Not sure eating meat/animal foods anymore

[enzyme]

Not sure what led me to it but I've been asking myself lately if I'm actually cool with eating meat.  I can recall a conversation I had with my dad (tl:dr he's a conspiracy nut who's emotionally charged, not a skeptic, just doesn't want people to think he's stupid so he parrots a bunch of righty nonsense to try and look intelligent).  He'd happily eat chicken and fish but not cow or pig.  When I asked him why, he claimed he believed chicken and fish are exclusive for human consumption and that their purpose is to "serve our hunger".  Pretty classist if you ask me but I guess I'm getting sidetracked.

 

If you asked me why I eat meat, I would only say that I think all animals have some sort of soul and emotion, so it's like... what can you do?  At least until recently - I've been watching videos like the one linked above and I have to admit I didn't picture the slaughter being this fucked up.

Milk and eggs apparently aren't as innocent as I thought either - calves are separated from their mothers after birth to further produce milk and they often get shackled and infected as a result, and free-range doesn't mean chickens are roaming free like I thought.  Most of them are stuck in a cramped barn for most of the day.  Plus the male chicks getting culled - I wasn't aware of this until today but apparently it's common knowledge.

These images are definitely something I'm bearing in mind whenever I eat meat now, although I'm not sure if I can commit to going completely vegan either.  I did try it one time years ago but only lasted a couple of weeks.  I'd get migraines that were horrible and felt pretty low energy and lethargic 90% of the time.  Although maybe I went about it the wrong way.

Have any of you experienced this as well?  Any of you eat some sort of plant based diet or had thoughts about doing so?

[Yimpa]

I stopped eating meat a couple months ago simply because I got tired of eating it every day. Life’s too short to be doing the same thing over and over again. 

[sholomar]

I don't believe in absolutes. Longevity research has led me to the conclusion that total exclusion of meat and dairy is detrimental.

A person could probably be totally vegan and only eat eggs (and their yolks) and be perfectly fine. I hard boil them using an egg cooker and then slice them up with an egg slicer.  The choline and B Vitamins are basically taken care of by eating eggs and their yolks. You can eat 3 eggs per day, everything else being vegan, and it will solve almost all the problems with being vegan.

My favorite thing to do is make egg salads out of them with frozen peas, pickle relish, cream of mushroom soup, mayo, italian seasoning, mustard, and potassium salt or 50/50 salt. You need to get "certified humane" (not American humane certified) eggs or buy from a local who raises hens.

https://www.consumerreports.org/food-labels/seals-and-claims

Greek Yogurt is a complete protein that complements a vegan diet well also.

Edited January 10, 2024 by sholomar

[LSD-Rumi]

I think reducing our consumption of meat is the way forward. If we decrease our obsession with meat and animal products, we could raise animals in respectful living conditions.

Our very high consumption of animal products with the desire to keep them at low prices, pushed for highly unethical and inhuman living conditions for animals.

 

[LfcCharlie4]

I realized this at 15 and was vegan for 8 years

I wish I could've stayed Vegan but I honestly felt shit, struggled to train properly, couldn't work 8-10 hours / day like I need to and energy / digestion got really bad. 

Since eating animal products (albeit 100% clean, organic, grass fed, i know most cannot do this) I feel literally 10x better, train 6x / week, play sport most days and can work non stop. Energy / Digestion is amazing 

It was tough, but I realized I can't live like I was for another 50-60 years low energy and struggling to achieve my potential. Now I feel like I'll make 5 years of progress in 1 year

[Rigel]

You could hunt it yourself. It's gonna be way more expensive for way less meat and way more time, but you are going to respect & appreciate it a lot. It's also going to be leagues healthier than anything you could buy.

[Emissary]

I rarely eat meat anymore since my first experiences with psychedelics, buying much less of it and other unhealthy foods such as sweets, etc, my current consumption is probably less than a third of what it used to be, not entirely sure how that happened but I just found myself unconsciously shifting to a healthier lifestyle, don't think it was for any morality reasons though. I've been aware of these slaughterhouse documentaries for ages as part of my gore exploration phase. Even before then I instinctively avoided all pork, the Muslims ain't wrong about it being the dirtiest, and watching these videos confirmed it, as bad as poultry and beef are, pig slaughterhouses are the most unsanitary of the bunch by a mile.

[Schizophonia]

9 minutes ago, Emissary said:

I rarely eat meat anymore since my first experiences with psychedelics, buying much less of it and other unhealthy foods such as sweets, etc, my current consumption is probably less than a third of what it used to be, not entirely sure how that happened but I just found myself unconsciously shifting to a healthier lifestyle, don't think it was for any morality reasons though. I've been aware of these slaughterhouse documentaries for ages as part of my gore exploration phase. Even before then I instinctively avoided all pork, the Muslims ain't wrong about it being the dirtiest, and watching these videos confirmed it, as bad as poultry and beef are, pig slaughterhouses are the most unsanitary of the bunch by a mile.

Pig is one of the cleanest animals in existence and is no problem if you cook it.