Early hominids ate diverse meats including Crocodiles, Hippos, Fish

[Josh]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609122857.htm

Your thoughts? Good luck to anyone recreating that diet. I thought it was important as it may add some weight to the idea of eating a varied diet not just meat and fat.

"It's not clear to us how early humans acquired or processed the butchered meat, but it's likely that it was eaten raw,"

[TylerDurden]

Well, diversity of species was far greater in palaeo times so, naturally, they had a very varied diet. If only I could have raw hippo meat etc. without endangering any species or harming the environment too much.

[actionhero]

but it's likely that it was eaten raw

RPD +1

[Josh]

If only I could have raw hippo meat etc. without endangering any species or harming the environment too much.

I believe hippos are related to pigs...not sure about the 'pastured pork' though.

Wonder what Lex would make of it. Does he still post on here?

[goodsamaritan]

I have access to wild river turtles.  It's in my blog.
http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/05/10/lost-paleolithic-food-found-yummy-soft-shell-turtle/

Farmed crocodile meat is sold in Palawan province, Philippines.
There is a restaurant in Boracay that serves crocodile meat.
You can buy crocodile meat in China in their Walmarts / Supermarkets.

I think I will make the effort to access crocodile meat.

[raw]

I have access to wild river turtles.  It's in my blog.
http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/05/10/lost-paleolithic-food-found-yummy-soft-shell-turtle/

Farmed crocodile meat is sold in Palawan province, Philippines.
There is a restaurant in Boracay that serves crocodile meat.
You can buy crocodile meat in China in their Walmarts / Supermarkets.

I think I will make the effort to access crocodile meat.

hi, i'm wondering about the regular hard shell wild turtle to eat it raw. anyone have done this before? turtle lives many yrs and by eating them could be adding up more yrs of our own longivity.

[Savage]

Reptiles taste nasty, I tried alligator, snakes, turtle, frog and lizard. Unless stranded without food, I'll never eat them again.

[goodsamaritan]

Raw frog I tasted was bland.

Cannot imagine how to eat raw river turtle, it's too small, the soft shell is only good when cooked.

[Josh]

Maybe they had some bigger turtles over there?

[goodsamaritan]

Yeah, sea turtles are bigger.
But today it is illegal to eat them.

[TylerDurden]

I couldn't face eating turtles, they're just too cuddly. It would be like eating dog or cat.

[djr_81]

I couldn't face eating turtles, they're just too cuddly. It would be like eating dog or cat.

I'm the same.
Turtles also take so much longer to grow than most other animals. It seems a doubly harmful act to kill an animal which took say 12 years to get to breeding age in order to get a pound or two of meat.

Maybe they had some bigger turtles over there?

FWIW snapping turtles are big enough to feed people; they grow to at least 30 pounds half of which should be edible meat. If you find a really old/big turtle it could be as big as 70 pounds.

[ForTheHunt]

I would have no problem eating dog meat.

In fact most of the animals I eat can be very fun and nice pets.

[goodsamaritan]

The chickens and the ducks we eat come to our garden alive.
My kids take care of them for around 1 or 2 weeks.
They are given names.
Then we slaughter them with the kids watching.
At the dinner table the kids talk about how great tasting their duck is with corresponding name and which tastes better.
(kids eat them cooked though).

[Josh]

I also wonder whether this ties up with 'aquatic humans' theories. There's some info on wikipedia, although noone rates the full 'aquatic ape' hypothesis.

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

I think it was defunct.

However, if we grew up around rivers in Africa and that was a bit part of life it might tie up that loose end.

_{BTW saw the thread about Lex's health issues...didn't mean to be insensitive about why's he not posting, just wasn't following it}

[TylerDurden]

Giving names to domesticated animals which are raised primarily for slaughter isn't usually a good idea, as it turns one off re eating them.

[KD]

If there is any truth to this, it really makes it seem more so that their should be guilt involved with raising animals for slaughter (which can be argued vs wild meats), than gaining attachment is a negative.

sensitivities like this leaves one wide open to criticisms from ethical vegetarians, who claim we can only eat meat that is 'faceless' cut up in packages in stores and markets.

I know when I go down to a farm and get up really close to their cows, the separation between cow and dog becomes really insignificant if I am to accept that this beautiful animal is food. As far as I'm concerned, all animals are basically the same and deserving of pathos and respect, however separating cute animals and other animals just makes the whole process revealed at its most barbaric that one can't accept or the other extreme level of unconscious consumer culture's blissful ignorance and not the respect and acknowledgment that animals shed life and spirit for our proper functioning. When people say they worked on a farm and can now not eat lambs but the still eat beef or whatever, it makes me want to go stab their dog.

[TylerDurden]

It's just that it's commonly recommended for people raising animals not to give names to the meat-animals or associate with them too much as it makes slaughter  more difficult psychologically.

I suppose there is also something unnatural in not being personally involved in slaughtering one's own food-animals. Perhaps that could educate people more re good food and raising animals in a more moral manner. After all, seeing cattle being raised in disgusting intensive-farming conditions would make one think twice about eating meats from such an animal, as one would be more aware of the low quality of the meats among other things.

[KD]

right, I'm not saying I wouldn't have the same issue, but you can see the irony that naming them, thus acknowledging that they are not, like a box filled with meat, creates a psychological barrier to actually making them into a box filled with meat. So it can only highlight any underlying moral hangup. Whereas traditional cultures that hunt or raise animals are at least reportedly conscious that their prey is a living being that must be pursued to its death or if pastured is still seen as being with a spirit, not like a field of corn or something that will grow back or be replaced magically on a shelf somewhere.

I too wonder what the outcome would be if everyone (especially that does LC/paleo/primal) had to personaly slaughter their meat. Certainly someone is doing it and likely its not driving them to vegetarianism, but it does seem somewhat hypocritical if someone can't bring themselves to do it at least once. Unfortunately the more dehumanized the setting, in a way makes it easier for some to accept, because it becomes so abstract.

anyway, I think the perfect example of this way of thinking was discussed recently in regards to PETA and horse meat. They might not be 'cute' but I've seen little more magnificent than a horse, and the elimination of the possibility of eating them by authorities has just resulted supposedly in poor treatment overall.

[goodsamaritan]

I've taught my kids to always be part of the slaughter of our own ducks and chickens.  They're too young to do the actual slaughter so they get to collect the feathers as toys.
I've also taught them to yes feed the ducks and chickens, but in the end, they're really our food, we're just fattening them up.
I believe it's the paleo way.
My wife started the naming game and having fun discussing the names of the birds at the table.

The last ducks we had for dinner were named Goliath, Adam and Eve.  Goliath tasted best, he was big and fat.  Adam and Eve were reportedly his children.  They were gifts to us from the mountains of Antique province.

[RawZi]

I've taught my kids to always be part of the slaughter of our own ducks and chickens.  They're too young to do the actual slaughter ... wife started the naming game and having fun discussing the names ...

    I ate pet chickens with my friends when I was a toddler.  They tasted good.  I don't remember the chickens' names.  I did know the chickens.  I was also at slaughter.  It was memorable, and not scary.  

[Dwight]

I rather enjoyed the morbid humor here.

[djr_81]

I rather enjoyed the morbid humor here.

There is a lot of it around here.
I guess enough of us come from health conditions where you either learn to laugh with black humor or end up just feeling pity for yourself and not making forward movement.

[goodsamaritan]

Hacking turtles heads while it pokes out of the shell is bloody morbid and no fun and too much work.

I found out it is easier to cook the turtles alive like crabs.

They don't struggle, their nature is to hole up in their shell.

Live crabs big and small I've eaten raw and alive.

[Dwight]

I assume someone here has tasted crocodile meat? I have access to that.