High I.Q. = vegetarian?

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I eat meat. Love meat.

A bit off-topic, but I notice when I eat a lot of specifically soy-based stuff (like Balance Bars, soy-based protein drinks, etc.), I get really emotionally unstable. I become prone to really bad depressions, aggression, etc.. Has anybody else ever experienced this?? When I lay off the soy and eat meat, the emotional instability goes away. I don't get this if I abstain from meat but also limit my soy intake.

logitechdog,

Actually, given a choice, animals DO eat meat! Some are insectivores or vegetarians, but that isn't simply choice.

Cade,

Yeah, I used to eat LOTS of meat! I don't know what happened, but when I went to mcdonalds, I would get FOUR 1/4 pounders! That was even before I was 7. I ate lots of bacon for breakfast, and at least a 1/2 pound for dinner. I also LOVED braunsweiger! I would have like a tube a day. (over 180 grams protien/day!) TODAY I probably get more like 100 grams or more. Maybe that is another thing I should do like before.

DK8290,

I didn't mean to offend! I started off by saying you can even be a smart VEGAN, and closed with saying I knew some smart vegetarians. Actually, I should have said Vegan THERE also! On my last project I worked beside a person that was USUALLY a vegan. He would OCCASIONALLY eat an egg, drink milk, etc... I never knew him to, but he said he could. Anyway, HE was smart. A hard worker, seemed to do well, and spoke 5 languages. I think he spoke English just OK. Although he DID know some relatively obscure words. He had an odd way of speaking he didn't want to change. There WERE people that spoke the other 4 languages(each only spoke 3 languages at most), and they thought he spoke their native languages REALLY well.

As for stereotypes? That is based on some things like TV shows, and people I have met. Again, I didn't mean to offend.

Stinkypuppy,

You MIGHT have a SOY allergy.

Machine1,

Omega 3 and Omega 6 are supposed to be good for the brain. MOST supplements now provide both anyway.

Steve

Last edited by SteveK on 15 Dec 2006, 8:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I am curious if omega-3's will aid brain development. I'm trying everyday to get my
3 and 4 year old nephews to eat omega-3 rich food (but its hard). Seems most people
in the US do not get enough omega-3. Its a part of the lipid membranes of
brain cells. I think the brain uses other fats when omega-3 are in low supply and the net result is slowwer neurotransmission time. Though I read on a life extention site how cells with higher omega-3 in their membranes may die faster. So you might be smarter but die sooner! I think a few weeks ago there was a news story about a study inwhich omega-3 may reduce alzheimer's risk. So another factor in diet and IQ is how
many IQ*hours it gives you.

I'm an omnivore. I was (if you want to look at it thusly) designed that way.


I also take a slight exception to the poll option characterising meativores as "Hah, Thag make fart! Hah! Meatfart!"-types.

im not vegetarian, though i don't eat a whole bunch of meat.... but that could have to do with the fact that meat is expensive and i am a broke-butt college student and pasta is WAY cheaper

i think our ancestors were ominvorous for a reason...

but in today's world... be wary of the meat you do eat cause you have no idea how the animals were raised and treated...

same could be said for teh veggies too; i know

i'm afraid to eat anything non-organic/free range ect. on a regular basis

Hmmm.... did they also test for the likelihood of more intelligent people simply differing from the population? Here's the thing, I tend to think that smart people tend to have a greater likelihood of simply being different, whether it is vegetarianism, or some other completely wacko belief So, if there is a greater likelihood that intelligent people are more likely to be different period then for them to become vegetarian is not an expression of smart people being unusually attracted to vegetarianism so much as to different lifestyles and philosophies.

Hence why I asked you to forgive the overgeneralization basically I was just saying that that reasoning of feeling sorry for the animals doesnt seem to apply when dealing with autistics (or maybe its just me).

On the other hand I will beat the living snot out of someone who kills an animal and doesnt eat it thats just the way I am.

Kind of a weird contradiction but hey it works for me.

Oh and by the way.. bbq dog is tasty.



I think the decision of whether its better to live your life in a cage or have never to have been born is more in the realm of philosophy.

And here we have the overdeveloped empathy again though. Your basically saying its not ok for these animals to be born with the intention of killing them for food but its ok for animals to be born in places we dont know about that will almost certainly get eaten by something or someone eventually anyways? Whats with that? Also theres a problem with restricting its environment? Again your assuming the animals arent comfortable simply because you wouldnt be. If you live your life in a closet there is no outside world so how can you be unhappy about not being able to go somewhere you dont know exists or living a life that if they let you out would probably kill you since you are ill equipped to deal with it?

Reminds me of the time a group of people let all the animals out of their cages at the zoo. The animals just milled about with no intention of going anywhere.. several were traumatized by the experience and all of them came back after exploring a little right at dinner time and walked right back into their cages.

I think that having been vegetarian for part of our ancestry and flesh-eaters for another part has had a part in creating what is known as human intelligence...
...and I also think the fact that we are essencially "water-apes" - that somewhere in our evolution we took to the water in a way that our close cousins did not (ie: our hairless skin for example), and that made us more prone to dine on omega 3 fatty acid rich fish (brain function?), mineral-rich seafood, and even algae in its mineral / amino/fatty acid-rich glory must have been a factor.

(Edit) - OH and I forgot, I wanted to state that I've been vegetarian, vegan and flesh-consumer for different parts of my life... I became a vegetarian when I was 14, vegan at 19... vegetarian again at 22... on and off. I researched every pro and con, (Diet for a New America by John Robbins was a good book...) - hehe, aspie-style - I do eat eat some meat now, mostly fish.

So I couldn't choose an option for the poll.

"" Was going on this maybe i should of quote it ""

Think about it. Before religion and scientific evidence, it is likely EVERYONE prefered meat!

The macrobiotic diet is an example of one often advertised as being SAFER!(Reasons given are no consumption of cancer, easier digestion, more fiber, fewer heart problems)
Indians(from INDIA) often do it for religious reasons.
In the 70s some Americans did it for ETHICS reasons.

Can you think of any other reason?

more likely we where omnivores...

Mind you even experts bang on and change they mind about it lol

Last edited by logitechdog on 16 Dec 2006, 1:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

i feel sorry for cows and sheep and stuff, i hope they had a good time in the paddocks before we eat them but giving up double woppers and bbq is way to hard, at least the cows, pigs and sheep never had to go to work or school. there whole life is just one big country vacation.
Anyway i was just wondering, when someone becomes a vegetarian becuase they want to save animals and they have a pet cat or dog becuase they love animals, what do they feed to their pets.
and how many cows would die for the life time of each dog living on beef dog food tins or how many fish lose their lives to feed a cat for a lifetime on tins of fish cat food.
will a cat happily live on vegies or will it hunt down birds and stuff when you arent looking.

Thats a good point lol, go mental if u slap a fly but feed they pets lol

Good point! And CATS are the worst! They don't merely kill to eat, but for FUN! They may taunt mice, and never even eat what they catch!

I don't think cows and the like have like a country vacation, but I always kind of wondered why we are here. My life has been helping others who may yet help others and, if we weren't here, nothing would be different. And to THINK that such things depress me so. If I was a cow with MY ideas/questions and THEIR attitude/abilities, etc... I would feel like jumping off a cliff. it really DOES make you wonder what they think though.

Steve

the physiological evidence might suggest otherwise.

My preferred food is dead cow.

Regarding evolution and intelligence, I believe (got no evidence) that its eating high protein/energy foods that enables us (as a race) to have the time (and intelligence) to make technological advances.

Gathering/growing vegies only is very labour intensive, leaving not much time for anything else. Cows spend most of their time eating. Carnivors dont.

Double post. My apologies.

Last edited by SolaCatella on 16 Dec 2006, 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, growing veggies is labor-intensive, but it is actually less so than is hunting if you factor in hunting's much less certain chance of success plus prey species (if you hunt megafauna especially) habit of trying to kill you. I believe the current evidence is against the meat = intelligence hypothesis, especially considering how little big game hunter-gatherer peoples actually bring in. On the other hand, strong indicators of decreased health, including lack of height, shortened lives, and the like seem to have correlated to agriculture's acceptance, indicating that although you get more certain food and more of it by farming, you get less of a variety and so less healthy food. Nevertheless, nature tends to favor the former as far as evolutionary strategies are concerned, considering that the agricultural peoples typically were able to have far more children than hunter-gatherer peoples.

I personally am not vegetarian in any way, but lately I and my family have been eating somewhat less red meat and more chicken and fish (due to my mother's suspicions that food allergies may be behind her persistant acne problems). I like both--I like most meat, actually--so I'm quite all right with that. However, I do drink a lot of skim milk--perhaps a gallon and a half per week by myself. We're currently switching to organic as well, which I'm enthusastic about. I don't eat much wheat or grain, either, aside from an occasional cookie or roll; most of my carbohydrate intake is through rice. My view on animal rights is essentially the same as Fraya's; I don't feel at all bad about eating meat but am disgusted when animals are killed and the bodies are not used (and there is nothing that goes unused in the meat-packing industry, incidentally--which makes you think about what you're eating when you, say, open that can of chicken soup). My family's currently in the process of switching to organic milk, etc. and free-range chicken/eggs where possible.

My IQ is above average, although I personally am somewhat skeptical of its value as IQ tests have been known to have less-than-accurate results, particularly where creativity comes into the picture.