A Question for Vegetarians

I guess it would depend on the person's age, and how active they are.

Ahh but you need to think inside the box here!
You have totally ignored the organ meats and of course the 'sweetmeats'

haha. ok. dumb question. I do too, sometimes, only I prefer mine all live and wiggly-like.

One thing to think about when eating a diet with a lot of fish is mercury.

If you do eat a lot of fish it is best to eat smaller fish. Basically, if the whole fish can fit on your plate, good.

Fish that eat other fish have much higher levels of mercury and are therefore more dangerous.

I think that is also true for a lot of animals. You are better off eating animals that don't eat other animals.

AH! Yes! I forgot that. I never was one for eating organ meats.
But I still have yet to try Chitlins!

The only part you couldn't eat on a human would be the brain. Read somewhere that was part of the reason tribes that practiced cannibalism died out. There's some Mad-Cow type of disease you get from that. Ku-Ru or something like that.

Actually, as I understand it, the human body is basicly not very safe to eat in general... It's like pig, you have to be very, very carefull in how you prepare it.

I absolutely agree with this. I feel that I can't eat meat in good conscience without at some point facing the reality of looking something cute and fuzzy in the eye and killing it. I was intending to go deer hunting this past season as I have recently moved to a rural setting but my equipment was not in good order (compound bow, I don't have a gun licence) and, well, I'm disorganized.

However a friend kindly gave me about twenty pounds of venison from a deer he had killed and OMG it was the most delicious meat I've ever tasted. I'd never had venison or any wild meat before and it was somehow both cleaner and richer than stuff you get in the store. So now I am doubly determined to go get my own delicious deer next hunting season.

Unless you live in Canada or something where it is impossible, I highly suggest you carry a pistol with you when you go hunting, even if you have to keep it locked up in a box or something to meet with legalities (I got a carry permit to avoid that nonsense... Though I mostly hunt in private land where it isn't an issue)... Reason being if you don't make a perfect shot, but wound the animal, a bow is nasty to try to use at point-blank range to finish off a deer, and your only other option short of using a gun would be to slit its throat, which isn't quite as humane and is *very* messy, I'll tell you from experience.

I made that exact mistake first time I went bow hunting.

I do live in Canada. I could get my firearms certificate and use a rifle but I think I really prefer the bow.

Erg.

Canada has to complicate matters.

I like bow hunting, but I'll be the first to admit that it's very easy for an beginning hunter to make a "bad" kill with a bow, much easier IMO than with a gun.

I'm actually a fan of blackpowder hunting... Not something you do much of, but when my father got a spiffy new blackpowder gun his older one passed on to me, and it's actually pretty interesting... It really connects you with the people of the 1600-1800's.

Well, at the very least, if you don't have it already, invest in a spool-mount and some tracking string.

Thanks for the tips, I'd never even heard of the tracking string before but it sounds like an excellent idea. To be honest one of the other reasons I didn't go hunting last year was that I hadn't practiced enough with bow recently to be reasonably sure of a clean kill but I'm going to be sure to remedy that before next fall.

It's difficult to correct generalized opinions supported by personal anecdote without even attempting to include facts, but I'll be happy to take a few shots in the dark.

The only vitamin I'm aware of that is harder to find for vegans is B12, and you only get anemic, in theory, after a very, VERY long time (years) if you don't eat cereal or soymilk or bread or any of the other products fortified with that bacterial byproduct. Your body tends to hold on to this mineral since it is already rare in nature.

The hoopla I always hear about fish is related to Omega-3's, which you can also get from flax. As far as fish for protein, excessive protein intake without adequate calcium compensatory intake is predicted to negatively affect bone mass (although some evidence I've read suggests that your vitamin D receptor genotype might play a role in your body's ability to adjust calcium absorption in response to increased protein and sodium), so if you are eating lots of fish without adequate calcium intake, you could be slowly producing an undesirable loss in bone mass (and supplementing fish with increased milk is questionable because milk already contains enough protein and sodium to offset much of its calcium absorption). As far as mercury goes, Neehai is on the money. Big predatory fish like tuna have high levels of mercury. We've pretty much buttfuc#ed our oceans in the past half century , so you might not even have to worry about them being on your plate for much longer if you keep supporting the industry.

Incidentally, caffeine and theophylline also have a calciuric effect, and cigarette smoke just plain reduces calcium absorption, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that people in the land of Coca-Cola, Marlboro, and meat obsession should have such a high osteoporosis rate. Take your vitamins, it's not cheating.

Kuru is a prion disease, most specifically affecting the nerves. Brains would have the highest concentration, but you have nerves everywhere in your body. You can get prion diseases from eating other mammals, not just people. Incidentally, even fungi can get prion diseases (although we can't get it from fungi because the protein isn't similar enough to our own).

What if you use a broadsword? XD

This is true too. We carry so much disease, germs & bacteria. Its no wonder other carnivores dont eat us!