Human Diet - What do YOU think?

I've seen some research to suggest similar things, but humans are stubborn creatures.

My personal opinion is that yes, we are natural omnivores. However, being that we have consciousness, we are able to eat whatever we want for whatever reasons. The cool thing is that if we choose to be vegan or vegetarian or pescatarian or whatever, we can supplement our diets with what we're missing.

Cheers - Amanda

Thanks for your opinion! I went for a few years without eating any meat except chicken(there's my ol' fall-back again.. :-D), but it didn't last too long. I think if we weren't truly designed to eat meat(even if it's not *too* often), I wouldn't have craved it particularly harshly during pregnancy. Especially rare steak. Salads always seemed very strange to me. I tried to eat a lot of dandelion greens during my pregnancy because dandelion greens are packed with nutrients, but they're *so* bitter! And so are many other leaves that I've tried. I could manage one or two, but any more than that required dressing or a severe gag reflex after choking some more down. I do like the theory that all humans and animals should eat food in their natural, raw form, and those of which taste good, to boot. But too many leaves are just way too bitter, or gritty, or just....off for me to feel like they're worth the struggle. Mulberry leaves are absolutely yummy, though. They're sweet. I have nothing against sweet leaves(I grew Organic Basil a couple summers ago and those were good too), but the majority of them I'd much rather do without. Like I said in the post, I feel better leaving the leaves(ha...ha...ha) to the rabbits and the deer.

My first though upon reading your post: "wouldn't the child prefer fruits because they're soft and sweet?"

I, personally, don't have children so I can't really speak from experience but I think it makes sense that a young child with newly developed/very few teeth would prefer the softness of properly ripened fruit. Fruit is also full of natural sugars and we are programmed to love sugar (and fat). AND on top of that this is your child's first experience with solid food (or so I gather?) and no matter how much we adults like our veggies and meats the fact is they're veeery bland. Yes, even meat is bland (as my dad proves time and again whenever he cooks). Fruits, on the other hand, are chock full of interesting texture's and taste's. To a baby the colorful, sweet, textural, soft fruits would be a lot more interesting than veggies and meat. That's my opinion on it, at least.

As for 'leaves' I have to say I agree. I've only eaten green salad's because they're good for you and easy to make but I, personally, hate the bland uninteresting taste of lettuce. After discovering a seasonal cookbook I have branched into kale, chard, spinach, collard greens, and various herbs and even then they're easier to eat drizzled in delicious vinaigrette. I don't eat much meat because of money issues (which will change once I go hunting this year- yay for meat!) and having been raised on wild meat, domestic stuff taste's funny and often makes me sick. I usually incorporate vegetable into my dishes in the simplest format I can think of: steamed/fried in butter and salt and pepper. I have nothing against the 'raw' eaters and admire anyone who can so radically change their diet but I think that most raw food taste's... gross. I usually accompany raw stuff with dips or dressings.

As for our ancestors... I believe they ate whatever they could. If you look at the statistics of predator hunts they are very rarely successful (even pack hunters) and humans probably weren't any different. Heck, nowadays you have to travel into the wilderness for at least a week and MAYBE catch a single animal. THEN you have to take it apart and bring it home. It's tough with modern convenience but can you imagine without all the stuff we're used to? Guns, cars, campers, chainsaws, knives, tough rope etc. I believe that most of what they ate back then was jerky, whatever grew from their gardens (and remember they didn't have the superseeds we have; engineered to be hardy and bug resistant), and the occasional gathering escapade. What they ate might seem strange but when you have no choice you do what you have to to survive.

And the craving for meat thing was probably because of all the protein and fat it contains. Things that are very important for growing bodies and surviving through famine and winter but were hard to find most of the time. Now that meat is too convenient we've become a meat-crazy society and people have forgotten that it's kind of ridiculous to have meat in every single meal.

That's my two cents on the whole thing.