To ask why people are so against giving up meat?

[NewCracker]

Just that really, why are people so against giving up meat?
Without a doubt we know it's better for the environment, we know it's better for our health, we know it's better for animal welfare and it's actually quite expensive. But still as soon as you mention to the greater public about cutting their meat consumption, they get defensive and almost offended.
Would you ever consider giving it up, if you do consume it now? If not, why not?
I'm expecting some hate, this is MN after all, but I am genuinely just curious. Not trying to rattle feathers.

Because it's tasty. I also don't agree that not eating it is better for our health. Not eating processed meat for sure is better for our health, but nothing wrong with unprocessed meat, it's a very good source of protein. I also don't like processed vegan food, all the fake substitutes and I don't believe they're good for either us or the environment. Also humans are omnivores.

Because it's a delicious and I just don't feel a meal without meat is a proper meal, I would like to cut down how much we eat (especially red and processed) but vegetarian meals just don't feel like "proper" meals, they can always be lifted with meat!

@kitsuneghost

🤢

I don't have children or a car. I don't fly anymore. Can't afford meat very often at all. But I'm not giving it up. A steak is a treat, and I enjoy it.

Falafel and hummus
Roast veg and hummus
Tuna if you eat fish
Cream cheese and prawns (or smoked salmon)
Tomato, feta, cucumber and olive
Pesto, avocado, tomato and mozzarella

I realise some of these have cheese in but at least a variety of types?

Ah yes of course. Anecdote over statistics really proves your point. Even if I was the stupidest person on the planet - on average, vegans and vegetarians are brighter/ better educated than meat eaters.

Most of the meals I eat are vegetarian now and I no longer eat Pork, beef or lamb. I find it really frustrating that there is so much fake meat alternative about as it's all horrible and over processed, so I avoid them. But I love a decent vegetarian recipe. My husband prefers mostly vegetarian too but so far our children have not been convinced - their favourite meal is still rare steak, which I do still buy for them (steak night is definitely cheaper now, at least!)

If it helps OP I'm happy to share the reasons it took me 50 years to stop:
Habit and stuck in my ways.
Over inflated importance of the role of enjoying certain foods (Sunday morning has not been ruined without a bacon sandwich after all!)
Old fashioned and uninspired approach to cooking with little knowledge of how to make meat alternatives appealing
Immediate gratification, less bothered about my health, the environment animal welfare than what could be on my plate right now.
Lack of knowledge of the impact. The detailed research that would have swayed me earlier was harder (and upsetting) to read and absorb than the soundbites of the pro meat lobby.
Considerable cognitive dissonance. Actively avoiding thinking where that meat came from.
Only listening to other like minded people.
Didn't know how much my health and appearance would improve as a result, or self interest would have swayed me decades ago.

@Rightnowstraightaway I have texture issues with food.

I (genuinely) would be interested in where you would suggest I get protein from.

I can't eat nuts.

I don't eat dairy.

I can only tolerate small amounts of gluten.

I can't eat hummus or anything similar the texture turns me.

Fwiw I'm the same with many processed meats.

Midgetastic asked for non-meat sandwich suggestions so I offered some. I'm not vegetarian myself, they are just sandwiches I like. I can offer you some meaty sandwich suggestions if you like?! Did you mean to reply to me?

I Bly eat meat a few times a week or when o go out for dinner.

I do not wish to get ve it up because I enjoy it immensely.

I just wondered if you had some suggestions I hadn't thought of is all.

I don't eat such a lot of things and I was honestly just wondering if there was something I could try.

When I was vegetarian I became aenemic. The doctor said heme iron from meat is by far the best kind for the body. However I recognise the environmental impact and only eat meat a couple of times a week. I try to stick to locally sourced humanely reared stuff with red meat rarely, or game. I make stock, etc and waste as little as possible.

I also eat fish a couple of times a week. They are really good for our health.

But mostly meat and fish are delicious. (I really dislike fake meat.)

If we limit them along with our use of airplanes, cars, home heating, new clothing, etc, we are doing what we can. Vegetarians who compensate by overconsuming in other ways are deluding themselves.

I'll never give it up because I am a massive carnivore and I bloody love it. Rare steaks and all.

It wasn’t meant to be a personal attack any more than saying eating vegan is better for the environment and health etc. I see so many bang the drum about veganism flying in multiple overseas holidays every year.

I can’t eat dairy, and dairy substitutes are full of so much crap, most are just stuffed with sugar way over the fair versions. I’ve noticed very major blood sugar spikes with even unflavoured oat milk.

So no, the health benefits are not proven. The dangers of processed meats are proven, but it’s pretty easy to avoid. I’ve never seen as much clamour over rice which can be equally carcinogenic.

Even the environmental benefits i question. Plant crops require regular ploughing (which release a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) uses a lot of peat (an environmental disaster) and regular spraying with insecticides (which frequently end up in the waterways).

Compare to an organic dairy farm - no ploughing, no spraying, the cows recycle carbon dioxide and fertilise the ground themselves. Ok the Methane isn’t great but special diets are being adapted and should be ready for market in the next few years. Not to mention much of the ground in the U.K. used by livestock is unsuitable for arable farming.

Because it’s not better for our health and it certainly not better for the environment.

https://www.sacredcow.info/

I find the iron issue interesting. I’ve been vegetarian since I was 12 and vegan for 6 years. In my vegan years I’ve had two babies and my iron stores were really high - I had a small PPH after each birth and they had to test my iron to see if I needed a transfusion but each time I was fine and home the same day.

I have two meat eater friends currently pregnant both with low iron. So while iron from meat may be more readily absorbed, it doesn’t seem to be the only factor in someone’s iron levels, far from it.

It’s indisputably better for the animals who aren’t subjected to a miserable short life. Some of us are against animal abuse.

Because we are a nation of animal lovers.

Oh wait.

For me there are several reasons I wouldn't even consider giving up or reducing my meat consumption.

1. It's natural and normal for humans to eat meat, we're omnivores.
2. It tastes fantastic, much nicer than meat-free alternatives.
3. Excessive consumption is unhealthy but I'm going to die of something anyway. I don't see any move to ban work, which for me is a bigger health risk than meat eating. Why is it recently retired people usually suddenly look years younger? Because they're not stressed by work anymore.
4. The impact of my meat consumption on the planet is tiny. Me stopping eating meat will make no difference. If everyone else stopped it would make a difference, but in that case everyone else stopping would mean that me continuing would make no difference. So logically there's no benefit to the planet if I stop, regardless of what other people do.

I have ARFID. My diet is already extremely limited. I don’t eat a lot of meat. It’s not a daily thing for me but I do eat it. If I cut out meat…well my already limited diet would be worse.

@Purplefoalfoot quite.
I don't get calling yourself an animal lover/having pets and eating sentient beings because they taste nice....
Hypocrisy

I really can't understand how little people here seem to know about how animals are fed

Saying that growing crops is and and animals are good ignores the fact that you grow so much crops just to feed the animals and you could have less land under agriculture if you didn't eat animals

Eating meat is bad for the environment, it's clearly a message people want to avoid

Red meat isn’t carcinogenic, none of the research separated out whether the meat was fresh or processed, and didn’t factor in other parts of the diet that were being eaten. Highly processed meats such as bacon and sausages, not great for you, but fresh meat is fine.

I remember watching a documentary about the slaughter of elephants in a region of the Sahara, overseen by men with a scientific approach that claimed that desertification was being caused by too many elephants.
Elephants were culled, vegetation disappeared rapidly. Once they realised the whopping mistake they worked to reintroduce elephants and other grazing mammals to the area, which is slowly improving previously green areas.

Humans have this arrogance that we know best, better than the symbiotic relationship between animals and land. If animals aren’t farmed for food they wouldn’t exist, apart from in a very few petting zoos. It’s very naive to assume that they would exist just to look at them and not slaughter them. Landscapes and ecosystems as they are now would not exist, especially in the UK where there are still many farms that use more traditional methods (as opposed to feeding lots in USA and Argentina), and these are generally high welfare, prioritising the health of the animals. Soil quality with no animals would decline even further than it already has, thanks to moving away from animal fertiliser and moving onto intense arable systems. There would also be the issue of disposing of the huge amounts of waste products from all the crops once processed. Currently it’s all consumed by animals in one way or another. They eat it, or they sleep on it and poo on it and it’s put back on the land.

Of course there are abusive outliers in farms, but assuming that all farmers are abusive is the same as assuming all parents are abusive because of a handful of high profile abuse cases.
On the whole farmed animals for meat in the UK have good lives.

The problem is industrialised farming, for meat (in US) and arable (worldwide).
If the whole world went vegan there would be an ecological catastrophe and we’d be fast tracked to extinction.

I don't get calling yourself an animal lover/having pets and eating sentient beings because they taste nice....
Hypocrisy

What are cats supposed to eat?