Why do people eat meat?!

I think its is because people enjoy the taste. Its gluttony and people only care about whats in front of them. All the "dirty" parts of the meat industry are kept away from consumers eyes. Consumers just see colorful packages and since it tastes good they dont care whats really going on, they just care about yummy food on their plate. So i also think its a combo of ignorance too.

As alex said, we are all omnivores and while the way we treat animals is terrible, it is natural and healthy for us to eat them. You may choose to be vegetarian and I totally respect that but you must respect other people's choices not to be.
Some people must become veggies for health reasons, and some must remain meat eaters for the same reason. That's life.

You ask me to limit my answer, but it does taste good. I feel though, your question is formulated in such a way that the animal is just a means to an end. This could be no further from the truth. While I sympathize and detest how our meat is currently processed, I know how good it can be and am no less carnivore. Respect is paramount.

People eat meat, because they *choose* to eat meat, just as I *choose* not to eat meat. It's that simple..

Vegetarian since birth

Meat tastes ******* delicious, so that's why I eat it.

Why should I have to "justify" or "challenge" jack **** to you or anyone else?

We are omnivores. Meat is good for us for a typical simple diet.

i think its good for health.

In an evolutionary sense, we human beings fall into the category of animal called an omnivore. An omnivore is half-predator and half-prey. We exhibit traits of both in the same entity. Herbivores like ruminants, i.e., cows, are huge plant eaters. And their digestive system is terribly inefficient at extracting nutrients, which makes the physical quantity of food they must eat each just to stay alive is literally all they do, search for and eat plants. Meat is a solution to the nutrients problem faced by herbivores. Pound for pound, meat provides huge amounts of proteins as compared to plants. If you are going to spend time eating, you might as well eat whatever gives you the most calories over the shortest time. After all, when you are eating, you are mostly defenseless. Predators are just an animal who has taken the hunt to the extreme and mostly only eats meat. You imply that meat eating by omnivores and predators is a matter of conscious choice, by YOU making YOUR choice to NOT eat meat, when in fact we are all siply driven by evolution. Even your vegan diet is harmful to some people just as you say meat is harmful to some people. However, you and religion have a LOT in common, you preach. You can't help yourself, you put down people who choose to eat meat just as religion puts down and condemns people who do not have their brand of faith. As with religion's claim that there is a god, your claims of meat being harmful are not based in fact. If anything, you have anecdotal hearsay "evidence" equivalent to religion's scripture. You SAY, "our bodies don't need it" and to some extent you are correct, but only because as an omnivore we CAN exist without meat for periods of time, or without vegetables for that matter, but I fail to see any proof that you speak truth. HOW do YOU know we don't need meat, is my question. The environmental consequences are not relevant to the evolutionary consequences. You SAY that meat is bad for my body and obviously bad for animals, but exactly HOW is it that you know this? You say that all vegetable diets are good for you, and that may be so, but if YOU eat all vegetable matter, you turn your digestive system into the equivalent of a methane factory just as ruminants are today, contributing YOUR greenhouse gasses toe ht environment just as ruminants do. Methane is amopng the WORST of ALL the greenhouse gasses, about 5 times worse than CO2! So, if you claim environmental impact from meat, I also claim environmental impact in equal amounts from YOU and your methane production joining with all of the other animals out there, including the ones I EAT. As an omnivore, a balanced diet is the goal, getting the most energy from a modest endeavor. An omnivore is a balancing act between the pure predator that ONLY eats high calorie items to fuel the hunt with the least quantity, to the pure herbivore who simply grazes and needs no high energy because there is no furious expenditure of energy as there is in being a predator. As with religion with which you can do as you please, so goes food to eat as I please. I do not have to listen to the drivel spouted by the preachers of religion, nor do I have to listen to your drivel trying to connect environmental impact with my diet trying to make me feel guilty for balancing my diet between all sources of food that I can eat to survive. I don't have to listen to YOU preach either. You say to "justify your actions with a serious response". OK, you first. Show me the science behind your claims that makes your case in court. _I_ claim I eat a balanced diet exactly as omnivores in the wild DO. Science backs me with research which is how we determined there even was such a thing as an omnivore, herbivore and predator. Humans are very similar to black bears in fact, regarding diet. Black ears mostly exist on fruits, berries and other plants with the occasional foray into predator mode for other animals. However, some bears are pure predators like lions and some bears (like you) are pure herbivores, like sheep. I eat meat because it is my evolutionary destiny to do so; it is my evolutionary nature and there is scientific evidence to back me on this. There is no such evolutionary imperative at work for your choice to go to an extreme and making a choice to act like a herbivore in spite of your evolutionary nature. At least I have seen no equivalent scientific evidence to support YOUR choice to go native as a herbivore. For me, education means science to provide facts to support theory. Science does experiments that yield results, results that can be repeated by anyone so you too, can see the evidence for yourself instead of having to put your faith into someone else who has no more credibility than you do.

I really believe its mostly becuz they were brought up eating meat and nothing made them not want to stop but some people don't like meat much as children and becoming vegetarian is more natural for people who never cared much for it to begin with: I also believe it would be too difficult to be vegetarian if u are a child becuz your family feeds you and if you go against family then they can be terribly hard to deal with . I have read this ..which causes more global warming? Transportation or meat? Answer:meat. And which prevents more global warming ? Driving a proud or adopting a vegetarian diet ? I think u know the answer . (got the info from mercy for animals) people that eat meat are not sensitive to animals being killed or they would try to stop . They eat meat becuz they like the flavor of barbeque sauce., they are used to eating meat , they never had any experiences that made them want to stop: some people stop eating meat for health reasons but then they give up and eat meat again

I'm vegetarian for 12 yrs except I ate alot of fish part of the time from 2008 to 2010. And I ate bacon in 2010. I don't know I acquired a taste but I think I'll go back to being vegetarian again

I am also vegetarian...
I dislike meat...i think it is disgusting..
-Cows:Born and raised just to be slaughtered they are torchered, people just watch them fall off the back of the truck...
Us humans get our protein from eating other organisms...but I get it from...well eating! XD
If you watch a video such as I did...you would cry people! It's sad watching these animals die...i know that yes god put animals on Earth for us to eat them...but not to torcher them...I guess this didnt help but dammit people...there is no point at ******** killing them that way...they do not have to let a cow break its back legs....or break all it's legs...>:o yes they are already dead...but hmm maybe this might work XD if more people stop eating meat...they will have left over...and they wouldnt have to kill so many animals...>_<
XD The Meat is bad and good for you... yes it is good if you eat it properly...but the cheeseburgers from McDonalds is not a healthy way to eat meat...McDonalds is all bad for you...ALL! Burger King is too...Fast food restraunts have too much grease in their food...its disgusting...Now if you eat it like real farmers and such...they eat hamburgers without so much grease...they even put lettuce and tomatos... ;D they try to make it healthy for them...>_<
O_O this didnt help lmfao >_< but oh well ;D

You do know that practically everything you've listed is wrong? If you're so ignorant of these facts, why should anyone listen to you about anything else?

1. Humans evolved eating meat. That's a biological, scientific fact. Scientist say when our ancient ancestors started eating meat our stomachs got smaller and our brains got bigger. You would not be able to CHOOSE to be a veg*n today if your ancient ancestors had not started eating meat. Meat is very good for the body.

2. It's not a myth that you need meat to get your vitamins. Humans need vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is NOT available in ANY plant food. Yes, you can take pills, get shots, or eat highly processed foods and get B12 but our ancient ancestors didn't have a Walgreens on the corner where they could buy their dietary supplements.

From VEGAN Dr. Jack Norris at the link:

"The overwhelming consensus in the mainstream nutrition community, as well as among vegan health professionals, is that plant foods do not provide vitamin B12, and fortified foods or supplements are necessary for the optimal health of vegans, and even vegetarians in many cases."

http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/vita…

3. The United Nations has admitted their environmental study condemning animal agriculture is wrong. From the link:

"The UN has admitted a report linking livestock to global warming exaggerated the impact of eating meat on climate change."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environ…

3. Protein from meat is complete protein. Protein from most veggies is not. Protein is made up of amino acids. Your body must combine the proteins from the different veggies you eat every day to make the complete protein your body needs. If you don't eat veggies containing all the needed amino acids, you won't get enough protein. So which is easier on the body? BTW, your body does not store protein.

4. I personally agree about people being uneducated about their food. But it's the veg*ns who don't have a clue. You are a shining example. You're wrong about protein, you're wrong about the UN report, you're wrong about B12.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond and make the points that you don't know what you're talking about.

People eat meat because that is how they were raised and because it is supposedly good for you. I am not saying it isn't. I wouldn't know. But I want to say I can't eat meat. Once I accidentally took a bite of beef and swallowed. I had the worst stomach ache you could ever imagine after that even with just one bite. Meat is not needed I agree, but it won't change the fact it's going to be eaten. Not all meat is bad, but with the mass production of it, it tends to get polluted and some people are stupid and don't know how to cook it properly.

Vegetarian all my life

I asked this a while ago to meat-eaters


So basically they said
-its yummy
-its natural (which nobody answered my point as to why natural necessarily equates necessary/healthier*)
-some metabolisms need it (I've researched this and asked several doctors and my nutritionist cousin about it and they all said its bs; humans aren't so metabolically different that one can need meat and one can't)
-they grew up eating it
annddd I got called biased and grumpy for trying to get why people make the choices they do. people are so lovely.

*I think flexitarian/vegetarian diets are pretty much equal nutrition-wise, though

Obviously, I, a vegan, am not going to have any idea, but I hope the link helps :)
And you'll probably get more responses in anotehr section, cuz its mostly vegheads in here.

why should we feelthe need to "justify" anything to you or anyone else? do we ask you to justify yourself because you DONT eat meat? or for any of your other choices in life? my family and i eat meat because it does contain the vitimins we need, and we love it.point blank. and those ARE legitimate reasons.its how we choose to live our lives. i dont hardly buy the "fact" that eating a cheese burger is like driving around in a hummer for 2 hours, thats a load of crap. so, when we butchered our beef this summer we may as well have driven that hummer for a year huh? right....if youre going to try to prove a point, you really should use realistic data.

way to help your cause herbert. perverted lusts? im sorry, i dont now what you do with your animals, but no one was talking about perversion or lust.

Honestly, it does taste GOOD.
>meat is bad for your body
Not when eaten correctly and not excessively.
Look, meat tastes really good to most people and they are raised to eat it. Some people say that God put animals on the planet for us to eat. Some people say "well, it's dead already so I might as well eat it".
I was raised eating meat and I like it. You're basically asking the same thing as "Why don't some people recycle?" They don't recycle because they weren't raised that way or don't care about the environment.

Before you give me an unnecessary thumbs down, I'm currently a vegetarian and can easily survive without eating meat. I'm just giving the facts. People eat it because it tastes good to them!

People eat it because it food. And yes guess what? It does taste GOOD. More pollution than all the world travel combined? That is completely false, you must be reading vegan propaganda. And you say meat is bad for people? That is only your opinion. I believe fresh lean meat is healthy. I am very educated, and I still eat meat. Selfish? Humans are omnivores, our bodies are designed to eat meat. Animals eating animals is natural, Its how nature works. And guess what? We are also animals. I believe eating meat is as natural as breathing air.

There are many people that have to eat meat or die. They don't have money or fully stocked grocery stores. They have to eat whatever they can find just to survive. Tell some people in a village in Africa that hasn't eaten For three days that they shouldn't eat meat when they get a chance.

Eating ONE cheese burger is the same as driving around in a HUMMER FOR 2 HOURS! Its ridiculous. Yes it is ridiculous, that statement is ridiculous. Did that one come off of the PETA web site?

You say you want an educated response, but your question or rant wasn't educated at all. It was full of false statements from a closed minded person.

Logic, Nature

People eat meat because, REGARDLESS OF YOUR MYTH-DRIVEN "EDUCATION", it IS a biologically available source of complete proteins and vitamins like B12 and iron.
Today you get those things as pills and "supplements".
1000 years ago those things didn't exist.
It was eat meat AND plants, or die of malnutrition.
As time passed, human society incorporated the "habits" of killing livestock for meat in order to remain strong and healthy. Food animals have to be bred in bulk because PEOPLE REFUSE TO STOP BREEDING, even when they have 8 kids already!!!
The world population far exceeded the planet's equilibrium constants at least 500 years ago. This planet can't feed 7 Billion people, and no matter what happens, that fact will not change.
This is why people in Africa and 3rd world countries will continue to starve to death forever, because they are living somewhere that can't support thier existence and never will.

ROFL. You say it's "a HUGE myth that you can only get your needed vitamins from meat, or even that its the easiest way" and "Our bodies don't need it"...
GET OVER YOURSELF.
Believe PETA much? Ever take a biology class, or chemistry?
Obviously NOT, because if you had you'd know this PETA HALLUCINATION is just that. A LIE intended to convince the WEAK MINDED like you. Just like all their "educational videos" are FAKE PROPAGANDA.
No one with 1/2 a brain believes that twaddle, nor should they.
Vegetables have protein, yes, but they are not COMPLETE PROTEINS -- they have to be combined with other specific veggies in order to make protien A and protein B meet and combine for use. Otherwise, the vegetarian is NOT getting the requisite nutrition, no matter how many veggies he eats, because the right proteins aren't combining in the right way.
Nutrition is all chemistry and biology.
Regarding the "don't use tastes good as an arguement" thing, TASTE is a subjective thing. Every person decides for themselves what tastes good or doesn't, and research has actually found that certain "tastes" are biologically predetermined, like salty or sweet! So you don't have the right to say anything about what tastes good, because what you like and what everyone else likes are 2 different things.

Eating 1 cheeseburger is equal to driving a Hummer for 2 hours?? SO WHAT? That's like saying a bunch of cells in a woman's womb is a human life. Wrong, and irrelevant to the issues at hand.
Besides, I couldn't care less. Personally I don't believe in global warming, and even if it's true, I still don't care, because I will be long gone by the time anything permanent happens.
Personally I'm hoping for SOYLENT GREEN.
If you've never heard of it, just shows how young and ignorent you are. I drive an SUV, and am NEVER going to change. I have occasion to need a vehicle capable of driving up 6-10% grades (over the mountains where I live), and have occasion to do it towing a trailer. Hybrids can't tow. Period. It destroys their transmission.
I'm a single person. I'm not about to have 2 vehicles - 1 for around town and 1 for towing!!
That's ABSURD!

LOL??? BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?
How can animals living on the planet be bad for the environment?
Enlighten us O Ye Who Knows So Much!!!
If you are talking about "greenhouse gases" like methane and carbon dioxide, those don't ONLY come from farm animals... They come from HUMANS too. And what animal group has the most numbers on the planet???
I'll give you a hint. There's about 7 BILLION of them, and they live almost 100 years EACH.
Not so with most other animals -- they live a decade or two, tops, in the wild, and maybe 6 years in captivity. On farms, maybe 3 years!
So who's stinking up the planet with methane? HUMANS.
Who's breathing continually makes CO2 that can no longer be absorbed by the carbon sinks of the planet because HUMANS are affecting them, removing trees and not replanting, overfishing, transporting food over land, polluting the water making it undrinkable/toxic, etc etc etc etc???
HUMANS.

TRY GETTING AN EDUCATION BEFORE YOU SPEAK.
You'll look like less of a fool next time.

Aced organic chemistry, Microbiology, and Anatomy; in BIOCHEMISTRY now, on the way to a Pharmacist doctorate.

You won't get a strong arguement based around facts or science. Vegetarian tops there, however when it relates to the ethics (Which is why many are vegetarians) there are some interesting arguements i've had on the philosophy section.
Out of about 10 answers roughly 8 will be easily disproven by applying the same logic to human life or cannibilism (ie an answer may be ''we are evolved to eat meat'' the simple evolution also allows us to consume human meat though not advised for health reasons, so by this logic eating human meat will also be justified) etc etc.
You can post there in the philosophy section under ethics, just make sure its labelled correctly & well argued in a structured text like my answer for easy-reading.

**cant seem to find a link of when i posted there in my answers i will get back to you with it if i do



The second link Carson i had a debate for roughly a week via email with him, my counter-arguements wouldnt post on Yahoo answers in additional details (some bug was stopping it). We came to an end of a dialogue with understanding of each others points & how to alter our lifestyles, in my case to be truer with my ethics & actions & to him too in relation to meat-eating.

vegetarian

Wow you can see how uninformed the meat heads are. They do so like to mistake their thoughts for facts!

The statement about meat producing more pollution than all the worlds travel is from the IPCC 4th report into climate change, but it was referring only to greenhouse gas emissions. Oh and methane is not produced by human vegetarians in any greater quantity than meat heads, ruminants expel large amounts of methane due to symbiotic bacteria in their gut.

So you can see, even the meat heads who claim to be informed are desperately uninformed. I guess it's a question of searching only for confirming evidence rather than looking at the whole picture. And selfishness is most certainly a major factor in the decision to continue to eat meat when we know that there are way too many people on our planet to do it without causing serious harm to biodiversity...

vegan biologist

Sorry to "insult" you..but meat tastes good in my opinion. That is truly a big factor. I believe I am naturally an omnivore. I have grown up eating meat, and it was accepted by my family, friends and society as not bad. Good and bad are all opinions. Ive also tried vegetarian for a couple of weeks, and let me tell you...I felt like complete crap! What works for you, might not work for another.

I personally do not like animal abuse, but I don't think it is abuse to quickly kill another creature that is not of my own species for food, to nourish my body.

Whether we "need" meat or not is not the point. It does contain many wonderful nutrients. It is not unhealthy if eaten in moderation.

You go on about how your insulted by truthful answers we omnivore/meat eaters give you, yet you sit here and insult us saying we are not educated? If anything you are making the vegetarian/vegan community look bad. You wont get more bee's with vinegar.

The way you went about asking this is rude. Its one thing to be really curious..but its a whole other bag of bones to sit there and be rude, acting like you are above anyone who is different from you.

well it is 99% taste but in a religious sense god basically said that he put animals here for us to eat and not eating them is like doubting in faith. plus our ancestors ate meat.

Because they are savage barbarians who think only of themselves and their perverted lusts

"Kim<3" you need to stop misinforming people. Meat is generally BAD for you. Sure, it has nutrients which we can absorb but the host of saturated fats, cholesterol and sodium that usually comes with processed meat is BAD for humans. It sits in our colons and putrifies because our bodies aren't designed to handle the amount of meat that most people eat today. That is not good for you.

People eat meat because they don't know anything else. They're brought up thinking that it's perfectly normal because it just magically appears on a supermarket shelf, therefore it's natural. That or they genuinely like the taste of meat (although most meat today is seasoned/marinated to the point where you can barely taste the original product) so does that mean they like meat or the texture/sauce? You tell me.

And, if we are omnivorous (as a vegetarian I still think it's a debatable subject) it is such a small percentage of a diet. Look at chimpanzees. Yes, they have been known to eat meat in the wild (they've also been known to kill and rape each other an commit infanticide) but if you want to quote our closest living relative and "science", then you can quote that at most, at ABSOLUTE MOST, their diets are 90-91% plants/termites and 8-9% meat. There is your overwhelming "omnivorism."

Honestly though, it's a timeless question and a question that will never go away because meat consumption will always exist.