This was a gem I read in the comments on Nina's article:
Quote:
If there were 2 basic rules one should follow with regards to diet that everyone should probably follow it is these: 1. Obey your climate (latitude dictates generally what protein sources are available to you, ie: a vegan Inuit is impossible), 2. Obey your dentition (omnivorous dentition, omnivorous diet)
|
It's something I've often said, although I've never said it in such a concise way, mainly because it applies to more than just extreme climates.
It also applies to seasonal changes, because I always wondered what fresh fruits and vegetables our ancestors were supposedly finding to eat with a foot of snow on the ground in the middle of winter.
It makes no sense at all to me that any society could have ever been 100% vegan, or was ever meant to be. It's possible to do it today, but only through increasing the amount of pollution by processing vegan foods in one part of the world, then shipping them halfway around the world to meet vegan demands for plant based and ONLY plant based foods, rather than eating what is locally available when possible.
It's illogical to think you need to be vegan when the further north you are (or the further south in the southern hemisphere), the shorter the growing season. It only makes sense that with plants available for a shorter time that people survived on animal products, even if the poor ate mostly eggs, dairy, fish, and whatever wild animals they could catch (rabbits, squirrels, possum, etc) during the cold months.
Also if they grew grains to supplement their diet, they would have rationed them so they wouldn't run out before the next year's harvest, instead of building their meals around grains.
A truly topsy-turvy view of diet is being pushed on us today.