A few years ago, I was your typical office-worker: stressed out, uneven energy, overweight, and inconsistent complexion. Now I'm just your typical 28-year old urban hunter-gatherer on a quest to be healthy, and having a few adventures along the way. See my full bio.
It's Monday, so you know what that means? POOP QUIZ. Wait, I mean POP QUIZ. Ah, that's so embarrassing. Anyhow, here's the question: which foods -- plants or animals -- tend to have the largest effect on your poo and pee?
Here's my list:
Five out of six of those are plants. And I can't think of eating an animal where I can look in the toilet afterward and say, "Looks like I ate [X animal] yesterday." Chicken, fish, beef, poultry, wild game, eggs. It all looks pretty much the same coming out the other end. But plants? It's like a rainbow of odd smells and colors and textures.
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"Dear John, your bathroom adventures are all rather amusing, but what's your point? -- Adriana Lima, Brazil. PS - luv ur blog! PPS - Why dont u return my calls???"
</fiction>
Many of us have firsthand experience that there is far more chemical diversity in the plant kingdom than in the animal kingdom. Just look down.
Think of it this way. Plants are the source of both deadly poisons and life-saving medicines. They can be good or bad. And given this diversity, our digestive system hasn't evolved to recognize and efficiently process them all. There are just way too many weird chemical compounds out there.
But when it comes to eating animals, you pretty much know what you're getting. Muscle is muscle, and it's made up of pretty much the same stuff among all mammals. Bird muscles are made in a similar way to other bird muscles. No big surprises. Your digestive system knows what to do.
Now, say you're lost in the New Guinea rain forest. You could eat an exotic species of mammal (provided you can kill it) -- and your digestive system is going to know what to do with it. I don't recommend eating random plants that you find in the rain forest. You're more likely to end up sick (or dead).
Now, say you're lost in the grocery store. Given the chemical diversity in the plant kingdom, shouldn't we be a little bit more suspicious about which plants are actually healthy and which are actually harmful? Maybe whole grains aren't gods gift to mankind. Maybe kale is loaded with nutrients. And there may be novel health threats from the processed meat for sale.
Look, I'm not saying there aren't profoundly healthy plants (remember: poisons AND medicines), but why do so many people assume that plants are healthy and animals are unhealthy? If you were actually in the wild, faced with unfamiliar plants and animals, you should have the exact opposite orientation: be far more cautious of eating unfamiliar plants than unfamiliar animals.
Got firsthand experience? Put it in the comments.
Comments
My digestion and stomach have
My digestion and stomach have been so beautiful since starting this eating style , thank you Colbert report, and Johns vibrams which made me originaly check his stuff out. back in the pizza, bread ,pasta, boilied whole grains and doughnuts days I would get horrible stomach aches I couldn't figure out.I like to switch it up sometimes I'm all about meat , or nice colorful balanced meals or all veges and plant/butter fat.I used to think vegetables where the be all end all of health but in the new paradigm , they just add a nice variation to my animal based diet.I think insects should be in your diet if you're plant based. just sayin'I'm sure everything we eat has an effect but definatly : coffee , asparagus, baby greens.
Animals generally know what
Animals generally know what to eat (to thrive and not die). Hard to think at some point we didn't possess that skill? Lost in the rain forest? Be weary of the protein you can catch. Slow things with legs develop defenses too (ie.. poisons).
John's excellent point still
John's excellent point still stands. To my knowledge (and I'm a comparative psychobiologist), there are no known mammals or birds that are toxic to humans if eaten. Sure, the platypuss has poisonous spines on its legs and can give a nasty prick, but it's muscle and organ meat are not really any different than that of a cow or chicken.What's interesting is that most invertebrates (e.g., insects) that are posonous to eat signal their toxicity through somatic coloration (e.g., bright red monarch butterflies, brighly colored caterpillars, etc). Humans, like other Haplorhine primates, have color vision, perhaps to be able to avoid eating brightly colored toxic insects. Color vision evolved during the time that the stem primates were largely small insectivores.
Sure, but being "dropped in"
Sure, but being "dropped in" was the statement. Mammals and birds are tough to catch. Reptiles and amphibians are easier to catch also and many have poisons (and colors too). Had we lived there long enough to know to use our color vision for identification etc.. we would also have the knowledge of which plants to eat, which were medicinal, and which were poisonous etc... just like natives in those parts. Bright colorful things can be good for you too, like fruits. But which ones? Just playing devils advocate.
Just remembered, by the way,
Just remembered, by the way, the fugu (pufferfish) I had in Tokyo a few years ago. Some vertebrates are poisonous to eat, but I think it would be tough to come across fugu when lost in the rainforest, savannah, open woodlands, etc.
Escolar (a fish) makes you
Escolar (a fish) makes you poop orange oil. It's happened to me.http://www.poopreport.com/Consumer/mystery_orange_oil.html
More fodder to fuel the hype
More fodder to fuel the hype around my new reality show concept: Meat-heads vs. Wheat-heads. Survivor style, omnivores vs. vegans, you only get to eat what you can hunt/gather. Periodic physical contests, winning team gets to take whatever food they want from the losing team.
"Corn and peanuts have been
"Corn and peanuts have been known the pass the digestive system intact." - That is why I chew them.
Interesting idea, there is
Interesting idea, there is no doubt that meat is well digested and iron in particular is much easier for our bodies to extract from meat than from plants. But what about our instinctive desire for sweet foods, this has always been explained as our need to get a bit of extra goodness from fruit. Our ancestors were after all supposed to be hunters and gatherers? Living in a community allows children to learn what foods can be eaten from adults and I guess animals learn this too. In fact I've heard it suggested that after about 3 yrs old most kids will not eat new eat foods and this might be an evolutionary trait to keep them safe when they are running around out of their parent reach.I guess the key thing is that our ancestors ate lots of meat but also ate plant foods but only ones that were growing around them naturally. This means they ate lots of different plants, but in moderation and nothing to excess. The advent of agriculture meant we started to focus on a much smaller group of plants such as grains.
You know what makes my pee
You know what makes my pee smell? Coffee. Once again, a plant.You'd think it'd be more widely known that we find meat very easy to digest. But thanks to vegan propaganda about meat rotting in the gut... And that's taken ascendancy over the very well-known fact that a diabetic on insulin has to inject it because insulin doesn't survive the stomach. Now, WHY doesn't it survive the stomach? Because it is a peptide hormone. Peptides = protein fragments. Specifically, the ones that join amino acids together. (It's a peptide in wheat gluten that triggers off celiac symptoms.)I'm SO OVER propaganda winning out over science. Even very-well-established science.P.S. If anyone out there is fighting the urge to argue with me because you personally have trouble digesting meat, you're having trouble because there is something wrong with you. It's possible to dial up and dial down the production of all your various enzymes by changing the amounts of food types you eat. (For example, thanks to low-carbing, I have dialed down my sugar tolerance. NOT A BAD THING... but can get interesting if I eat a mystery food. So I have to be careful.) It's also very likely you are low on stomach acid, which seems to be a common affliction in industrialized nations. So next time you try meat, take some betaine HCL with pepsin first and see if that doesn't improve things for you. You're welcome.
right on. It's quite clear
right on. It's quite clear to me now what I digest well and what makes me uncomfortable. My mother says I need to eat more fiber so I stay regular! Truth is I eat an almost all meat egg fish diet with some good dairy, very few vegetables and mostly fermented ones...I have never been more regular and comfortable than I have been since eating in this way. I started eating white rice again cause I like it and found it really glued things together if you know what I mean. I bought a bag of rice and haven't seemingly made a dent in it, oh well, I'll have it less often and it will be met with excitement. Grains are just a bunch of bull. Eat them if you want. My life is better when I don't. I indulge when the situation calls for it and I enjoy it and roll with it.
Me too! Coffee gets me every
Me too! Coffee gets me every time, no matter how small the amount. I thought I was crazy, glad to know I'm not the only one.
Mine is Cheerios! I've
Mine is Cheerios! I've noticed it for years. Wierd!
"but why do so many people
"but why do so many people assume that plants are healthy and animals are unhealthy?" All the most powerful antioxidants are in plant kingdom. That might be a part of this perspective.
If you'd quit eating all
If you'd quit eating all those PUFAs in grains that oxidize you in the first place, you wouldn't need those massive amounts of antioxidants. Mind you, there are useful nutrients in plants, and plant foods can provide a certain amount of positive stress to help bolster your immunity and so on. But it is sad to me the way everyone focuses on antioxidants and yet no one's focused on, say, fat-soluble vitamins, all of which are freely available in animal fats without the need for conversion. And I can look around me every single day and witness the results of people going without them. Heck, you can see those results in my face. I'm asymmetrical and my mouth is too small. I had to have two sets of braces growing up. And how about that infertility epidemic? This is nothing to play around with.
Say whatever you want, I
Say whatever you want, I believe that protein causes oxidative stress. Plants counteract that. I am not interested in debating this with you. All the healthiest people in the world eat a diet high in plant matter.
You say whatever YOU want,
You say whatever YOU want, 'soahc', but then decide the debate isn't open? I don't think so. Plant based antioxidants are not the 'miracle cure' vegans and vegetarians have been promoting. I was a vegan for three years, and I can tell you, a vegan lifestyle is a fool's errand. And will eventually destroy your gastrointestinal system. If you're lucky, you'll get symptoms of Reynaud's Disease before you get Crohn's.
I never said once that I was
I never said once that I was a vegan, or aspiring vegan. And my digestive system was never worse then when I disincluded plant matter from my diet. That is not to say I don't believe that fibers can be bad for the gut too. "And will eventually destroy your gastrointestinal system. If you're lucky, you'll get symptoms of Reynaud's Disease before you get Crohn's." Wow, the psychic energy just went way up in here. Glad you can see people's futures!
I never said once that I was
I never said once that I was a vegan, or aspiring vegan. And my digestive system was never worse then when I disincluded plant matter from my diet. That is not to say I don't believe that fibers can be bad for the gut too. "And will eventually destroy your gastrointestinal system. If you're lucky, you'll get symptoms of Reynaud's Disease before you get Crohn's." Wow, the psychic energy just went way up in here. Glad you can see people's futures!
If you're not interesting in
If you're not interesting in debating the point, why say anything in the first place? Silence is golden - especially for the dogmatic.