Could you give up Meat?

Good point Lexi.

Hell to the NO

Could have, did, and didn't really miss it.

I have given up meat several times, for long stretches and commonly eat Vegan. (I have several vegan friends who don't cook, and swear my house has the best vegan food in town.) The concern, which maybe I missed in the great number of posts, is keeping up your nutritional needs while doing so. It can be done, but requires careful monitoring of your intake and exercise to make sure you're feeding your body - especially if you lift, do marathons, etc.

I stopped being a vegetarian because my Doctor continued to express concerns about my iron levels, and even through non-animal means I was not able to get it back into a happy place even with supplements. (It's something I struggle WITH meat in my diet.)

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Assuming it was actually for health reasons, yes. Meat (while I only eat fish and chicken) is not important enough to come between living and becoming extremely unhealthy, or dying.

I did go entirely vegetarian for a few months many years ago, and it wasn't miserable. I just missed fish, and eventually chicken.

Just because I didn't kill and slaughter it myself doesn't make me undeserving of it's consumption LOL I'm not detached and neither are my kids. They know what they're eating and they've been known to ask "what did this used to be?" at the dinner table. I'm not ashamed of being an omnivore and I see no reason to hide what we're eating from children. We are eating an animal that someone killed on our behalf, it's not *that* scary. Most cavewomen probably didn't take down their own bison.

Why do you deserve it?

Do you lie awake at night wondering the same about nonhuman omnivores?

I prefer to believe my meat was picked from a tree.

Never, never ever.
Meat is like my diet. haha

I wish I could but no.

Just because I didn't kill and slaughter it myself doesn't make me undeserving of it's consumption LOL I'm not detached and neither are my kids. They know what they're eating and they've been known to ask "what did this used to be?" at the dinner table. I'm not ashamed of being an omnivore and I see no reason to hide what we're eating from children. We are eating an animal that someone killed on our behalf, it's not *that* scary. Most cavewomen probably didn't take down their own bison.

Why do you deserve it?

Do you lie awake at night wondering the same about nonhuman omnivores?

No, unlike some, I have a life...

That involves parading a vegan lifestyle on the internetz. Personally, I love the thrill of the kill. I couldn't give that up.

I am a vegetarian now and have been for several years, and I think it would be doable to cut out the dairy as well if I were to choose to do so.

In short, yes.

Just because I didn't kill and slaughter it myself doesn't make me undeserving of it's consumption LOL I'm not detached and neither are my kids. They know what they're eating and they've been known to ask "what did this used to be?" at the dinner table. I'm not ashamed of being an omnivore and I see no reason to hide what we're eating from children. We are eating an animal that someone killed on our behalf, it's not *that* scary. Most cavewomen probably didn't take down their own bison.

Why do you deserve it?

Because SOMEONE killed it and I"m an omnivore. YOU are the anomaly. Human beings are omnivores. If for philosophical reasons you choose to be a vegan, that's none of my business but you were born to eat meat.

Wait? You want me to give up my meat? Umm...NO! I LOVE my fish. I love my meat and frankly I need it.

Sorry...I'll add fruit and veggies to my diet but I won't give up my protein.

I'll keep that in mind when the world goes dark and the only source of food you could get would be fish, deer, and the like.

Here is a question..Can you fish?

Just because I didn't kill and slaughter it myself doesn't make me undeserving of it's consumption LOL I'm not detached and neither are my kids. They know what they're eating and they've been known to ask "what did this used to be?" at the dinner table. I'm not ashamed of being an omnivore and I see no reason to hide what we're eating from children. We are eating an animal that someone killed on our behalf, it's not *that* scary. Most cavewomen probably didn't take down their own bison.

Why do you deserve it?

Because SOMEONE killed it and I"m an omnivore. YOU are the anomaly. Human beings are omnivores. If for philosophical reasons you choose to be a vegan, that's none of my business but you were born to eat meat.

I disagree with you 100%
In my humble opinion, there's absolutely no need to eat meat, however, each to their own. Arguing with strangers on the Internet is pretty pointless...you put whatever you like inside your body and I shall do the same.

I disagree with you 100%
In my humble opinion, there's absolutely no need to eat meat, however, each to their own. Arguing with strangers on the Internet is pretty pointless...you put whatever you like inside your body and I shall do the same.

Humans *are* omnivores, this is nothing to do with choice, this is form and function. We're built to eat meat, veggies, and scavenge what else we can.

We lack acid levels of true carnivores, but we're far more acidic than herbivores, we lack the extra digestive organs and extra intestinal length of herbivores, without the additional meat in our evolutionary tract we would have never developed the large brains we have today.

As cognitive beings with a wide range of access to a wide variety of food sources, we can *CHOOSE* to eat meat and it isn't a burden on us these days to do so, but that doesn't change what we, as a species, are built to eat.

Just remember, any problem facing humanity that can be solved by being vegan can also be solved by being a cannibal.

Edit: For what it's worth, I grew up on a cattle farm (beef, not dairy). I hunted, fished, and trapped animals for eating purposes. I have butchered and eaten just about every animal, fish, and bird that runs, swims, and flies and can be eaten in this part of the world ~personally~ at some point or another (and some insects.) We are part of the natural world and being part of it means being part of the natural cycle of things of things means honoring them not setting yourself apart from it entirely and denying our place in it outright. Purchasing meat or vegetables is largely no different than scavenging and something most omnivores do. Very few people vegan or otherwise are responsible for the entirety of their food sources these days. You can choose to do those things and there is nothing wrong with that, but that is strictly a choice you're making for yourself for your own reasons and it is no more ethically or morally superior to anyone's alternative choice.

I disagree with you 100%
In my humble opinion, there's absolutely no need to eat meat, however, each to their own. Arguing with strangers on the Internet is pretty pointless...you put whatever you like inside your body and I shall do the same.

Humans *are* omnivores, this is nothing to do with choice, this is form and function. We're built to eat meat, veggies, and scavenge what else we can.

We lack acid levels of true carnivores, but we're far more acidic than herbivores, we lack the extra digestive organs and extra intestinal length of herbivores, without the additional meat in our evolutionary tract we would have never developed the large brains we have today.

As cognitive beings with a wide range of access to a wide variety of food sources, we can *CHOOSE* to eat meat and it isn't a burden on us these days to do so, but that doesn't change what we, as a species, are built to eat.

Just remember, any problem facing humanity that can be solved by being vegan can also be solved by being a cannibal.

I have absolutely no issue with people that eat meat, but it depends on where they are getting the meat from.
The commercial factory farming of animals is ****ing up the planet, unregulated, corrupt and incredibly cruel.
I just wish that the eaters of commercially factory farmed produce would take a moment to understand what is happening and perhaps make a more informed choice regarding the origin of their food.