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What kind of diet should a werewolf have in human form?

Omnivore pls.

A werewolf could eat anything it's human side could. I don't see any reason why it couldn't

A werewolf has all the tools of a carnivore, but assuming they spend very little time in that form, their diet shouldn't change much. The only real factor would be the werewolf's self-image: though nothing in their diet changes biologically, they may come to start thinking of themselves as carnivores and add more protein to their usual diet. Not necessarily a change in the way they prefer their meat -- just more of it.

In the stories I'm writing, Were's have some odd dietary restrictions-courtesy of their Caind genetics.
1. They love raw meat, but will eat it cooked unless it's well-done (no food value, then). They also can eat dog food and find many grades quite palatable (sense of smell =90% sense of taste). Eggs and cheeses are quite enjoyable as well.
2. They can eat grains, so long as they aren't reduced to flour. Flour constipates them. Cornbread is just about right for them. It's partially digestable, and has fiber.
3. Some veggies and herbs are ok, others aren't. Onions and Garlic are bad news, ditto tomatoes: makes them sick or gassy; and gas is bad news, since their guts don't expand like human guts do. Likewise Beans are verboten, for the same reason. Some herbs and veggies are poisonous to Canines-while Were's won't die, they may wish they had.
4. They need 40-50% more calories than humans do-in either form-to stay healthy, and they need almost twice as much water as well. They are high-energy burners.

I've used common references for this as to what Dogs aren't supposed to eat. Garlic can kill a dog due to anemia. Chocolate is poison. Flour will bind up a dog's insides like mad, while corn meal is digested.

Certain things are speculation, but if a Were' is immune to most poisons, it's most likely due to their gut simply not absorbing them, and that would make for a semi-rigid intestinal wall; hence gas is a real agonizer.
The basic thing I did was to take all the things that Canines and Humans can eat in common, then find the reason that Canines can't eat those things, too. Mostly, it's because the stuff becomes poisonous in the process of digestion, or gums up the works.
Yeah, a Were' "in Smooth" can eat anything a non-were' can, just in very small amounts...or it's Tums time (with simethicone).
In my stories, one of the things that doesn't shift is their digestive tract. Why should it? It can't be seen, and it's better at feeding the Were' left unchanged.

I think it would all deppend on the individual, some maybe strict carnivores while others could be vegitarians

Personally I think a werewolf would have a balanced diet, with the exception of loading up on meat. The reason they would need the meat would to to build their muscles as they transform...or so I think anyway.

Wolves are classified as carnivores, but they and other canines do suppliment with raw vegitables. Dogs will eat grass and can digest most things that humans eat, with a few exceptions. (Chocolate is toxic, etc., blah blah blah...) Humans are omnivores, but we're healthiest on diets that favor predominately vegetables with small amounts of meat.

Note that these facts ignore modern food processing, from the development of bread products and baking during the early days of human civilization through to the contemporary making of greasy fried foods and excesses of salt and sugar that are causing heart disease and diabetes. And, I'm intentionally avoiding discussion of vegitarianism and the politics surrounding it--and would urge any followup posts here to do likewise, except as neccessary to discuss the topic at hand.

That said, I would expect a hybrid of human and wolf to live off of both meat and vegitables, and to be healthiest eating both. It would be hard to be full-blown vegitarian, though with a great deal of effort and finding the right proteins, one might be able to pull it off, provided one could get past hunting instincts.

I could easily see werewolf culture endorsing raw meat, perhaps as a counter-culture to human ways--"we're werewolves, not humans; this is what we eat." Humans actually can eat raw meat; we've just unlearned doing so a few millennia back to reduce incidence of parasites. It got worked into our social mores and customs, though occasionally loopholes like sushi and sashimi open the door for socially acceptable raw meat.

Scott Gardener wrote:Wolves are classified as carnivores, but they and other canines do suppliment with raw vegitables. Dogs will eat grass and can digest most things that humans eat, with a few exceptions. (Chocolate is toxic, etc., blah blah blah...) Humans are omnivores, but we're healthiest on diets that favor predominately vegetables with small amounts of meat.

Note that these facts ignore modern food processing, from the development of bread products and baking during the early days of human civilization through to the contemporary making of greasy fried foods and excesses of salt and sugar that are causing heart disease and diabetes. And, I'm intentionally avoiding discussion of vegitarianism and the politics surrounding it--and would urge any followup posts here to do likewise, except as neccessary to discuss the topic at hand.

That said, I would expect a hybrid of human and wolf to live off of both meat and vegitables, and to be healthiest eating both. It would be hard to be full-blown vegitarian, though with a great deal of effort and finding the right proteins, one might be able to pull it off, provided one could get past hunting instincts.

I could easily see werewolf culture endorsing raw meat, perhaps as a counter-culture to human ways--"we're werewolves, not humans; this is what we eat." Humans actually can eat raw meat; we've just unlearned doing so a few millennia back to reduce incidence of parasites. It got worked into our social mores and customs, though occasionally loopholes like sushi and sashimi open the door for socially acceptable raw meat.

well chocolate isn't that good for humans neither, or atleast it does do well for me except ice cream and I think I could handle living among werewolves since I actually prefer meat, I eat chicken instead of cake for my birthday

Scott Gardener wrote:It got worked into our social mores and customs, though occasionally loopholes like sushi and sashimi open the door for socially acceptable raw meat.

But... The japanese cook all their meats...

I would think omnivorous in human form, but in gestalt or wolf form mostly carnivorous. Of course wolves love the occasional pumpkin or watermellon. ^^

kitetsu wrote:

Scott Gardener wrote:It got worked into our social mores and customs, though occasionally loopholes like sushi and sashimi open the door for socially acceptable raw meat.

But... The japanese cook all their meats...

techniquelly from a biological stand point fish and other sea creatures are still "meat". but in a cooking sense they are not.

"its like the tomato bit, in biology is a fruit, but in cooking its counted as a vegetable".

Its raw fish they eat in some dishes, which from an animal/natural standpoint still counts as raw meat. Although this might be more appealing in the Japanese cooking here for a were-cat/cat-person than a werewolf which derives from a wolf which is prone to consuming dark meat.

I like sushi and chicken

<b><u>NOT</b></u> vegetarian.

I'm sorry, but a vegetarian werewolf is just stupid. Wolves in the wild eat grass but it's to cleanse their stomachs of parasites and they chuck it back up after a few minutes, they don't digest and subsist on it. Even Bill, the newslady's husband in <i>The Howling</i>, left his vegetarianism in the dust after he got bitten. There's a good reason it's counted as a 3-point Flaw in the revised Children of Gaia tribebook.

"You're a vegetarian. You eat only plant matter, you never eat meat (except in life-or-death situations). Other werewolves make fun of you and in extreme cases you'll have a hard time gaining Renown."

Now, if you were a weregoat or weredeer or werebull, I could understand it. But no vegetarian werewolves!!

Swiftpaw Fatfox wrote:well chocolate isn't that good for humans neither

Where'd you get that from

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants — more than blueberries — and one bar will give you 4% of your RDA of iron. Doctors actually tell you to eat an ounce or two every day, for exactly that reason.

vrikasatma wrote:

Swiftpaw Fatfox wrote:well chocolate isn't that good for humans neither

Where'd you get that from

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants — more than blueberries — and one bar will give you 4% of your RDA of iron. Doctors actually tell you to eat an ounce or two every day, for exactly that reason.

Well then I'm the weird one, becouse my body can't handle to much chocloate except in ice cream form

Swiftpaw Fatfox wrote:

vrikasatma wrote:

Swiftpaw Fatfox wrote:well chocolate isn't that good for humans neither

Where'd you get that from

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants — more than blueberries — and one bar will give you 4% of your RDA of iron. Doctors actually tell you to eat an ounce or two every day, for exactly that reason.

Well then I'm the weird one, becouse my body can't handle to much chocloate except in ice cream form

It's probably the processed junk that's in the chocolate...preservatives suck

RedEye wrote:I've used common references for this as to what Dogs aren't supposed to eat. Garlic can kill a dog due to anemia. Chocolate is poison. Flour will bind up a dog's insides like mad, while corn meal is digested.

One thing I didn't realise until today (and then just because it's on the front page of the local paper: someone is mourning their lost dog) is that anything grape-related is also bad news for canines. (A dalmatian got into a packet of sultanas. Cue acute renal failure).

This could of course indicate consequences should a werewolf indulge in a little wine before shifting...

Midnight wrote: This could of course indicate consequences should a werewolf indulge in a little wine before shifting...

hehe


I would think they would have to develope a taste for meat, since wolves eat meat. But they would still eat like humans do. So I go with omnivor I think. Im not too sure actuall XD

I think in human form, omnivorious. In wolf or werewolf form, have carnivorious/omnivorious tendancies; after all wolves aren't restricted to just meat.

Both omnivore(with the exception of a few junk foods) and carnivore in both forms ( werewolf/human).

What kind of diet should a werewolf have in human form?

Cheese.

Xiroteus wrote:

What kind of diet should a werewolf have in human form?

Cheese.

*Cue Cheese Man music* D:

<Prof. Farnsworth> Good news, everyone!

Poking this dead thread to say that while I was on my usual habit of free research, I came across this highly amusing snippet about animal consumption of chocolate:

Chocolate is a food product with appeal not only to the human population, but to many different animals as well. However, chocolate and cocoa contain a high level of xanthines, specifically theobromine and to a much lesser extent caffeine, that are detrimental to the health of many animals, including dogs and cats. While these compounds have desirable effects in humans, they cannot be efficiently metabolized in many animals and can lead to cardiac and nervous system problems, and if consumed in high quantities, even lead to death. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, some cocoa derivatives with a low concentration of xanthines have been designed by specialized industry to be suitable for pet consumption, enabling the pet food industry to offer animal-safe chocolate and cocoa flavored products.[19][20] It results in products with a high concentration of fiber and proteins, while maintaining low concentrations of sugar and other carbohydrates, thus enabling it to be used to create healthy functional cocoa pet products.

This may mean the one thing that chocolate-allergic werewolves dying for a bar of Snickers would want to hear. It's too bad the breakthrough had to come so bloody late.

I'll eat Veggies, but ofcourse I LOVE meat....