You can perfectly live on eating meat once or twice a week. Especially if your job isn’t that physically demanding. You reduce meat consumption to 1/7 if you do so. If most of us did that a lot of problems would be moot.
You have multiple subsets of population that may find it more difficult to quit meat than the others.
For women (especially pregnant), meat is a source of Iron.
For people with adhd, there is a correlation with meat eating (and we can assume causation as well, since adhd is genetic). Meat is a source of vitamins that have been proven to help with adhd symptoms, and of course protein which helps with brain functioning in those cases.
Personally, I don’t do much sport, but I get occasional cravings so high that I could kill anyone who would want to prevent me from eating meat. Trying to figure out what is responsible, and which supplements can help, but still haven’t figured out.
With all the sympathy for animal suffering (my gf is a vegan fighter), just because you and some other people have it easy to quit meat doesn’t mean that it’s easy for all the rest.
I also think all the talk of missing protein, iron, and vitamins is significantly overblown. Every blood panel I've ever had has been normal with iron on the high end and I can maintain an active lifestyle quite easily.
Yeah but... so what? What's the point in only pursuing easy goals? Do you think we should have cancelled the Apollo program just because it wasn't easy? Abandoning meat will be another milestone for mankind - even if it's just for our own long-term survival on this planet.
> I get occasional cravings so high that I could kill anyone who would want to prevent me from eating meat.
lightbulb moment
I would love to cut down on meat consumption for ethics/sustainability/health, but it's almost like my body knows it runs better on it. I get extra cranky, foggy, and tired if I don't have a pretty dense protein meal early in the day, ideally red meat. Can't do legumes due to allergies. Even like whey protein isn't the same as meat.
My iron levels are fine. Maybe it's one of the amino-adjacent compounds, like creatine?
Imagination is a powerful thing. You're just used to it.
And again, it’s not about dropping meat right now, it’s about seeing if you can cut down. Even eating it one day less makes an impact.
Just try it is what I am saying. See if there is something in your culinary palette that fills the appetite (and has no biological negative net effects)
but it wouldn't produce as much pleasure as eating meat every day. I dont think depending on people to be altruistic (and give up what pleasure they can get) is a good way forward.
_"Meat is delicious"_ is a mindset. _"It's not a full meal unless there's meat"_ is an arguably marketing-induced mindset.
If by marketing you mean centuries of behaviour, then ok. Certainly in my region of the world the basic diet has always been meat focused.
exactly. You can do it. But based on empirical observation of what is happening in the world, there are more people who choose to eat meat rather than the existing substitutes.