Plant based diets for BJJ athletes?

[Nozza]

Apes eat everything in the wild, so anything we eat is ape food.

Also, us being apes means anything we eat is ape food.

Please make sense.

That's just a tautology.

It's not as simple as saying we are apes. Home Sapiens is a seperate species in the genus Homo in the subtribe Hominina, in the tribe Hominini, in the sub-family Homininae in the family Hominidae.

Only at the Hominini tribe level and above are there any living relatives - chimps. From there down to the species level only humans now exist. Hence chimps are thought to be our closest living relative. Co-indidentally or not, chimps are unusual in that they eat meat. Other members of the Hominidae family (higher up the tree) have diets specific to their species. E.g. some just eat fruit.

There is no overarching "ape food" that covers all members of the family.

Just being a separate species is enough to allow animals to eat very differing diets depending on where they evolved. This is true amongst many animals, not just primates. So there is little mileage in claiming we should eat a diet based on the diet of different species just because we are in the same taxonomic family.

 

[Nozza]

Also I have to question, why pick the Family taxonomic level to draw the dietary comparison? It seems somewhat arbitrary. Why not go up a level to insist that everything we eat is "primate food"? Or up again so that we eat "mammal food"? On what basis are we deciding which level to drop in at? I say we do it at the species level for reasons outlined above. Why are you picking the Family level?

As to the "humans are apes" question. As I said, it's not simple. We are clearly not apes as in the apes you see at the zoo. Yes we are in the same family. In that respect we are in the "ape family". But we are not the same creatures with the same biological and environmental needs. We are a separate species. We are humans. We need human food.

 

[TSO]

Also I have to question, why pick the Family taxonomic level to draw the dietary comparison? It seems somewhat arbitrary. Why not go up a level to insist that everything we eat is "primate food"? Or up again so that we eat "mammal food"? On what basis are we deciding which level to drop in at? I say we do it at the species level for reasons outlined above. Why are you picking the Family level?

As to the "humans are apes" question. As I said, it's not simple. We are clearly not apes as in the apes you see at the zoo. Yes we are in the same family. In that respect we are in the "ape family". But we are not the same creatures with the same biological and environmental needs. We are a separate species. We are humans. We need human food.

Well the food part was a joke, but we are indeed apes.

 

[Einarr]

Just eat meat like a real man.

 

[middleaged]

I always wondered if I was an ape

 

[luckyshot]

I have been a vegetarian for almost 10 years, and I manage to get all my nutrients. Hell, I manage to be pudgy at times.

The question about what we are meant to eat is retarded, BTW.

We are products of evolution; we are not meant to do anything.

Wherever we started, we have evolved into an omnivorous state. Being an omnivore is an evolutionary advantage, obviously.

 

[moshin]

Eat lots of plants.

Eat some animals.


Boom! Healthy plant based diet.

^^This