Skip to main content

Paleo Vegetarianism?

Much more endnoting is needed! -Cindy Hoffman, one of my high school English teachers

It's a shame that vegan activist Dr. Neal Barnard didn't learn English composition from Mrs. Hoffman: maybe we could see where he got the numerous pro-vegetarian quotes from paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey--enough to fill half a chapter in The Power of Your Plate. Leakey, according to Barnard, says that hunting in modern times isn't very important except as a macho male thing (page 175), that meat accounted for a small part of the diet on the African savannah (page 174), that the "excess of meat" from domesticated livestock is unusual (page 174), and that we wouldn't have had the teeth to deal with tearing flesh and hide (page 171).

These statements are attributed to the same Richard Leakey who said, just two years before The Power of Your Plate came out in 1995,

The expansion [of diet] involved making meat an important food source, not just an occasional items, as it was with earlier hominids and is still for baboons and chimpanzees. Although some anthropologists argue that regular meat eating was a late development in human history, I believe they are wrong. I see evidence for the expansion of the basic omnivorous hominid diet in the fossil record, in the archaeological record, and, incidentally, in theoretical biology.  (Origins Reconsidered, p. 165)
 In 1996, Leakey wrote in The Origin of Humankind,

Only by adding a significant proportion of meat to its diet could early Homo have "afforded" to build a brain beyond australopithecine size. For all these reasons, I suggest that the major adaptation in the evolutionary package of early Homo was significant meat eating...I have no doubt that meat played an important part in our ancestors' daily lives. (page 55)

The change in tooth structure in early Homo indicates meat eating, as does the elaboration of a stone-tool technology. (page 54)

Stone toolmaking would have been an important part of a meat eater's abilities; plant eaters could do without these tools. (page 41)


Every Leakey book I could find on the shelves of the main branch of the Denver Public Library, going back to the 1970s, had similar statements.  So where in the world did Leakey say that humans evolved as mostly vegetarian? Here's the list of citations for Barnard's chapter on "The Evolution of the Human Diet":


The three-page article is about a Homo erectus who appears to have died from eating too much liver from a carnivore. None of the quotes Barnard attributes to Leakey appear in the article. However, the article does say,

There was probably a major change in the diet of early humans, with a large increase in meat eating, at that period and it may have taken some time to learn which parts of carcasses were poisonous. (page 249).

I've sent an email to Dr. Barnard's assistant and a message through Dr. Leakey's web site asking for a source for these quotes. I'll post any response I get.

Comments

horfilmania said…
Good work Lori. Not that N.Barnard's work is based on science, we all know that, but I overheard my vegan boss quoting him when she thought I wasn't listening so they must think he's a real scientist.
tess said…
the way some people manage to rationalize their "religious" ideologies.... [shaking head] maybe it's the effect of too much sugar/starch on his brain?
Lori Miller said…
Thank you. My Plate, Your Plate--it's all bunkum.
Lori Miller said…
If people freely choose to be vegetarian for religious reasons, that's fine. But they shouldn't call is science.
It's not the carbs, it's a lack of DHA.
Lori Miller said…
I've read that some cults use low-protein diets to brainwash members. Oh, wait, he's in charge of one of those cults.
Francois said…
Comment from Francois (the same who comments on diet doctor).

Lori, I love your post. Going back to the source is so important. And certainly not believing someone just because of credentials. By the way, did you ever get a response? Strangely, I doubt it!

keep up your great work!
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Francois! No, I never heard back.

Popular posts from this blog

COVID Test Result is In

I don't have COVID.  On the one hand, it would have been a relief to have finally caught COVID and gotten natural antibodies, especially from having a mild case of it. On the other hand, I was concerned about my dog catching it from me (he's healthy, but nine years old) and it might have interfered with Thanksgiving plans.  Until I'm well, I'll stay home.

Gym Influencer Doubles Down and Should Have Regretted It

Jennifer Picone isn't the most abusive gym influencer--far from it--but she may be the most annoying. In a video she posted that went viral, she was working out in a gym when another member appeared in the background by the free weights. The member was minding her own business, not looking in Picone's direction, when Picone got up and told her to move. After filming, Picone edited the video with a note about "Gym etiquette lesson #47" and accused the other gym member of "[doing] that 💩 on purpose."  Shaming other gym members has gotten to be such a big genre that Joey Swoll has a YouTube channel, with half a million subscribers, dedicated to calling out these content creators. Just for Picone, he took a break from his vacation to tell her to mind her own business. This may be the first time that Joey Swoll has taken one of his followers to task. The fact that she follows him and still doesn't know better than to treat the gym like her personal studio sh...

HHS Doctor on Hidden Camera: "The Vaccine is Full of Sh!t"

Jodi O'Malley, a registered nurse at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), teamed up with Project Veritas to expose severe COVID vaccine reactions occurring but not being reported to VAERS, the vaccine adverse event reporting system, even though medical professionals are legally required to report such injuries. During the filming, a man in his thirties with congestive heart failure was being treated; the doctor believed the cause was his COVID vaccination. O'Malley says she's seen dozens of adverse reactions. "The vaccine is full of shit" and the government wants to "sweep it under the mat," the doctor says on hidden camera. We finally know what's in the vaccine. Screen grab from Project Veritas video . The video also shows a pharmacist stating that off-label medications such as ivermectin were forbidden to be prescribed on pain of termination.  Project Veritas is a nonprofit organization that does ...

The Under-the-Radar Ointment for Hard-to-Heal Wounds

Imagine looking in the mirror one morning and finding the side of your head black and your ear twice its normal size. That's what happened to Brad Burnam, who caught a deadly superbug at the hospital where he worked. Sometime after having emergency surgery--one of 21 surgeries over the next five years--he set out to cure himself.  The result he created was a fusion of PHMB, an antibiotic common in Europe but little known in the US, in a petroleum jelly base (like Vaseline), held together with a stabilizer/emulsifier. It sticks to wounds, keeps them moist, and provides a barrier. It cured his antibiotic resistant superbug. After getting FDA clearance, he formed Turn Therapeutics, and Hexagen is now available by prescription.  Screen shot from https://turntherapeutics.com/about/ Millions of Americans suffer from open wounds--chronic issues like diabetic foot ulcers. Readers probably have their blood sugar under control and avoid this condition, but might have parents, partners o...

1972: Carole King, M*A*S*H and...Food for 2014?

I feel well enough to try Atkins induction again. The palpitations are gone, even without taking potassium. My energy level is back to normal--no more trucking on the treadmill early in the morning  to burn off nervous energy or emergency meat, cheese and mineral water stops after yoga. It's back to lounging around to Chopin and Debussy in the morning and stopping at the wine bar for pleasure. I'm using the original Atkins book: Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution from 1972. While looking in the book for a way to make gelatin (which is allowed on induction, but Jello(TM) and products like it have questionable ingredients), I felt the earth move under my feet : those recipes from 42 years ago look delicious and they're mostly real food. It makes sense, though: the cooks who wrote the recipes probably didn't have had a palette used to low-fat food full of added sugar or a bag of tricks to make low-fat food edible. Anyone who writes a recipe called "Cottage Cheese and...