In response to The Moral Void
Comment author: IL 30 June 2008 11:38:03AM 2 points [-]

Vladimir, if there was a pill that would make the function of the mirror neurons go away, in other words, a pill that would make you able to hurt people without feeling remorse or anguish, would you take it?

In response to comment by IL on The Moral Void
Comment author: Micah71381 24 December 2010 06:51:22PM 2 points [-]

Yes I would, assuming we are talking about just being able to not feel the pain of others at this stage of my life and forward, perhaps even by choice (so I could toggle it back on). Though, if we are not talking about a hypothetical "magic pill" then turning these off would have side effects I would like to avoid.

In response to comment by Raemon on Vegetarianism
Comment author: Vaniver 24 December 2010 08:26:46AM 1 point [-]

I have briefly glimpsed through it (a vegetarian friend owns it) and greatly enjoyed its section on "here is how you match together staple foods to have a balanced diet," since that is probably the hardest part about turning vegetarian.

In response to comment by Vaniver on Vegetarianism
Comment author: Micah71381 24 December 2010 06:18:04PM 5 points [-]

It is actually not hard at all. Some recent studies (don't have references, sorry) showed that you don't need to get all of your essential amino acids in a single serving so there is no real need to stack your meals to contain a complete protein. The key is that on average you get all of your essential amino acids which, except for one or two (in recent debated studies), you can't really overdose on.

Another study showed that it is actually really hard to not get all of your amino acids in any diet. Since just about every food you eat has some combination of amino acids in it, unless you are eating literally the same thing every meal of every day you are incredibly likely to get all of your essential amino acids on a daily (and even likely a per meal) basis.

The study I read indicated that the author couldn't come up with a reasonable "average daily meatless meal set" that did not contain all of the essential amino acids throughout the day. The same goes for a vegan diet.

Unfortunately a while back, when vegetarianism and veganism hit off there was the incorrect belief that you needed to get complete proteins in a single sitting. While this has since been shown to be incorrect, it seems that it will forever fuel the fires of anti-vegetarianism debate.