In regards to eating meat

[Diana]

Perhaps you could be more specific on what you consider an "ad hominem attack" in this thread. I don't think you're being very clear.

Deeper research extending from the talking points within this long thread will reveal these attacks. By "food harmonizers" i meant the health food and wellness movements in general, (the many diverse group efforts to achieve health through diet primarily). Health researchers and health promoters have been too often ridiculed. I refer to overt and covert smearing of wellness-research as one example of ad hominem attack.

The research and claims of the health movement deserve rational cross examination without smear campaigns. Seekers of natural health encounter detours in the many smears. These detours can or should sharpen STO wits. Providing that one's attention span is not derailed first.

I have wondered if some sort of chart or interactive spread sheet could provide better cross examination on health food information, (of authentic food science). There are seemingly endless disputations and infinite ramifications. At some point, search engines empowered with key word phrases will serve satisfactorily. Health food study is a very long term endeavor. So are the cumulative effects of specific diets. So is nutritional science, (apparently uncovering new observations, through new research).

All so true. And there are many possible problems in opposition to real inquiry--one being the meat and dairy industry.

And all this is not to mention the part of health beyond the physical. Empirical science always glosses over the subject of the placebo effect, which they must agree is real because of the data, as if it is an anomaly.

Ridicule seems to be part of evolution, as humans dislike change.

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Because you're OK with killing plants to eat them but you think compassion for animals requires not killing them.

I know this isn't directed at me, but...

Having compassion for an entity requires not killing it, because then there would be no entity to have compassion towards. "Compassionately killing" is like "fear based love". The love and compassion is there, but not in its full potential, being largely blocked/distorted.

Thank your for your views. In regards to the full potential of love and compassion, eating plants seems to me a degree closer to that full potential, than eating animals is.

1. There is less fear in a plant than an animal when being taken for food (this hypothesis is based on the fact that seeds "need" to be eaten, and that you can trim a plant without killing it, but will kill the animal if trimming a leg).

2. I agree that humane animal farming, such as grass-fed beef, and especially, free range, is a huge step toward that potential, when compared to factory farming.

3. I still think eating plants is a step farther toward that potential, because of the fear being generated in the being who is giving its life force to be food.