Why go vegetarian - Part II

[vijspganesh]

How eating meat became a global obsession
Most educated people know that eating meat is bad for the planet, potentially harmful to their health and cruel to animals. But the meat eaters I know can rarely come up with a better reason for consuming it than: “I just really love to eat meat.”

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2075985-meathooked-how-eating-meat-became-a-global-obsession/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-hoot

[Dovahkiin]

How eating meat became a global obsession
Most educated people know that eating meat is bad for the planet, potentially harmful to their health and cruel to animals. But the meat eaters I know can rarely come up with a better reason for consuming it than: “I just really love to eat meat.”

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2075985-meathooked-how-eating-meat-became-a-global-obsession/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-hoot

Naah, Meat eating is an essential part of natural order, maintenance of food chain and humans going vegetarians is against nature.

Animals at lower end of food chain has very high reproduction/survival rate, they serve as food source for animals at higher end who are meat eaters and are less in numbers due to limited reproduction/survival. Humans are omnivores Its a scientific fact, deal with it. I eat meat to do my part in natural balance of things.

Vegans are most extremists as far as food habits go. I never seen any non vegetarians posting stuff against veg/vegan people, But can't say the same from Veg and Vegan people. As far as food habits go, Vegans can behave as terrorist.

Eating non veg is a way of maintaining delicate balance on planet. I am happy to be an active part in the process :cool

[boca]

Wasn't aware of this organization called Meatless Monday (http://www.meatlessmonday.com/the-global-movement/)

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/02/25/florida-lawmaker-has-a-cow-over-meatless-mondays-refuses-to-sign-proclamation-309943
[QUOTE]Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams has refused to sign an official proclamation declaring Meatless Mondays in Palm Beach County.

[vijspganesh]

Food waste is already a big problem — but it could get even bigger

According to a new study published in the latest issue of Environmental Science & Technology, the situation is bound to get a lot worse if the rest of the world continues to shift toward a meat-heavy Western diet.


http://grist.org/climate-energy/food-waste-is-already-a-big-problem-but-it-could-get-even-bigger/?utm_content=buffer6f270&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[okonomi]

Food waste is already a big problem ? but it could get even bigger.....
http://grist.org/climate-energy/food-waste-is-already-a-big-problem-but-it-could-get-even-bigger/?utm_content=buffer6f270&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

The following is an excerpt from the linked article...[QUOTE]....So looking forward, the researchers mapped out three potential trajectories for each country that they analyzed. The population?s weight could either remain the same, become more Japan-ish (i.e. thinner), or more U.S.-ish (i.e. heaver). And what they found was that if the world started to look more Japan-ish, global demand could be 0.9 percent less than the amount of food available in 2010. If the world started to look more U.S.-ish, demand could be 73 percent more than the 2010 supply.
Has anyone been looking at the Thread on posh-nosh ? link

The food that is served has a composite cost to the table. Service is usually the highest cost. Nothing to do with whether the plate has meat or not. A man in a tuxedo jacket leads the customer to the table, genuflecting all the way. A waitress opens the lap-napkin (lapkin?) and spreads it on your lap. She may even split the connected chop sticks for you. And there seem to be an invisible level-line on the drink glass that is maintained by this tux-clad feller. One would almost expect a waitress to rush up and wipe the edge of one's mouth when a drop of soup tries to get away.

That said, I'd surely wish a Teppenyaki steak on every human on earth. A good wagyu steak. After that, it won't matter at all if you go to heaven or hell.

[vijspganesh]

Healthy vegetarian diet reduces type 2 diabetes risk substantially

A new study, published this week in PLOS Medicine, shows that a diet low in animal-based foods and high in plant-based foods substantially lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes. They also find that the quality of the plant-based diet plays a significant role.

A diet high in plant-based foods is thought to reduce type 2 diabetes risk thanks to their high levels ofantioxidants, fiber, micronutrients - such as magnesium - and unsaturated fatty acids. The lower levels of saturated fats in plant-based foods might also play a role.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/310953.php?tw

[zen]

1.) Humans are omnivores, Not herbivore. We can eat and digest non veg food like other omnivores. All of our ancestors were non vegetarians in not so distant past. All the fuss about vegetarian eating is not more than few centuries old and vegan eating just decades old. Now I go way back in time, All of our ancestors ate meat during hunter gatherer state of human development. So Humans can eat meat, It's no big deal. In fact humans being vegan is against the nature.

You are correct up to some extent but based on Darvin's theory of evolution, out ancestors being non-vegetarians had to do with their natural circumstances. Darvin found that Africans ate more flesh whereas people living in tropical highly vegetated areas had more vegetarian diet. I'm not quite sure if we can label humans as omnivores completely as the vegetarian diet seems to be definitely much more healthier and suitable for the human body. We we humans have evolved & I think the more debatable question is - can we humans hunt and eat animals raw just like our ancestors did? Is that uncooked food good for the human body? Not to mention, ethics, moral living and improper treatment of animals comes into the picture and contributes more towards people becoming vegetarians.

2.) We are educated people here, We all know about food chain. Animals who are at lower end of food chain serve as foodstuff for animal at higher end. It's nature. These animals @ lower end has very high reproduction/survival rate (So they can serve as endless supply of food) on the contrary animal at top of food chain has low reproduction/survival. It's a chain, its a system. It's been in place for last 600 million years, Since first bacteria started using first pollutant (oxygen) for metabolism and leaned how to go to multi cellular level, Rest is history. 99% of species who lived on this planet, became extinct. Its nature, Destruction leads to creation. If we break down human body composition, You will realize you are nothing but 'A collection of atoms, who knows he's a collection of atoms'. Those atoms of various elements on periodic table, came from different stars (Sun is too small of a star to fuse things beyond helium), those elements came to earth as scattered stardust after death of various massive stars in supernova blasts. It was end of story for those stars But they live inside countless beings on earth, one atom of your body might have come from one star and other from another. You might have made out of stardust of billions of different stars. So don't go all sentimental over petty issues. It's way of nature.

A recent study mentioned that dinosaurs were on their way to extinction way before the big event happened because they started killing each other for food. The nature's food chain argument may not work completely if we have to believe these new findings. Another recent study did say that the world might run out of food if we, humans, do not conserve it and act fast. We are supposed to be the smartest animals on this planet & we cannot stop that from happening either. The food chain is more of a representation concept and has no authority or control over nature's resources nor nature controls it.

4.) Animal proteins are way superior to vegetable proteins. 'A' Class of protein are from meats/eggs/fish etc, 'B' Class of proteins come from milk and dairy products and 'C' class of proteins comes from Soyabean/Pulses etc.

True, but that is not a convincing reason for being a non-vegetarian. Yes, if there was a case that humans need protein and they cannot get it from anywhere other than meat, then I can see your point.

[mn_op]

We we humans have evolved

Humans in general love meat. So apparently we are not as evolved as vegetarians think.

I am prescribed B-12 injections. Although I eat chicken every now and then, B-12 is available in good supply in only red meat. So evolution is far far from complete.

[okonomi]

Humans in general love meat. So apparently we are not as evolved as vegetarians think.
I am prescribed B-12 injections. Although I eat chicken every now and then, B-12 is available in good supply in only red meat. So evolution is far far from complete.

Love for red meat can be expressed with fondles (while preparing the thing), and oral mastication (while eating it).....of a good steak. A good red wine, at the right temperature would add to the red-ness of the scheme of things.

Injection of B-12 is like artificial insemination. Unnatural and completely devoid of pleasure. Sad sad sad.

[mn_op]

Injection of B-12 is like artificial insemination. Unnatural and completely devoid of pleasure. Sad sad sad.

My bum starts hurting just by thinking about this intramuscular injection. Even the nurse who administers it is not pretty. sadness multiplied.