Environmental Ethics PHIL 323 / INDS 323 The University of Arizona

Ethics of Eating This web page will develop into a site that addresses questions concerning eating. At present, we have: A page briefly describing the current world situation regarding food resources: World Food Situation The start of a set of pages defining and describing vegetarianism and protein needs: Vegetarianism A page linking to other web sites giving nutritional information: Nutrition Links A page discussing protein is: http://research.biology.arizona.edu/mosquito/willott/323/project/eating/protein.html. Protein Consumption and Calcium Excretion discusses calcium levels and protein consumption. A link to the EPA site that discusses pesticides and food: www.epa.gov/pesticides/food A link to the National Organic Program, which is part of the USDA concerned with the National Organic Standards Act: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/ We expect in the future to add more information addressing: 1. Is eating meat (pork, beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, fish) beneficial to health? Compared to eating what? What diet is associated with lowest mortality rates? Are there complications in assigning cause to the correlation? 2. Is eating meat detrimental to health? At what level? What kinds or amounts of meat? Is it the meat or the protein? Some studies indicate that high levels of protein consumption may be hazardous to long-term health? Check Protein Consumption and Calcium Excretion which is a start on addressing this question. How much protein do I need? Check Dietary Guidelines for Americans at the USDA National Agricultural Library site for a clearer idea of how much protein is considered appropriate. 3. Is there an optimal level that can be discerned given current knowledge? What is that level? Does the standard recommended diet exceed that? What does that level translate to in terms of Big Mac's or ounces of shrimp or .... 4. Is eating dairy food beneficial to health? Compared to what? 5. How can we make sense of dietary recommendations for intake of iron and calcium that make it nearly impossible for a woman to consume the recommended amounts while consuming a suitable number of calories? How can this make sense from an evolutionary point of view if the organism can't consume sufficient for good health? Does the diet associated with the lowest mortality rates meet these dietary recommendations? If not, doesn't that pose some interesting questions?

Phil 323 Hot Stuff | Web Project

---

The University of Arizona Last update Mar 26, 2000 schmidtz@u.arizona.edu willott@u.arizona.edu "http://research.biology.arizona.edu/mosquito/willott/323/project/eating/eating.html" All contents copyright © 1998-2000. All rights reserved.