Are there any good arguments PRO eating meat at all?

[squigaletta]

i am hoping to move to africa in a year so i am hoping to be one of them. I will post back with info of how easy I am finding it. From what I have researched so far meat is a huge luxury there and my biggest obstacle is likely to be having meat offered to me as a kind gesture. I am not sure how I will deal with that. In this country it is so easy to turn down food but I'm not sure how easy it will be when food is more scarce.

[fftradio]

The only justifications for eating animal products are pleasure, habit, culture and convenience. Not very good justifications in my opinion

[gogs67]

Even if there were excellent reasons for eating animal products, they would only support eating animal products in moderation. No healthy diet should include animal products at every single meal. A more healthy approach to eating animal products would effectively be something like 80-90% vegan and 10-20% nonvegan. Instead, many omnis eat a diet that's closer to 50/50, which is incredibly unhealthy.

Many of these same omnis who claim health reasons for eating animal products won't even eat a single 100% vegan meal without being pressured to do so. They are so super-dependent on animal products, they act just like smokers or alcoholics who are addicted to a substance.

Very good post.

Eating meat, whilst it may be very bad for the poor animal concerned, is not necessarily bad for the eater!

If done in moderation then, aside from the ethical problem, the only loser is the poor animal!

I look at my father who's 73, still works manually outdoors, and has eaten a portion of meat, a glass of milk and loads of vegetables every day of his life.
His father was 84 when he died and his father before him was well into his 80's.
They all worked outdoors all their days and ate a balanced omni diet. The only thing they would have eaten in excess is vegetables as meat, although eaten daily, was not plentiful!
The physical activity and fresh air would def have contributed to their long lives as well obviously, probably more so than the diet, but it shows that it's not meat and dairy that's the killer (to the human), it's the amount consumed.

[sandra]

My parents and grandparents were the same Gogs, they all lived well into their 80's. They were also heavy smokers! It's difficult to know what factors contribute to a long life and what factors don't...............maybe our parents would have lived to 100 if they hadn't eaten meat (or smoked).........who knows?

I do know though that my mum's bowel cancer was caused by eating meat...........at least that's what the doctor said.

[MikeO]

An excerpt from a discussion with my nephew on vegetarianism:

Him: There's a reason 'meat' rhymes with 'great'.
Me: It doesn't.
Him: Oh yeah.

[Gattona]

An excerpt from a discussion with my nephew on vegetarianism:

Him: There's a reason 'meat' rhymes with 'great'.
Me: It doesn't.
Him: Oh yeah.

Brilliant

[hamster]

To play devil's advocate. I can tell you as someone with a degree in anthropology that EVERY primate in nature eats meat to some extent. Some like chimpanzees will actively hunt at times. Others will occasionally scavenge from carcases. But from a purely "natural" point of view, at some point every primate consumes some animal product. That would suggest at the least that perhaps at some point in our evolutionary history, this behavior might have been advantageous.

If it continues to be necessary or is moral is a completely different argument IMO.

[Korn]

To play devil's advocate. I can tell you as someone with a degree in anthropology that EVERY primate in nature eats meat to some extent.

I doubt you'll find anyone who sees this as a 'devil's advocat' kind of action here.
As far as I know, I don't think anyone (here or elsewhere) holds the idea that one species should follow the diet of another one. Humans are in many ways very different from eg. chimpanzees, and I've actually tried to see if I can find a reason to what what they do - but haven't found any. ;-)

[hamster]

Absolutely, as humans we have a capacity to create... and destroy much greater than any other animal on earth. I guess with great power comes great responsibility.