Should We Be Carnivores?

Why is it that most vegans are liberal? I think it's because liberals are typically the ones looking forward. I consider myself very progressive. I think the most important question people should ask themselves is what they can do to further the development of the species. However, it's important to not act like we are further along than we really are. If you want to actually identify solutions, you can't look at problems through an overly idealist lens. I think that's what vegans, and liberals do too much.

I will say that I am a bit under-researched to have a firm opinion on this matter so I will do my best to stick to the first principles I am more confident about. I don't feel like looking up facts either so this may come off as a bit abstract at times to avoid inaccuracy.

As you may already know, the meat industry is horrible for the environment. I really think that corn is super interesting (if I make a post I will link it here). It is a plant, but I see it as more of a chemical. We use it to make a bunch of different foods, but we also predominantly feed chickens and cows with it. Animals are not machines, so the process of turning the corn they eat into meat for our consumption, is very inefficient. Not only do we have to take care of all of the animal waste, but we could also make much better use of the land that is occupied to farm the corn. This reliance on corn to fuel the meat industry is truly crushing to the environment.

Cows are supposed to eat grass, not corn, so they typically live extremely unhealthy lifestyles before we eat them. It should come to no surprise then, that eating these unhealthy animals is detrimental to our own health. I would venture a guess that a major percentage of the meat that makes up the typical American diet is from animals that were raised without proper health and humanity. The downsides that have been associated with a carnivorous diet, are really due to the consumption of meat-like products and not real meat.

When I say 'meat-like products' I am not referring to things like Beyond burgers or other plant-based meat substitutes. Though there is an argument that these substitutes are better overall, I would hesitate to say we've even come close to a viable replacement. Though the ingredients are considered "plant-based" the level of processing and refinement it takes to make these elements resemble something else entirely, doesn't make much sense to me. The creation of a substitute doesn't seem necessary to me in the first place.

As I said, I would totally stay away from cheap, low-quality meats. But instead of replacing a Big Mac with a beyond burger, I would much rather spend the extra money on high quality grass-fed beef for the time being. I'd like to acknowledge that this decision doesn't happen in a vacuum, and people range in financial capacity. Point being, ceteris paribus, natural is always superior to processed and until we have developed a Pareto superior substitute to sustainably produced and processed meats, I would avoid plant-based products entirely.

So then should we just eat $30 steaks all day and then have a bunch of honey buns to wash them down? Obviously there is a great deal of common sense and discipline that goes into proper diet. I am no dietician, but people tend to overcomplicate things that are really very straightforward. We did not evolve from people that consumed obscene amounts of refined sugars and fats, so we should not either. I won't go too much into the weeds about things I don't know about, but I tend to believe that the perfect diet would only consist of things that respect our genetic heritage. Ideally, a diet offers all needed nutrients, and it doesn't take the intervention of a scientist to follow. If dieting was easy, we wouldn't be dealing with an obesity epidemic. There are tons of obstacles to tackle in order to achieve proper nutrition, namely: taste, ease, cost, and proper education. All of these contribute to the extreme lack of nourishment among people.

Not all natural foods are equal though. Since I have established processed = bad, natural = better, the question still exists as to what is best. The best diet is probably some masterfully combined mixture of these foods, but most likely includes animal products. Do you think our body's were adapted from ancestors that turned their nose up at a freshly killed animal? We evolved from times of scarcity and we took what we could get, and now we are unfortunately stuck with this biology.

Vegans argue that there is no need for animal products in a healthy diet, this can't be true. Some people may think that there is no need to incorporate greens in their diet, and this is obviously false. It could be possible for vegans to get all of the nutrients they need, but I think this is more of a challenge than people realize. It would likely take a great deal of external supplementation for a vegan to achieve the same thing a omnivore could do with relative ease. Things like collagen, vitamins, amino acids, and proteins are abundant in good meat, and can be scarce elsewhere. There are also nutrients found in vegetables that cannot be found in animal products. Ready for the solution? Eat both!

Everyone knows that no solution is ever perfect but I hope I can make clear what should be common sense. Don't eat meat-like products because it kills you and the world around you, and being a nutritionally complete vegan is hard, because it relies on external supplementation. The health of people, and sustainability of our environment are approaching crisis levels, and the solution to both may lie in what we eat. Unsustainably produced meats aren't worth eating, junk food is not worth eating, and vegetables are great, but not enough to sufficiently fuel someone by themselves.

There is a growing school of thought that we should all go vegan to make the world a better place. This is an incredibly idealistic sentiment. I do feel that the right meat is necessary and incredibly convenient way to fuel people, and can be done in an externality-limiting way. So eat the right natural foods, don't eat junk, and you should be good. Hopefully this was already obvious to you...

"You're born weak and you die weak.... What you do in between is up to you"