How long has a vegetarian diet been around for?

And know any famous vegetarians?

Im doing an essay about it an any further information is also appreciated.How long has a vegetarian diet been around for?
John A. McDougall, M.D., perhaps the most knowledgable expert on the relationship between diet and disease, asserts that our early ancestors from at least four million years ago followed diets almost exclusively of plant foods. Many other scientists believe that early humans were largely vegetarian. (See articles by Grande %26amp; Leckie and Derek Wall.) Then there's the newest research:



Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., professor anthropology in Arts %26amp; Sciences, spoke at a press briefing, "Early Humans on the Menu," during the American Association for the Advancement of the Science's Annual Meeting....

...[E]arly man was not an aggressive killer, Sussman argues. He poses a new theory, based on the fossil record and living primate species, that primates have been prey for millions of years, a fact that greatly influenced the evolution of early man.



"Our intelligence, cooperation and many other features we have as modern humans developed from our attempts to out-smart the predator," says Sussman....



The idea of "Man the Hunter" is the generally accepted paradigm of human evolution, says Sussman, "It developed from a basic Judeo-Christian ideology of man being inherently evil, aggressive and a natural killer. In fact, when you really examine the fossil and living non-human primate evidence, that is just not the case."



Sussman's research is based on studying the fossil evidence dating back nearly seven million years. "Most theories on Man the Hunter fail to incorporate this key fossil evidence," Sussman says. "We wanted evidence, not just theory. We thoroughly examined literature available on the skulls, bones, footprints and on environmental evidence, both of our hominid ancestors and the predators that coexisted with them." ...



But what Sussman and Hart discovered is that Australopithecus afarensis was not dentally pre-adapted to eat meat. "It didn't have the sharp shearing blades necessary to retain and cut such foods," Sussman says. "These early humans simply couldn't eat meat. If they couldn't eat meat, why would they hunt?"



It was not possible for early humans to consume a large amount of meat until fire was controlled and cooking was possible. Sussman points out that the first tools didn't appear until two million years ago. And there wasn't good evidence of fire until after 800,000 years ago.
At least about 5 or 6 hundred years before Christ, and probably a great deal longer than that.



Hindus, Jains and Buddhists in India wrote about the idea of Ahimsa or "non-violence." As someone else wrote, there was also the pre-Christian Greek Philosopher/Scientist Pythagoras who recommended a non-meat diet.



Famous vegetarians: Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Paul McCartney, Isaac Singer, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Schweitzer, Pamela Anderson.



Famous people who were at least rumored to be vegetarian are Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Leo Tolstoy, Leonardo DaVinci, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Moby, Boy George, Bob Goldthwait, George Harrison, Richard Wagner. The two most unpopular in this category would be Adolph Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini.How long has a vegetarian diet been around for?
Ancient Greek civilizations practiced a vegetarian diet. One of the earliest practitioners was Pythagoras, whose theorem regarding right triangles has doubtless driven generations of teenagers crazy in algebra class. In fact, before the term "vegetarian" was coined in 1847--and it was taken from the Latin "vegetus", which means vigorous, wholesome--those who ate a meatless diet were referred to as Pythagoreans.



There are plenty of famous vegetarians, which you can find by doing a Wiki or Google search or by going on several vegetarian websites. There are even vegan athletes, which you can find by Googling "vegan athlete".
wikipedia,the free online encyclopedia has information on vegetarianism at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetariani鈥?/a> and on veganism at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism



vegetarian times is one of the best established vegetarian magazines with recipes plus additional information at http://www.vegetariantimes.com



happycow has recipes,information on vegetarian restaurants,vegan restaurants and health food stores plus additional information at http://www.happycow.net



try the internet with the phrases "famous vegetarians" and "famous vegans".good luck.How long has a vegetarian diet been around for?
The earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant number of people concern ancient India and the ancient Greek civilization in southern Italy and in Greece.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_鈥?/a>



Here is a list of vegetarians by country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_veg鈥?/a>



Hope this helps.
At Creation -

King James Bible - Genesis 1:29

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.



And if you believe we descended form monkeys, chimps are 99% vegetarian.



Famous Vegetarians

http://www.happycow.net/famous_vegetaria鈥?/a>
vegetation diets have been around forever however their not healthy as they boast them to be.. as human's body's are meant to digest flesh too not just plants therefore their not a good nutrition diet over-all

and their's a bunch of vegetarian celebrities apparently..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_veg鈥?/a> take a look at them