“With respect BN of Cullomptom, you really don't know what you are talking about. You have provided no evidence or facts. Both of the recent comments you have made are totally incorrect. It's obvious you haven't bothered to research the websites that were offered by Dr Gold and what you are stating is clearly just your personal opinion. I have studied nutrition for over thirty years and I DO know what I'm talking about. Please check your facts on acid animal protein and calcium loss and also the human digestive system, namely intestinal length, stomach acidity and the function of our salivary glands.”

“i agree with sg of exeter ..be a vegan do what you want but dnt preach to anyone else about turning their lifestyle around ..me personally know a few vegans and vegies and if they went to the docs they would be told they were obese so obviosly not such a good life style for them ... i say eat what you want cause as far as im concered everything is bad for you these days ....”

“BTW David Palmer
Your staement that the acidity of dairy produce causes the loss of calcium from our banes is an interesting one - I'm pretty sure that everything we ingest gets a lot more acidic than dairy produce very quickly due to the contents of our stomachs.”

“To those who say we are designed to not eat meat - here's a challenge.

Without the aid of suppliments, cooking or any other processing (so you can only clean and chew food) and using only seasonal UK plants, create a healthy diet from vegetable matter.
Man's degestive system is very inefficient at breaking down the celulose walls of plant material to extract the nutrition without such processing.
You are going to have to eat a lot more and changing the size and function of your digestive tract would be a good idea. Try also reversing the evolution that reduced your appendix to its vestigial status as that would help.
As soon as you add the processing the food to the equation you are stepping away from how the body is designed to function (omnivore).
Saying we are designed to be vegan because we have developed ways of processing food that means we can extract the necessary nutrition is akin to saying that we are the fastest land creatures because we have developed cars.”

“Yes Val, it's a sick world we live in when profit comes before readily available facts. I work as a Senior Nutritional Adviser and it is shameful the lack of knowledge that GPs and general Nutritional Advisers have as they unwittingly act as mouthpieces for the meat and milk marketing boards. It is little known outside of the nutritional field, that charts, notes etc. for school, college and University courses are funded by the meat and dairy industries. This misleads people at an early age into believing that animal protein is a necessary part of our diet. In fact dairy, because it is acidic, causes the loss of calcium from our bones. And meat, which is full of saturated animal fat and cholesterol, is the number one contributing factor to heart attacks and strokes, not to mention a number of cancers that kill millions yearly, far more than smoking.”

“Yes, I totally agree with Dr Gold. I was diagnosed with terminal cancer over 20 years ago and went onto a pure vegan diet after researching cancer. As I know now ALL animal proteins promote cancer whereas plant proteins block cancer. It is a great shame that this knowledge is not widely available when there are such huge food industries with great propaganda capabilities. I also agree with the original letter by Steve Wilson, people should independently research the ill effects of consuming meat and dairy.”

“In reference to replies clearly from meat and dairy consumers, which I too was once one of, not to mention those with an obvious vested interest. I also would readily say all of the comments that were made about our teeth and intestinal tract etc., not realising how ignorant I was in those days. Now that I have studied nutrition in depth I no longer embarrass myself by stating incorrect information about a vegan diet. It is very easy to make comments regarding something the general public know abolutely nothing about. There are many sites, professors and doctors, that you can now educate yourself through, eg: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) - http://pcrm.org/, Micheal Greger M.D - http://www.drgreger.org/, Professor T. Colin Campbell - http://www.tcolincampbell.org/. There are also independent documentaries that make compelling viewing, namely A Delicate Balance - The Truth which sets out the information in an easy to watch format: http://adelicatebalance.com.au/. Ignorance = The choice to ignore the truth even when presented with it. It is a conscious decision to deny or turn away from the truth in favour of more trivial pursuits. Ignorance cannot be remedied by anyone other than the person who holds it, for any attempt to change his mind only reinforces his decision.”

“There is a big leap between everyone going vegan and a proportion of the population. The latter idea is probably a good one, to reduce meat production overall. But it would be better if we could guarantee that the smaller amount of meat produced was produced more humanely and in a more environmentally-friendly way - which would, incidentally, improve its quality. Ninety-nine percent of beef produced in the USA is produced from feedlots - where animals are corralled and fed mostly grain and soya. This has a very large carbon footprint, not least because much of the land used to produce grain in the US used to be prairie, with large stores of carbon in the soil that are released when the land is ploughed up.

Moreover, because such a high proportion of grain in the diet is not natural for cattle, these animals often suffer from acidosis, I gather, and are given supplements to counteract this. because they live in such unnatural conditions in close proximity with each other and with their excrement they are routinely fed antibiotics, and to increase their growth rates tghey are often also implanted with growth hormone-releasing "bullets" (banned in this country because of the perceived ill-effects of eating meat contaminated with these hormones).

As for whether man is "designed" to eat meat and drink milk, I'm not sure at what stage in our evolution we began to eat meat, but presumably it was long before we developed into our current species, Homo sapiens, some 200,000 years ago. I'm sure someone out there can tell us. Its not much of a leap from feeding your babies on mother's breast milk to milking captured aurochs (the ancestor of the cow) or other animals that produce enough of it (wild sheep, goats, horses and/or their predecessors). No one would seriously think it worthwhile milking a dog or a cat would they, when other more prolific milk producers were around (OK, I know wild "cows" didn't produce nearly as much milk as the modern cow, but you get my point).

A lot pof meat products are basically rubbish - I could think of a better word but it probably wouldn't get through the moderators). We should eat less and better meat, and if one way to do this is for more people to vegan, then fine!”

“Kudos, Steve. Thanks for going vegan and for encouraging others to make this wise choice. Even the Chair of the United Nations IPCC recommends reducing meat consumption to halt global warming - I don't think we can argue against the science. As well, maybe the 21st century is high time we pay attention to being a civilized planet of peace and compassion. Killing is truly overrated and outdated!”

“steve
From evidence, milking has gone on for well over 6,500 years in the UK and it didn't start here. This is linked to when 'we' moved from the hunter-gatherer way of life to farming which didn't happen overnight. As the evidence is based on the analysis of pottery (generally only found in settlements) it is likely that this extends back much further when 'we' led a more nomadic lifestyle.
Whether it is good for us is a matter for discussion being the source of good and bad things in our diets. As with most things, someone had to try it first. but it does seem reasonable to assume that man made the connection between human and animal milk and went from there.

Cows would have been chosed above (for example) cats and dogs purely on the basis of practicalities - after all, it would be a real pain catching and milking smaller animals for the amount they produce each. Goats and sheep are also milked though is a bit more of an acquired taste (or so I am told).”