[PapaBear3625]

I’ve known dedicated vegetarians who are quite capable of making delicious meals while avoiding animal products entirely, but even they admit that it is very hard work and that getting the correct proteins, amino acids, etc. into their diet is a challenge in the absence of meat.

There is NO place on Earth where people could live JUST on locally grown fruits and veggies.

Meanwhile, the early Eskimos demonstrated that you CAN survive just fine on a meat/fish diet.

Humans evolved as omnivores. We need a mix of fruits, veggies, and meat in order to have a balanced, healthy diet. With my wife's experiences on her paleo diet, we seem to do better when we reduce the amount of grain we eat. Eating processed grains is something we've adopted relatively recently, and the main advantage of grains were that they could be stored for long periods (a very useful trait in regions which have cold winters).

[Texan5]

“A very useful trait in regions which have cold winters”

A lot of people who live in remote, cold areas of the US and Canada still eat a diet that has far more meat than plant items-there is no grocery store within 100 miles, and the ground is frozen, so they hunt-and they seem to do just fine. But I doubt they would do so well on a diet of potatoes, wheat, rice, etc...

We are fortunate in our weather here, because a very late-summer planting of spinach, cauliflower, winter squash will produce well into Fall-I’ve even had brussels sprouts survive a light snow. You don’t find as many root crops planted in kitchen gardens, because we don’t have to store veggies for a long winter.

Wheat and other grains weren’t even available around here when my ancestors came from Spain and intermarried with Native Americans-they used ground corn like the Natives did, and it is still preferred by many-I prefer stone ground corn to make cornbread.

[Gene Eric]

I’m currently on meat, egg, raw veggies, and almonds. Black coffee and low-carb beer. I’m making it a point to keep sodium intake below 1500 and cholesterol intake around 300. Avoiding egg yolk for the time being as it significantly kicks up the cholesterol intake.

Cholesterol production (and its variants) is a fascinating subject.

[FatherofFive]

Meanwhile, the early Eskimos demonstrated that you CAN survive just fine on a meat/fish diet.

Almost 100% fat, no processed foods, no sugar, no heart disease, no cancer.

Think there is a link? The ones who live on the 'reservations' paint a different story.