[ringo]

Can anyone think of foods that contain nothing that comes from a living creature or plant?

Note that this rules out anything with sugar, or any other plant-derived foods.

This comes about after discussing the relative merits of being an omnivore, vegetarian, or vegan with someone the other day. I thought it would be interesting if there was some sect that respected life so deeply that even plants are unfit for consumption. This started out as a joke, but I can't think of anything....there's got to be *something* that someone with this extreme belief system could eat to survive.

Suggestions?

[nonhuman]

American cheese?

[rozwado1]

Easy. protein powder.

You can find some that are completely man-made. (ie. w/ Saccharin)

edit: hell, does milk count?

[CreepingDeth]

Grain=plant
vegetable=plant
fruit=plant
dairy=animal based
meat=animal
junk=misc junk

You could eat dirt. That'd be really popular in the elitist circles. Then you could write books about it.

[d4nth3m4n]

there are some insane hippies (IMO) in my town who refuse to kill anything for their food.

they live on nuts fruit and berries. they're pretty gaunt people.

[CreepingDeth]

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:
there are some insane hippies (IMO) in my town who refuse to kill anything for their food.

they live on nuts fruit and berries. they're pretty gaunt people.

Are there any bears around?

[Dale Sorel]

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:
there are some insane hippies (IMO) in my town who refuse to kill anything for their food.

they live on nuts fruit and berries. they're pretty gaunt people.

So I guess this means that nuts, fruits, and berries have no life in them

[effgee]

Originally posted by ringo:
Can anyone think of foods that contain nothing that comes from a living creature or plant? ...

bah - that's easy. no natural ingredients in this or in that one.

[ringo]

Twinkies and Wonder bread...I need to check out the lablels, does either have sugar?

Processed cheese sometimes has vegetable oil, and a little bit of real cheese in it. Dairy is a pretty good idea (except eggs), since the food would be neither plant nor animal, but some might object because it required an animal to live in captivity.

Protien Powder with artificial sweetener sounds like a winner, could you live off the stuff?

Nuts and berries are not an option.

Originally posted by Dale Sorel:
So I guess this means that nuts, fruits, and berries have no life in them

That's what confuses me about the ethics of not eating animals. Why is eating a plant any better?

[chabig]

Have you heard of "the circle of life"? Everything we eat comes from a living creature, except for minerals but you can't live solely off of them.

Chris

[Oisín]

What chabig said. There is nothing on this planet that doesn't come from, or at some point in the process of making it, require or involve either an animal or a plant.

The closest you could get to something that didn't require either would be pure water. I'm not big on geology or planets-with-water-but-no-plant-or-animal-life-ology (I'm sure there's a fancy word for it), but I think earth and water are pretty much the only things that can exist without an eco-system, because they are the requirements for a basic eco-system, right?

[11011001]

If only Star Trek were real and we all had replicators in our homes.

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by Dale Sorel:
So I guess this means that nuts, fruits, and berries have no life in them

hey man, i'm just the messenger. the thinking, as i understand it, is that the mother plant lives on and therefore no life is lost.

*prepares for abortion flamefest*

[yukon]

There are things you can eat that aren't from plants or animals, but they're technicalities, like bacterial stuff, or fungi (mmm, mushrooms). You can eat dirt and rocks, yum. Difficult to avoid ingesting bacteria since there's bacteria in water and air....dunno if you can live off eating a gazillion inactive viruses, but that's just the protein (which can be synthesized if the above posts are correct). The only real option would be to wait until DNA advances allow us to photosynthesize

Oh, and the twinkies/misc-candy can count, if you count all the extraction and reduction that the ingredients go through to create the candy as "abstracted from the original lifeform" or something, dunno how to phrase that.

[parallax]

Yes, death. That just puts you at a different part of the food cycle, but not necessarily an offensive one (along with fungi and carrion beetles)...

[TubaMuffins]

what about purple? purple's a fruit.
seriously though, salt, thats not a veg or animal by-product. right?

[MountainMac]

Originally posted by TubaMuffins:
what about purple? purple's a fruit.

Beat me to it! Grrrrr

[phoenixboy70]

Originally posted by Dale Sorel:
So I guess this means that nuts, fruits, and berries have no life in them

this might clear up a couple of things.

[DeathToWindows]

think I'll stick to being an omnivore, thanks

Although I could do without some of the amorphous protein objects in the dining hall here... eeu

[mrtew]

Salt, water, dirt, air etc don't count since they aren't foods. All protein powders ect are derived from freshly killed plants and animals or milk; there are no "artificial" proteins. Milk can't be eaten since grass etc had to die for it to be made... you might as well eat grass or any vegatable if you don't value plant life. Bacteria and fungus don't answer the question since their lives are just as valuable as any animal or plant.

The answer is Honey. It is the only food which does not involve killing. (The question is about respecting all life, not about avoiding the use of animals.) The only food bees eat is nectar which helps the flowering plants live, and bees are assisted in living by the beekeeper rather than being killed as most domesticated animals are. Honey is not a complete food, of course but it will get you a lot further than most single foods will. Maple syrup is another possible answer I've thought of, but it's seems a little cruel to bleed the life-fluid out of a tree even if you don't kill it completely.

[Oisín]

Originally posted by mrtew:
The answer is Honey. It is the only food which does not involve killing. (The question is about respecting all life, not about avoiding the use of animals.)

No, the question was about "foods that contain nothing that comes from a living creature or plant". Honey and maple syrup both contain something that comes from plants.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

i was going to say "oral sex with pamela anderson" but she had her boobs reduced right?


haha

[mrtew]

Originally posted by Oisín:
No, the question was about "foods that contain nothing that comes from a living creature or plant". Honey and maple syrup both contain something that comes from plants.

Well then there is no answer, but if you read the explanation in the first post, it seems that he either worded the question wrong or didn't fully understand it himself. He's not the first one to take the concept of vegetarianism down the slippery slope. This question has been asked many times before and generally honey is the only answer given; I didn't think it up myself.

He says in his explanation that, "it would be interesting if there was some sect that respected life so deeply that even plants are unfit for consumption" showing that the real concern is that the food not be the living bodies or fruits of the plants themselves rather than not being any plant product at all; a conclusion further reinforced by the title of the thread itself.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by ringo:
I thought it would be interesting if there was some sect that respected life so deeply that even plants are unfit for consumption.

APU turns serious for a moment:

Who says that to respect life, you have to refrain from ending it? In nature, living and dying is a cycle that balances each other. I would think that if you understand what you are eating and how the former lifeform was harvested you would have a better appreciation/respect for it.

That means not supporting animal/plant abuse. Buying food from known organic growers. Not wasting any food that you do buy.

You can even argue that not consuming organic life is dis-respect toward nature. Rejecting basic laws of survival is ridiculous especially since there are people starving in the world.

[Oisín]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
APU turns serious for a moment:

Who says that to respect life, you have to refrain from ending it? In nature, living and dying is a cycle that balances each other. I would think that if you understand what you are eating and how the former lifeform was harvested you would have a better appreciation/respect for it.

That means not supporting animal/plant abuse. Buying food from known organic growers. Not wasting any food that you do buy.

You can even argue that not consuming organic life is dis-respect toward nature. Rejecting basic laws of survival is ridiculous especially since there are people starving in the world.

[fireside]

Originally posted by phoenixboy70:
this might clear up a couple of things.

This development culminated in the French art of haute cuisine in which smell, taste and richness became the prime attraction.

damn those French!

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by ringo:
Twinkies

Twinkies are out - they have bits of animal in them.

I'll stick with being veggie. The plants don't seem to mind 'coz they don't even try and run off when I kill them

[TheBadgerHunter]

Road kill.

Its not alive, but you don't have to kill it. Purely coincidental that it exists at all, so you aren't "supporting" it or anything.

Just goes to show that tires are the circle of life.

[phoenixboy70]

Originally posted by TheBadgerHunter:
Road kill.

hehehe. very good.