Okay, so most of us agree that it's incredibly stupid when a story depicts the ponies as being disturbed, or even frightened, by a human's carnivorous needs.

But, why do I never see someone complain when a human just takes on an Equestiran diet, with no consequences?

It's a fact of our biology: humans need the nutrients found commonly in meat. In this day and age, it is possible for a human to get by with a solely vegetarian diet.

Possible, so long as the subject has access to these things:

1) Life in an industrialized society.

Humans can only survive without meat, when they have unrestricted access to the foods they need. Most non-industrialized countries don't have access to the food or supplements needed for a diet that is completely devoid of meat. Most industrialized countries have the privilege of being able to import any kind of food from anywhere in the world, for relatively small amounts of money. As well as, being able to grow almost any kind of food in their country, for relatively small amounts of money, thanks to modern farming technologies.

Now, tell me, does the Equestria that most people portray in their fics really have the ability to do that?

2) Access to dietary supplements.

Granted, most portrayals of Equestria in fanfiction have at least a basic grasp of chemistry. But most don't have the advanced kind of chemistry that the modern world has.

Most portrayals of Equestria would never be able to tell exactly what chemicals are needed for a human to remain healthy, let alone create chemical supplements to fill the voids in a meatless diet.

3) Intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the human digestive system.

Vegans and Vegetarians who don't know exactly what kind of chemicals their bodies need to function healthily, need doctors who do. Malnutrition is incredibly easy to get, when you don't consume the vital nutrients that meat so readily provides.

Most humans who end up in Equestria have eaten meat their entire lives, but they can easily take on a nutritional system designed for ponies, and suffer no consequences.

Not only do they not suffer from muscle atrophy, or iron deficiency, (to name just two nutritional deficiencies that vegetarianism can cause) they often come out later, and say that they are in the best shape of their lives.

So, what would really happen if a human completely ditched meat, and took up the ponies' daily diet?

Well, we know from the show, that ponies consume very large amounts of pastries, and sweets. This could cause diabetes and tooth decay, if a human were to eat the way a pony eats without careful regulation.

We also know that ponies require much more sodium than humans do, so any non-pastry food is liable to contain large amounts of salt. If a human were to conform to pony diets, dangerously high sodium intake could cause heart problems.

We also know that ponies eat mostly grasses, grains, and vegetables. This would mean that ponies would require their food to be prepared with higher amounts of oils and fats than with humans, to maintain healthy fat levels. If a human were to consume this food, they would run the risk of high cholesterol, and... well, that wouldn't really change for anyone who lives in a first world country.

Put it all together, and you get a human who has low muscle mass, nutritional deficiencies, and yet, has diabetes, poor dental health, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity.

A far shot from "In the best shape of my life", don't you agree?

TL;DR:
Just let the man have his meat.

Scary thought: a fair majority of the world is vegetarian, but not out of religious or ethical reason, but because they can't afford meat.

How many people know that though? I didna know.

1504373
Define 'fair majority'.

Yes, Finally someone posts something about this, I've always wondered how the body would fair but I usually just focused on the protean part figuring perhaps the Human could eat alot of eggs and nuts but after awhile eating eggs would start getting distasteful.

Honestly I don't care if it talks or it is slightly sapient IM KILLING IT AND EATING IT!

1504379 I can't remember where I heard the source, some magazine I think, so don't take my word for granted.

In retrospect, I don't think it said "majority". A large fraction perhaps.

yeah makes sense
also meat is friggin tasty

1504358 now I don't want to got Equestria.

*edit* plus meat is the shit

1504378

It's simple logic.

Livestock requires a lot of food, time, and land to bring about any benefit, so meat is expensive in any country. Now factor in the fact many people in the world live in poverty. The poor have little money, and vegetables/grains/ anything is cheaper than meat. Only a socialist can conceive of a poor person having easy access to a 3rd world luxury such as meat. Sad little fact many people in industrialized countries never have cause to think about.

1504373 1504450
Not completely vegetarian, they probably eat the recommended amount of meat, to be honest.

Humans need meat, but not a lot of it. They can't afford to buy meat on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean that they never eat meat, ever.

1504459 Yeah, you can supplement a vegetarian diet with insects, which about two billion people are fond of.

Rice and caterpillars do wonders for your stamina I guess.

1504378
That's one of my points. Most people don't know exactly what goes into vegetarianism, so most people would suffer from malnutrition, because they don't know what vitamins and minerals to replace the meat with.

Where is the idiot that disagrees stupidly? There is always one. I demand to see him!

1504358 Seems legit

Also, notice how this is for fanfiction purposes, which we really wouldn't care for in reality.

1504358

why do I never see someone complain when a human just takes on an Equestiran diet, with no consequences?

I don't think that ever happens...

Ponies eat grass, flowers and presumably a bunch of other stuff that is inedible. Now, a lot of authors just ignore the issue, a few others mention humans buying diverse types of vegetables and making their own food(I think one story has Twilight ordering vegies from canterlot).

But the overall presumption is that they are not eating quite the same food the ponies are.

we know from the show, that ponies consume very large amounts of pastries, and sweets.

I think that's more of a Pinkie Pie thing. Besides we most commonly see ponies eating in celebrations. People eat more candy in celebrations than they do in everyday life

1504500
1) Humans can eat a lot of flowers, and there are some flowers that equines cannot eat.
2) Take out the hay and grass. My point is still solid.
3) You show me a scene from the show that features food, that is not mostly made up of pastries. Or something that a human can't eat.

But, why do I never see someone complain when a human just takes on an Equestiran diet, with no consequences?
It's a fact of our biology: humans need the nutrients found commonly in meat.

I have. Plenty of times.
And thank you!!!!! Now whenever I see that trope being used I will link them to this.

1504528
2) I can't take them out. Presumably they are a pretty large part of pony diet. Ergo, a human in Equestria is necessarily not eating the same thing the ponies are.

3) The breakfeast scene between Rarity and Sweetie Belle. Which incidentally is probably the only scene involving food that isn't some form of social gathering or party or celebration.

1504601
I think it's a bit of a stretch to call any of that "food".

But, really, I can't tell what half of that mess was supposed to be, besides the stuff they specifically mentioned.

1504450 If it were simple logic, then I would've known it. I didn't know that I actually needed meat to live healthy, vegetarians and America make an addled mind, and if it were simple logic, then more people would put in their bloody HiE stories.
Saying that, it makes it sound like you're talking crap about my favorite stories.

1504618
No, not that one. The one Rarity made after that.

1504639
I see. Well, I did ask you to show me one, which you have.

It still doesn't change my original point, though.

1504358
Meat is not murder...
Murder is murder...

The same goes for stem cell research in unborn fetuses...

1504789
Yes.

From the frontward facing eyes of the ponies, they are likely predators. Combined with the greatly increased nutritional requirements due to having to generate magic, I'd guess that ponies are just as omnivorous as we are.
Note that even real life ponies have hypocarnivore tendancies, and will eat meat with no or few ill effects if they can get it.
That being said, i'd give a baseline estimate of ponies needing at least 4x our daily caloric intake, which explains all the sugary treats, because:
Our brains use ~480 Calories per day, with magic they would use far more, and for pegasi ponies like rainbow dash, inckuding air resistance the cost to just get up to cloud cover would be in excess of 500 Calories (I did the math somewhere else) to mention nothing of the energy needed to fly around, and we haven't seen or heard of pegasi needing different amounts of food from earth ponies or unicorns.

1504789
Sure meat is murder... delicious, delicious, murder... oh, don't mind me, I'm just using these stem cells, that you incorrectly believe to come from unborn fetuses, to further science, and to help the incalculable number of lives that can benefit from Stem cell research, and usage. I don't have to worry about the misguided moral implications behind this, because I am not weak due to a lack protein, which can be linked to the lack of meat products, in my diet .

1504358

Now, tell me, does the Equestria that most people portray in their fics really have the ability to do that?

Equestria as commonly protrayed in fics? No.

Equestria as it actually exists in the show? Quite possibly.

People seem to underestimate just how much advanced technology the ponies have -- a great many of the things we've seen on the show were invented in the 19th century, and at least one (Tank's helicopter) wasn't successfully built until the 20th.

That, however, is probably a topic for a different thread.

1505039
Even the creators admit that the technology in the show is not indicative of their true levels of technology.

In the same season, we went from a train that had to be pulled by a team of stallions, to a train that moved itself. Before that, trains didn't even exist.

1504358 God-like post

1504358

This is why in any fic where a human is stuck in Equestria, I rather think that Celestia and the ponies would try to work themselves to accept the fact that a human would eat meat. Either going out and getting fish, or allow him to hunt for food. I actually be really happy to see the mane 6 realize their mistake once their guest starts having adverse effects. Fluttershy would probably be the first to notice the dangers of the lack of meat in an ample human diet.

Whether you need meat or not, ponies are usually portrayed as herbivores, and it's reasonable to assume a peaceful herbivore society wouldn't take kindly to carnivores eating meat. Not to mention ponies are prey animals, so there's the typical uneasiness around predators.

I don't want to toss it all under the 'because magic' umbrella, but that is a possibility as well. As far as iron deficiency goes, there's spinach for that. Muscle atrophy? Eat more proteins and fats. Nuts are great for that, and we know ponies have butter and probably cheese as well, so fats will be readily available..

Most importantly, your argument operates under the assumption that the Equestrian counterparts of the vegetables we know have identical nutritional value. Who's to say Equestrian bananas don't have the nutritional content of one of our multivitamins.

What if....... Magic.
Though i really would like to see a fic where the human doesnt give damn about the ponies and just eats meat (perfeable in a Thor like manner with the griffons) like a bawsss

1505533

I'd have to be pretty damned desperate to eat a pile of bugs.

Long, long before that I'd have tried to work out some way of making one of those apparently non-sentient pigs on Applejack's farm "disappear".

1504358

As you said, you need an industrialized society to survive. Assuming the human can live in Canterlot of some other major city that has a lot of commerce going on, they can survive without mammalian flesh (Mmm, tasty flesh). That said, (wiki-link)vegetarianism would preclude that too so humans can get away with a semi-vegetarian diet without the ponies freaking out.

So it's possible to survive but trying to do so in Ponyville will be a challenge. You'll most certainly need care packages sent in from Canterlot to get those uncommon (or rare) produce items. Not to mention the cost involved would be well above anything a handypony- er, human could ever generate.

And even if you could make a pig occasionally vanish from AJ's farm with nopony flipping out, I still have to wonder what other "gotcha"s are lurking in the background. I'm pretty sure hay isn't lethal to humans so getting it ground (processed) into the food won't be so bad. Flowers on the other hand, well, I have no idea what is exactly ok, not good, or downright toxic to us versus equines. I'll assume the daisy sandwich Twilight is so fond of, while edible, would not be as tasty to us.

I believe the true danger here is when you have an alien (human), you have no idea what their dietary needs are. The human could die in a year or two and no one, especially the human, would realize that it was a lack of B12 because no one is a doctor of humans.

Well the fact that we need meat is true, and showing carnivorous needs in front of ponies WOULD kinda tick them off or scare them, but if some humans who were to be sent to their world...wouldn't they try to adjust a little to the ponys' standards o.o?

I think someone would probably have a hard time explaining how they could be able to eat meat in front of said ponies of Equestria! It'd probably make a great Dark or Comedy story!

Humans have a very robust dietary system, able to cope with having lots of cuts to what was once a balanced diet that included meat. Sure, psychologically the supposed traveller would want to eat what they have always eaten, but it would take a long time before they would suffer any ill effects from the modified diet. To say nothing of the protein found in quite a large number of beans which would be plentiful in Equestria.

Or to make this even shorter, the traveler could always eat dog food.

1506388

Adapt? As in survive? Well, sure, but you'll be miserable, hungry, and suffering from deficiencies which will most assuredly shorten your life. Going back to the topic, humans trying to live in Ponyville will not have their dietary requirements met without a lot of support that's never addressed in the fiction here.

1504383 i find it funny that comment doesn't have a single dislike
do you?

1504358 I AM THAT MAN WHO WILL ARGUE SOME USELESS POINT ABOUT HOW WRONG YOU ARE IN A COMPLETLY IRRITATING WAY

we survive without meat cause magic!

So instead of living to 90 on a normal first world diet they will live to around 60 years. While any shortening of lifespan could be seen as bad it is not going to do any appreciable short term damage to our supposed traveller. At most he would suffer a few bellyaches as he adapts to the hogher stach foods that Equestrians eat, being Ponies.

1504788
- In ticket master Twilight eats a daffodil sandwich, and Spike eats hay fries (another instance of a pony meal that isn't a social occasion). Additionally daffodils are poisonousness (although they are supposed to be poisonousness to equines as well indicating that daffodils from equestria could also be consumed by humans), and hay fries are almost certainly inedible.

- Also in Ticket master, we see Angel mix up a salad for Twilight to eat

- Hospital food on Read it and Weep

It's like I'm telling you, they don't eat any more candy than we do, it's just most meals we have seen are celebrations of some kind and as such, naturally include more candy and pastries.

It still doesn't change my original point, though.

I guess it all comes down to on how much part of pony diet is made of inedible things like grass and hay. This is unfortunately the sort of detail the show provides little insight on. My point however, relates largely to your assumption (that I believe is false) that ponies eat lots of candy and pastries:

Your insights on pony diet are almost entirely based on what they eat at parties and social gatherings, and is therefore wrong, because ponies, like humans, eat differently in such occasions. I think it's a fair bet their actual diet is a lot more dependant in hay and grass, and things like daffodil sandwiches, that may be edible but don't exactly make a proper human meal.

Therefore we should assume that pony diet is more than unsuitable, it is in fact so different, that any human in Equestria is necessarily eating differently.

1505222
I would like to throw the bovine excrement flag on this. Griffons are carnivores and the ponies don't seem to have a problem with them.

It's one thing to eat non-sapient animals, it's a whole another ballgame to eat something that is begging you not to eat it.

1505533
UN urges people to eat insects to fight world hunger

I'm reasonably certain that not eating insects is a Western thing and it's actually the norm around the world.

1507196

Griffons are carnivores

We don't know that for a fact, we assume that is the case because that is how they are portrait in mythology, but I don't think most mythological accounts of Dragons portrait them as eating gems (though I wouldn't be surprised if a few did).

1504358
More or less the human would die within an couple of months!

1504450
It's not quite as simple as that. You can't assume that land used as pasture can also be used to raise crops to feed people. In many parts of the world (deserts, for example), humans simply cannot survive on the range of plants that can grow, so they raise animals that can survive in those environments (goats are actually quite good for this) and then eat those animals instead.

1504847
Forward-facing eyes is another thing many authors happily overlook. Having both eyes in front leaves more room in the skull for a big brain. (possibly a requirement for sapience?) That then raises the question of what evolutionary pressures caused that change. Did they need eyes in front to help catch prey? Did they need bigger brains to avoid accidentally killing themselves with magic? Think of the world building possibilities here.

1507215

Its the beak. Curved downwards is pretty much an indicator that they eat meat.

Plus, I think its not only that its meat they eat. Headcanon has them eating a wide range of foods, but prefer their meats on the raw side.

1507378
The thing is the vast majority of the meat we eat, doesn't come from cattle that eats grass, it comes from cattle that is fed ration.

And ration is largely made by plants that have the same basic requirements as the ones we eat, and are grown in the same fields.

[There is also the issue that a lot of land used to grow grass and other low energy crops could be used to grow human appropriate crops]

The example you brought up is fair, but it represents a vast minority.

1507455
I wasn't referring to just here in the US. Much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South/Central America raise goats for the exact reasons I mentioned.

The example you brought up represents a vast minority.

This is flat out wrong.

From Wikipedia:

As of 2010 goat is the most widely consumed red meat, eaten by more than 70% of the world's population.[2] It is a staple of Africa, Asia and South/Central America...

Edit: Link added

1504358
The food we eat today is so mass produced it has less than one tenth the nutrients it's supposed to have. I imagine the food Equestria has to be FAR more nutritious and tasty than ours. Coupled with the fact that dietary supplements are advocated by the pharmaceutical companies and individual farming is often considered beneath the modern man, and you get a formula that requires all the so-called "necessary" pollutants that inhabit our bodies today.

1507455
However, meat is far more energy dense than most plants, and unless ponies feel like eating 8+ meals a dayjust to satisfy their nutritional requirements, they'd prefer to eat more energy dense food so they can fit more in their stomachs. Sugary treats would be a part of this, but you (unfortunately) can't get all your nutrients from cupcakes.