How can you eat THAT!? It's disgusting (cruel, nasty, inhumane, etc.)

[Bonobo]

Here is a nice concise Wikipedia article about food taboos. It's hard to find something there that isn't abhorrent to SOMEONE.

Whether it is Kosher food restrictions, Hindu, Moslem, Vegan or American Progressive, they all fall into the category of cultural intolerance in my view.

It is worth taking a look at this and doing some further study if you find yourself saying "How the HELL can they eat THAT!?"

It is a subject that is both enlightening and fascinating and should help uncover our own culture-bound ideas about food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_food_and_drink

2 Taboo food
2.1 Amphibians and reptiles
2.2 Bats
2.3 Bears
2.4 Birds
2.5 Camels
2.6 Cats
2.7 Cows
2.8 Crustaceans and other seafood
2.9 Deer and ungulates
2.10 Dogs
2.11 Elephants
2.12 Fish
2.13 Fruits
2.14 Fungi
2.15 Guinea pig and related rodents
2.16 Horses and other equines
2.17 Insects
2.18 Living animals
2.19 Offal
2.20 Pigs/Pork
2.21 Rabbit
2.22 Rats and mice
2.23 Snails
2.24 Vegetables
2.25 Whales
2.26 Primates
2.27 Animal Fetus
2.28 Human meat
3 Taboo drinks
3.1 Alcohol
3.2 Blood
3.3 Coffee and tea
3.4 Raw milk
3.5 Breast milk

[howard112211]

1. I think anyone should eat what they want.

[begin_within]

3. Even if they want to eat you?

[Fla_Democrat]

7. Gotta take me out on a 'real date' first.

:evilgrin:

I'm not cheap, but I can be easy. :smoke:

[Javaman]

19. begin_within is SOYLENT GREEN!!! nt

[dems_rightnow]

2. Popcorn!

And I've yet to meet anyone that did not like the taste.

[Bonobo]

11. In some countries, they eat popcorn with MAYONNAISE! nt

[rug]

4. Now, this is the way to start off the week.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. EAT THE RICH!

feed the poor.

[Javaman]

20. Normally, I would suggest the same...

but they tend to be really fatty and what meat you can find also tends to be really stringy.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

6. nope...not worth looking at or studying or anything of the sort

people should eat what they believe is ok to eat, what they like or eat...or maybe what they need to eat. the rest is bunk...

sP

[lukasahero]

8. Really? Do you really believe it's as easy as that?

So people who want to eat endangered animals should just go right ahead and do so? Who needs all those pesky critters around anyway?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

9. it depends...

if they NEED to eat it because it is the only thing around to eat (which i seriously doubt would be the case) then by all means...munch away. if they are ignorant of the fact that it is endangered...then yep, chow down.

sP

[htuttle]

14. It's not the eating part that's the problem -- it's the killing part

If someone finds an endangered animal dead and flattened on the side of the road, they're free to eat it, as far as I'm concerned.

[SoCalDem]

17. mmmm... Panda Fricassee

with a side order of lemur soup.. :rofl:

[Art_from_Ark]

10. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here

Is refusing to eat human flesh "cultural intolerance"? Or is eating vegetables enough to make you scratch your head and say "How can ANYONE eat that?" :shrug:

[Bonobo]

12. You need more of a "point"?

Why? So this can be reduced to a monotonal argument, flattened out like every other subject in the echo-chamber?

[Art_from_Ark]

13. A monotonal argument?

You seem to make two contradictory points, while supporting both of them.

But, what the heck, I'll play.

Cultures have had food taboos for various reasons. Who in the West wants to eat their pet? Thus there are social prohibitions on the eating of cats and dogs.

Nearly every culture in the world thinks that eating human flesh is reprehensible, and for good reason. Would you want to end up on someone else's menu?

Who wants to eat endangered animals? Or, who has the moral right to hasten a species' extinction by eating it, when other foods are readily available?

Prohibitions against seafood in the Bible were may have been implemented as a result of a "red tide" in the Red Sea, which may have contaminated seafood that had ingested toxins from the red algae.

[Bonobo]

15. Structural Functionalism! I like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_functionalism

Not sure what my two 'contradictory points' are, but I am glad you decided to 'play'.

What you call play, I call having a discussion on a "discussion board".

It is what is sometimes done in such places.

[hobbit709]

16. The only requirement I have is that it ain't moving when I eat it.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. So you would be comfortable with a "Jeffery Dahmer" type of diet?

[Forkboy]

24. Depends on the cook.

:hide:

[SmileyRose]

25. eh

:rofl: :rofl:

[Warpy]

18. That's why I love Andrew Zimmern

He crosses the taboo lines all over the world and, most remarkably, the guy does it cold sober. That's right, he doesn't drink.

He's got his limits, though. A man who's eaten every worm, reptile and insect has spit a few things out, most notably durian.

There are things I'll pass up, like pork and pork products as well as most meat and more exotic things like the Aztec delicacy of fly eggs, but I've eaten grasshoppers, ants, snake, and dog. I just realize my food preferences end at the surface of my skin.

I can't imagine trying to tell a hungry poor person in the third world what he can and cannot eat, according to some whim cloaked in religion.

[yellowcanine]

21. Breast milk makes pretty good ice cream.

So I have been told.

[FailureToCommunicate]

22. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants" That's the advice of Pollan's book "In Defense

of Food". And by "food" he means 'real' food your mom or grandma would have served - not corn oil or corn syrup filled 'low-fat' processed crap from a microwave portion.

An important read!

Then see "Food Inc"...

Then buy from local farmers markets...

Then hope your teenagers don't eat all their meals at somebody else's' house...

[Hannah Bell]

26. i wrote approximately the same blurb back in 2000. but made no money from it, unfortunately.