Does being a cannibal affect your health?

Answer 1

one may contract some rare diseases which can only be transfered by cannibalism but other than that there are no major health issues. bear in mind that cannibalism is one of the strongest taboo's in society and breaking it, even when one had to in order to survive, often causes serious mental problems.

Answer 2

Depends what you mean by "healthy".

Cannibalism is very rare in modern times, and is near-universally condemned for being inhuman and is therefore probably illegal no matter where you are. There were societies that practiced cannibalism as a regular social practice, but that's now mostly eradicated. Cannibalism can occur during extreme situations where the only other option is starvation, it's debatable whether or not you'd call this "healthy". Another instance of cannibalism is in cases of insanity, often tied in with serial killers and other types of people that you could definitely say were not mentally healthy.

If by "healthy" you mean nutritionally healthy, er, I suppose human meat contains just the same about of nutrients as any other meat - protein, iron. There would be nothing special about eating a human, and nothing any more nutritional about it than eating beef or anything else, although it's kind of a creepy topic.

Since I'm not really sure what you mean, I'll just go right ahead and say "no", cannibalism isn't a healthy thing someone should be engaging in. Cannibalism, or any urges to eat another person, are definite signs of serious underlying mental instability.

It should also be noted that eating your own species has a special disease related to it known generally as Mad Cow Disease or spongiform encephalopathy. This disease was first noted among cannibals in Africa but the biological science was not available at the time to tell why. Since the outbreak of BSE in England, the link (Prion or Prions) was established to cannibalism.

Answer 3

Why cannibalism is bad:

If it involves murder, that is bad in itself.

If it involves someone who died of disease, their germs, viruses, prions, parasites, etc., are specifically geared to infecting humans. There is a good chance you would catch something.

If the person was healthy and died from an accident, you could still catch a disease from them, one that was 'lying low' in their system.

Mostly, it is socially damaging to a group of people if they view each other as potential food. Such societies don't tend to last or flourish.

However:

Although it will probably cause social and psychological damage to the surviving individuals, the strong taboo against cannibalism can be overcome in extreme cases, where slow starvation is the only alternative.

Even in modern times, during wars, famines, and for stranded accident victims, cannibalism has made it possible for some to stay alive.

Some say, if it does not include murder, there is really no reason for everyone to starve, since a dead body is of no use to its former owner.

Nevertheless, most people find it impossible to take that step and would rather accept 'a clean death'.

Answer 4

Absolutely. An ultimately fatal disease called Kuru can be contracted by eating human brains. Do not do so.

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Only in the way that if you want to eat human meat, you must eat fruits and veggies, too. Since humans are omnivores, they have to eat things that will give them all the nutrients that they need.

Answer 5

unhealthy? i shouldn't think so, eating the right parts of a human probly would get you the propper vitamins needed. unhealthy? probly not, CREEPY? ABSOLUTELY!

Answer 6

yes, it could, it is also illegal to eat humans in most parts of the world.