lil controversy... well, we as large proportion of the population...even that may be controversial...hmmm
are there any statistics available on how many people eat these delicious food stuffs?

(surfs the net....)

HA&#33; i found something. here is a link (no pun intended haha) to a webpage that talks about the US market for sausage (2004)

According to figures for 2004, 837 million packages of hot dogs were sold at retail stores*.

Sales of breakfast sausage are approximately 30 percent of total dinner and breakfast sausage sales.

note that a new category has emerged tho...called "better for you" hotdogs

In the mid-1990s, low-fat and fat-free formulations hit the market and sales in retail stores were strong. However, in recent years, sales in the "better for you" category have remained consistent. Better for you hot dogs account for 12.4 percent of the total market for hot dogs*. Dollar sales for the category are substantial however, with the top ten markets selling a total of &#036;37,332,066 in 2004*

anyways...im getting to wrapped up in this rite now and need to get some work done.... hahah i just realized...i ate 3 hotdogs for breakfast yesterday doh&#33;&#33;&#33;

note this all comes from the hot dog and sausage council.... :-/

[cran]

that&#39;s really depressing, Buzz...
...got a confession to make... >gulp<... I ate a sausage today -_-
... I was on campus... and it was &#39;open day&#39; ... so there were all these young people around... and they had some gas cookers... and the smell of cooked sausages and onions... and I hadn&#39;t eaten... :unsure: and, well....it wasn&#39;t my fault&#33; :angry:

... but... I did not enjoy it ... much

[buzzlightbeer]

yea, im gonna research the "all beef" weiners and see if they really are "all beef" anybody know?

lucky for me, ive *never* liked sausages.... so i never eat them...im just addicted to hot dogs

[Gillianren]

if it's on the package, and it's not true, the Feds step in--at least in the US; can't speak for other countries.

actually, what's in Spam isn't bad. what's in most sausages isn't bad. what's in chorizo is best not thought of. and you can't get proper haggis in this country because the FDA won't let commercial meat packers sell lungs. (for more info on the first three, see the Big Secrets books by, I believe William Poundstone; for the fourth, see Our Immigrant Ancestors, by Jeff Smith.)

[Josh]

If our ancestors ate everything and anything, then I guess we've gone backwards in terms of creating a robust digestive system. It's a little like inbreeding.

I know a bunch of butchers and many of them won't eat sausages. That's got to tell you something. And not a very good something!

[blueshift]

I am a celiac and any wheat or gluten getting into our bodies brings pain that puts appendicitis to shame..Wheat and gluten is in sausage, breads, cereals, canola oil, beer, barley, oats, rye, spelt, soy sauce, terriyaki sauce, gravies, pasta, most starches, artificial potatoes, egg substitutes, cereal bindings, couscous, lipids, hydrolyzed products, bran, malt syrup, hydrolzed anything, vitamin tablets, most medications, vinegar, and is sprayed on citrus fruits..

I have a mild case..One of my relatives is so sensitive that one drop of canola oil gives her 60 trips to the bathroom each day for 6 straight weeks..What food went into her body each day comes out that day as it is with many celiacs..Suicide is very high among celiacs..

Therefore, we keep a close tabs on diets throughout history and we point to the fact that the human species never ate that poison prior to the Neolithic Revolution..The San bands in Africa saw farming as the root of all evil since it made elephants and giraffes the enemies of farmers...Hunters/ gatherers suffer no brain diseases, do not overpopulate, and have a longevity equal to that of the United States' citizens..

I eat nuts, fruits, green leafy vegetables, fowl and a gelatin I make by marrying bone marrow to water with a slow cooker...I eat NOTHING else..All flour is a poison to my body..and to the brain..If you know anyone with "brain fog"..a day dreamer who can't get things done and has trouble reading..( a symptom of celiac disease), get that person off wheat and gluten and on to the bone marrow gel right away and then get him or her tested..

[Maha Vailo]

I'll eat just about anything that humans can consume (including hot dogs!)...and love it. I don't have any allergies or digestive problems, so I must have a very hardy stomach.

- Maha (Wash a loaded baked potato down with fruit punch - eww, you say? Well it's my stomach!) Vailo

[gethen]

I used to eat everything too. Then I got a bit older and things like sausages and hot dogs had a "less desirable effect on my digestive system."
Has anyone read a book called Fast Food Nation? I'm told it will cure you of eating fast food quite effectively.

On the OT, yes our ancestors ate everything and then they died by the age of 35.

[dunwitch]

I used to eat everything too. Then I got a bit older and things like sausages and hot dogs had a "less desirable effect on my digestive system."
Has anyone read a book called Fast Food Nation? I'm told it will cure you of eating fast food quite effectively.

On the OT, yes our ancestors ate everything and then they died by the age of 35.

Fast food is anything that you can't catch up to when it runs away from you.

I did an interesting experiment last year; I spent two weeks up in the wilds on a patch of land my family owns and brought no food. I ate squirrels, snapping turtles, fish, birds, muskrats, deer, and beaver meat. I had one salad of wild plantain and dandelion with boiled rose hips. I never felt better in my life, but I wouldn't recommend the salad. A woodpecker killed itself by running into the window of my cabin and I ate that too. Variety is the spice of life, and eating wild meat has much less environmental impact than eating farmed vegetables. I've eaten ctenosaur lizards in Costa Rica, alligators in Alabama, raw herring in Holland, boiled eelpout in Canada, and of course roadkilled rattlesnakes whenever I can get them. I've never had any digestive problems or major illnesses in my entire life. I don't entirely trust store-bought meat; it tastes funny to me and even what most people consider fresh smells bad to my nose. I would rather not eat any meat from an industrial farm because I know it is very easy to spoil and contaminate meat while butchering it, not to mention the use of antibiotics and hormones, and the environmental impact of organic vegetable farming and cattle grazing. I have no trouble eating a sausage or a hot dog when it's offered, although I'd rather not, but I don't have any squeamishness about what they are made of. Of course I also make my own sausage and I know quite well what goes into them. I see a lot of people who eat meat but could never bring themselves to kill an animal for food, and I think this is wrong. If you cannot deal with the act of killing, you should be a vegetarian. Pre-packaged meat makes the consumption of another animal abstract and impersonal, and shields people from the impact of their actions. It fosters the illusion that we are not a part of nature, and can act as if we are not part of the environment. The ritual of predation is timeless, it transcends humanity itself, yet it has been an integral part of primate life since long before we were sentient. Meat is not just hot dogs and pork chops and hamburgers; when you eat these things you are extinguishing life, and I choose to experience this event personally and directly, dealing with all the moral implications face to face with the animal. When you bite into a burger or a chicken sandwich, remember that there is someone else out there who is killing for your convenience and shielding you from the act of predation.

[01101001]

I see a lot of people who eat meat but could never bring themselves to kill an animal for food, and I think this is wrong. If you cannot deal with the act of killing, you should be a vegetarian. Pre-packaged meat makes the consumption of another animal abstract and impersonal, and shields people from the impact of their actions.

If -- I don 't know -- our early ancestors were more scavengers than hunters, then perhaps eating packaged meat, killed by other than ourselves, is being truer to our genetic heritage.

Prescription for fine dining: Find a carcass. Aged meat is best! Chase off other predators/shoppers. Eat. Yum.

[gopher65]

actually the human digestive system is primed (in the case of meat) to eat half rotten stuff. Fresh meat isn't good for you. It should be.... "aged"... a while before you eat it. Not only that but letting it rot tenderizes it for you. That's why the stuff in stores might smell or taste bad to someone who is used to eating fresh meat. It is several weeks old by the time you get to it. LOL. Mmmmmm maggotie meeeat.

[The Supreme Canuck]

I ate squirrels, snapping turtles, fish, birds, muskrats, deer, and beaver meat.

I found that squirrel tastes nutty. Did you find it to be the same, or did I just get a bad one?

(It's best not to ask why I was eating squirrel. Teryaki-style, actually)

[astronomo flaquito]

In some parts of Mexico they still do eat (just about) everything. From fried grasshoppers (a delicacy here in the Central Valleys) to iguana tamales (a delicacy in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec), there are many non-commercial plant and animal sources of food taken advantage of here. My lovely wife enjoys eating sea turtle eggs, an activity which she will no longer do or even mention in my presence (I'm a herpephile).

[MrClean]

Polish Sausage cooked in SourKraut. Man, whatever they put in those things gotta be neutralized by whatever they put in that stuff.

Ain't killed me yet.

YET.

Just go to a dentist and skip the microscope. Canines, Incisors, Molars. Meats and Vegetables and cutting and chewing. We can handle it all.

Don't have any 2nd stomachs though.