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

Fasting blood sugar & insulin have crept up!

It's pretty bad when even conventional medicine thinks your blood sugar is high. I had lab tests done last week, as I do every year, and saw things were going in the wrong direction. Photo from Pixabay . Uh-oh.  Ideal blood sugar is about 70-90. Your blood sugar can be high because you're stressed or ill, but I felt OK. I can't blame it on cortisol, which was smack in the middle of the normal range. And my A1c, which reflects blood sugar over the past few months, shows that whatever is going on has been happening for a while. My insulin is more than double what it should be. Oddly, my triglycerides, which typically indicate carb consumption, were good.  I don't have an explanation for the triglycerides. I should have suspected something was wrong, though. I've felt very tired and a little sad for the past few months. Unlike many people with higher than ideal blood sugar and insulin, I had only gained about three pounds.  Regardless of my good weight and triglyceride...

Interview: The Microbiome's Effect on Almost Everything

Mark L. Cannon, DDS, MS joins Bret Weinstein of the Darkhorse Podcast for a discussion about the oral microbiome and its downstream effects on everything from acne to Alzheimer’s. Dr. Cannon is a pediatric dentist and professor of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat medicine). It's an hour and 44 minutes, but well worth your time. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjkOgCXiMeE

YouTube invites creators back; says Biden pushed censorship on COVID and politics

Google, which owns YouTube, is inviting back creators it kicked off the platform for content about politics, elections, and COVID. Google says the Biden administration pressured them to censor this content, and now Europe is trying to force them to censor lawful content. Jim Jordan, Representative from Ohio, explains on X. Thread here .  Created with AI on ImageFX.  YouTube creators banned or suspended for COVID content (source: Grok). Click to enlarge. Rep. Jim Jordan @Jim_Jordan 2h • 15 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X 🚨BREAKING: Due to our oversight efforts, GOOGLE commits to offer ALL creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. Thread: YouTube also: -Admits the Biden Admin censorship pressure was “unacceptable and wrong” -Confirms that the Biden Admin wanted Americans censored for speech that did not violate YouTube’s policies -Details when YouTube began rolling back its censorship policies on p...

Infrared Light: How much is too much?

It's the sort of thing that sounds like quackery: a pad with tiny red LED lights and a few buttons that's supposed to help you heal, just $30 on ebay. I never would have bought it, but Dr. Davis gave a presentation on infrared light late in 2024. Since I was still suffering from achilles tendonitis after being floxxed , I decided to try it.  I wrapped it around my ankle and turned it on the lowest setting for five minutes. Nothing seemed to happen, but the next day, I wrote,  My tendonitis is GONE after one 5-minute treatment! I didn’t feel it doing anything, I didn’t think it was going to do anything (at least not that quickly), but for the first time in several months, I’ve gotten out of bed and started walking normally and didn’t have any pain reaching with my left arm. I'd been shuffling around like an 80-year-old woman after getting out of bed in the morning. The tendonitis returned, but it was improved. I eventually had physical therapy for it, and now, apart from a l...

Lousy Mood? It Could be the Food

Here's a funny AMV(1) on what it's like to be depressed, apathetic and overly sensitive. Note: explicit (but funny) lyrics in the video. Hearing this song brought a startling realization: I used to be emo, but with normal clothes. Sulking, sobbing and writing poetry were my hobbies. When I was a kid, my mother said that she wouldn't know what to do to punish me if I had done something wrong. And yet things got worse. Over a two-week period in 1996, my best friend moved away, I lost my job and broke up with my boyfriend. I lost my appetite and lived on a daily bagel, cream cheese and a Coke for the next few months. I had tried counseling, and didn't find it helpful; in fact, I found reviving painful memories was pointless. Not thinking about them, on the other hand, worked wonders. Later on, so did studying philosophy and learning to think through emotions instead of just riding through them. But what's blown away all the techniques is diet. Since I s...