"Although in primitive society many of necessary things people got by using animals , now humanity is free fr om this sad necessity and there is a common sense to refuse using animals in production of food, clothes and other things” D.I. Mendeleev
In this chapter we are going to view the main arguments used by supporters of meat eating. Very often when people change their lifestyles they are afraid of being in the dark. Especially when it comes to the body with which people get used to identify themselves. In order not to be in doubts let’s study out how digestion process occurs in our body fr om the viewpoint of modern science paying attention to arguments in favor of animal albumen use.
1. Man is a predator
Very often supporters of meat eating insist that people are predators according to anatomic characteristics. We have canine teeth and nails which can be used as weapon. In fact human canine teeth are feebly marked and do not constitute a danger in comparison with other animals. For illustration purposes you can compare the structure of wolf and man jaws and draw conclusion without any anatomical knowledge that teeth have different purposes. Canine teeth of orangutan don’t make it a predator. Human nails are auxiliary tool and have protective function for fingers. House cat is able to cause more injuries with claws than man using nails. People are rather weak physically and we are not able to catch, kill and then rend a large animal. I think not many people have an idea to attack a live cow using this “predatory potential” given by the nature. With high probability it will end badly for unreasonable man. Even the "flock" of primitive people are not able to hunt without additional tools. There are no guns and traps in the wild and if this food was natural then this predator had to be content with small rodents, insects, and the remains of a meal of more successful hunters. Although few people want to classify themselves as scavengers.
Human digestive tract is much different from predators. Let's start with the fact that in the human body food should go 8-9 meters in its way, whereas, for example, this way will be only 3-4 meters in a wolf body. High-protein food should pour over the gastric juice with a high content of hydrochloric acid, and moves quickly through a intestines. Putrefaction process begins in protein structures on long standing. That is why predators have rather short intestines. In addition, the protein structures should be almost completely dissolved by stomach ferments in order to avoid putrefaction. Ferments emission is directly related to the concentration of hydrochloric acid.
If we compare the acid-alkaline balance of gastric juice of wolf and man, then again it turns out that it is many times easier to a wolf to organize the process of digestion of animal protein. There is no chance to cleave proteins in human stomach that is why putrefaction processes are inevitable. Human acid-alkaline balance or pH is situated in the area of easy alkalinization and normally it is equal to 7.365. For this reason the chyme (food lumps) will be alkalized moving in the digestive tract and acidity will be neutralized. All known lactobacillus and bifidus bacteria well-publicised on TV cannot live on protein structures and in acidic conditions, they grow on cellulose of plant food. That is why pathogenic microflora which are aggressive to people will dissolve anything that stomach could not dissolve. People cannot be attributed to the herbivores because of the same significant differences in body structure. To chew straw for people is so unreasonable as well as to eat meat.
Biologists have found that the closest "relatives" of people are the primates. Their DNA and, accordingly, body structure looks like a human body. And the food will also be as similar as possible. The basis of the diet of primates is fresh fruits and roots, stems and fresh flowers. All these things we get used to see on our dinner table besides slaughter food. Although we have the information that sometimes primates eat insects or small animals but it is a small percentage of their diet. In the north when a deer cannot find any food it eats a rodent but no one called deers an omnivorous animal or predator. Such actions are caused by urgent necessity just to save the body but this is not the norm.
2. The necessary supply of amino acids are contained in the meat only
First of all we should understand that human body feeds at the cellular level. It means the human body is built from simple bricks such as microelements, amino acids, fatty acids, and others. Let's try to study out what amino acid is. In simple terms it is component parts from which albuminous compound - cells (for example muscular tissue) are build. To assimilate protein structure a body must split it into elementary amino acids. To build new cells our body can use that particular component parts. If people used cow proteins to build their bodies it's more than likely that they would have gene mutation. So our body disaggregate any proteins no matter vegetable or animal they are.
Amino acids are divided into nonessential amino acids and essential amino acids. Nonessential amino acids can be obtained by transformation from other elements and essential amino acids cannot be obtained by simple biochemical reactions of a body. It is true that animal proteins contain the whole set of 28 amino acids including 8 essential. A cell of particular plant cannot contain so many amino acids. However people can eat several kinds of vegetables, fruits, berries, roots, grains or nuts. Our diet includes all of this, replenishing the stock of essential amino acids. In addition if an intestine works properly our body can receive the necessary amino acids from our microflora (from bifidobacteria and lactic bacteria). Any microorganism is a protein which has a whole set of amino acids. For example, herbivorous cows and gorillas feeding on fruits can synthesize proteins in good supply. There are no restrictions to do the same for a human body and in normal conditions.
3. Vitamin B12 is vital to people
Vitamin B12 is contained in proteins of animal origin and it is believed that it is vital to people. To understand the importance of this vitamin it is necessary to consider the work of human blood circulatory system. As everyone knows a human body uses red blood cells for transporting oxygen. They evacuate carbon dioxide as well. In a human body blood is regenerated in 120 days. Old red blood cells die, and a body produces new ones. On average, about 2.4 million red blood cells are formed per second, and therefore it is very important always have necessary elements for their formation. The main component of red blood cell is hemoglobin which is very similar to vitamin B12. The only difference is a binding metal. It is iron (Fe) in hemoglobin and cobalt (Co) in vitamin B12. That is why our organs of reproducing of red blood cells obtain hemoglobin from B12 for formation new red blood cells. However it is wrong to claim that the only source of hemoglobin is vitamin B12 entering with meat in our body. Dairy products can provide with this vitamin as well. Let’s come back to our biological "relatives". Wh ere do gorillas take B12 to build their red blood cells?
As we mentioned before, our bifidobacteria and lactic bacteria living in an intestine in good supply are symbionts. With the weight of 2 or 3 kilograms our microflora can provide us with almost all vitamins and amino acids. To do this our microflora needs an enabling environment. Such microflora grows on cellulose and fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains, bran are its source. But B12 is not the only source of hemoglobin. Plants contain chlorophyll. As well as B12, chlorophyll differs from hemoglobin by magnesium (Mg). And our body can obtain the necessary elements for the formation of red blood cells in the same way.
4. Meat gives strength, hardiness, energy
It is often claimed that only meat can give a good physical shape and all vegetarians are weak and physically unable to work. Indeed, it is not difficult to have considerable weight eating animal proteins. But often it is adiposity but not a muscular tissue. Adiposity is one of the major problems of modern civilization. The reason is not only a couch-potato lifestyle but also a metabolic disease resulting from alcohol, tobacco, chemical combinations of human origin (preservatives, food colors, flavor boosters) and food which is difficult to assimilate. As a result of inadequate nutrition our body works flat out. The digestive apparatus and excretory system become impaired because of steady stress and incompletely split structures start to gather in masses in a body. We get used to call them slags without worrying about wh ere they came from.
Even modern nutritionists believe the main source of energy is elements of not the protein structure. One of the most important sources of energy in a body is fruit-sugar. Sport diets are built on fruit-sugar and proteins are used to put on weight which is irrelevant to strength and hardiness. When the concentration of fruit-sugar decreases a boby starts drawing it from its own reserves. Glycogen is such resource. It is starch which is consisted of glucose molecules linked in a chain. A body reserves it in skeletal muscle and liver. And in case of need a body can quickly use this reserve due to ferments. If the muscles are tense, glycogen is changed into glucose. It is very complicated to get glucose from protein structures. Protein structures are needed for producing new cells from amino acids.
It is based on the fact that the energy in our body is adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is produced by mitochondria in our cells. This substance is intended to "give" electrons, so it can be compared with batteries in our body. ATP formation occurs as a result of the Krebs cycle. With the help of the Krebs cycle we can obtain ATP from fats and proteins, but, it also wastes resources and energy. Assimilating glucose coefficient of efficiency is maximal, but processing proteins there are some negative values. Let’s find out how this energy which we get used to see on the label under the initials "kcal" can be calculated. It is very easy to calculate calories in spite of the complexity of interaction of substances at the cellular level. We use a device called a calorimeter. It is a special furnace in which we measure the amount of heat generated of a burned product. A temperature of 1 liter of water heated by this warmth will be the energy value of test product. But a man is not a boiler, and for understanding a point of process of energy demands it is not correct to use methods of the past millennium. To describe all interactions that occur in only one cell perhaps we have not enough resources even of the most powerful supercomputer.
There are many examples of great athletes such as Carl Lewis - multiple Olympic champion or our compatriot Ivan Poddubny - the greatest wrestler who finished his career in 70 years.
5. Vegetables contain nitrates and GMO
Very often modern agriculture uses genetically modified (GM) seeds. Fertilizers, used in the fields, are harmful for our body. Of course there is no benefit of genetically modified food and chemical fertilizers. The body will spend more resources on the transformation and removal of strange and unusual elements. But animal farming is the worst. Feeding-stuffs used for animal farming are made from the same plant products but the content of chemical compounds from fertilizers and GMO is in tens of times higher. It is a normal situation for those people who raise animals for slaughter. In addition animals are fed with antibiotics and other potent drugs to reduce a morbidity of population. Muscle pills are constantly added to feed-stuff for the increase in weight. Major part of these elements cannot be assimilated and will accumulate in animal tissues. Eating meat people pass all this chemical bouquet through. This combination is harmful for a body and it will receive a significant damage. At first, nothing will be noticed but over the years the body will wear and weaken. Also it is wrong to think only vegetarians have the same problem. People including meat in their diet cannot do without side dishes because of their physiology, and they have to use all the same fruits and vegetables. That is why it is important to choose correctly fruits and vegetables rather than fall out of them.
6. Vegetarians do not know how to enjoy the life
Vegetarians are considered to be withdrawn, unsociable and very aggressive persons towards non-vegetarians. Often a society tries to impose rules and regulations. And we get used to them. Crudely speaking it is the herd instinct. People can forejudge a person which is not like all the others constantly joking and trying to prove that this person is not right. Often these people even do not get to the bottom of it. People, crossed over to vegetarianism, regularly have to deal with acute and complex situations with colleagues or family. No wonder people try to cut themselves off these attacks and attempts to make them "normal". However people seem perfectly at ease in the company of likeminded people. Also, changing a diet people go through several stages of physical and mental purification. On the physical level it may occur in the form of intoxication. Slags, accumulated over the years, will gradually go out of a body, and if the organs of the excretory system would not cope, part of slags will go back into the blood. As consequence you feel decline of strength, mood change and sick headaches. In such situations purifying methods can help, primarily in the digestive tract. These methods are discussed in a separate chapter.
Passed through all stages of purification a body begins to work in a new light. Huge amount of resources are released and they are directed to health improvement, rejuvenation, they give strength and endurance. It does not happen instantly as soon as you give up eating a meat. It is phased transition to healthy way of living which is available to everyone.
The team of OUM.RU