An unmentionable guide to food peace

There’s a silent war being played out for centuries in our midst. This bitter, teeth-gnashing debate has vegetarians on one side and meat lovers on the other. Hostilities may not yet have led to armed confrontation, but there is no shortage of derision, often backed by scientific, moral, ethical and religious justifications, on either side. The vegans consider the meat-chomping lot to be sorely misguided, to put it mildly, and little better than bestial beings lacking stomach-sophistication.

The meaties, on the other hand, say the other side is little better than Pied Pipers of a sort, seeking to inculcate a hatred for a lifestyle inherited from our forefathers and trying to lead society astray with their false dulcet notes. New proof, however, has emerged that might both prove the point of the veggies or strike a neutral tone in the debate.

Neanderthal poo found in Spain, and analysed at a hi-tech MIT lab, has found “biomarkers” associated with eating meat as well as some thingummy called 5B-stigmastanol made when plants are digested. Ergo, those early types, instead of the image of rabid, raging carnivores did eat plant stuff whenever they could. The 50,000-year-old poo samples, thus, might well teach humans of either inclination to co-exist, much like matter in those cavemen stomachs. A poo way to peace, perhaps.…