Is it normal normal to need to justify being a meat-eater?

I try to keep from eating Fast Food. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be meat from a decent source company. Our problem as Americans is not just that we have a heavy meat-laden diet, but it is low quality meat (often because it is fast food meat or, urgh, meat from things like frozen ready-to-cook burgers and crap like that).

Generally, I try to restrict my diet to meats that I have to cook myself and quality sandwich meats (cut ham) although I do indulge in fast food every now and then. I'd recommend that to anyone and I'd recommend supporting industries with ethics regarding their handling of the animals used to produce said meats.

I don't think that it's NECESSARY that we all completely stop eating meat but be more conscious of the meat that we eat and try to avoid low quality meat products such as fast foods. When it comes to meat, I like trying to avoid anything pre-cooked and pre-processed (but you can't really help it in the case of hot-dogs and sausage products).

We're predators, pure and simple. I'd never advocate for the blatant denial of our instincts. Just as I wouldn't expect people not to have sex or not to have violent urges, I wouldn't expect everyone to stop eating meat. It's all a matter of modesty, indulging our instincts in a civilized manner and I think that this can be done with meat eating if we simply just be conscious of what we eat and not load up on low-quality meat products.

From a nutritional point of view meat is invaluable in the diet. Poly-unsaturated fats, complete proteins, various vitamin Bs and C and a lot of minerals come from meat. You can supplement them all you want but it is not advisable.

I don't have to justify eating meat to myself. I feel that eating meat is normal normal. If you feel guilty about eating meat, I would just suggest adopting a meat-lite diet and focusing on free-range and organic meat products. Also, avoid veal and lamb.

I do it for health reasons. My body can't digest soy. Other beans are a good alternative, but to eat them everyday would cause me great discomfort. Meat packs a lot of nutrition in a small amount of food.

I am very conscious of the meat I choose to eat as well as all of the things I consume. It is a first world luxury to be able to choose a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.

The argument that helped me cope with the change of a vegetarian lifestyle to one that included meat was the need for consumers to support a free range market and create the demand for sustainable and humane farms.

Honesty I've never felt the need to justify eating meat, i like it so i eat it.

I started having them thoughts.

I am now a vegetarian and loving it

I can't justify it, hence I don't eat the meat. I think you should justify everything you do, and if you can't justify it morally then you shouldn't do it no matter how good it feels. It isn't about placating the guilt so you feel better about yourself, it's about doing the morally justifiable thing whether you feel better about yourself or not. Those are indeed two different types of justification, but the first is selfish and the second is not. That's my personal view.

Being vegetarian isn't a lifelong commitment. You can always try out living a vegetarian lifestyle and if you can't handle it then at least you know you've tried. And before anyone gets on my back: no, I'm not trying to convert you. I'm just contributing my two shiny British pennies and giving you the advice that trying out vegetarianism for even just a week or two might at least give you a new perspective.

The way I justify it? We are evolutionarily designed to eat meat, it's part of what keeps us healthy. Though we are kinda doin it wrong.... people nowadays eat too much meat and grains and not enough fruits and vegetables... we're not balancing our diets properly.

And just for the sake of an interesting hypothetical, how do you know that animals are lower forms of life? How does anyone really know that? We can't communicate with them, we can't know how they think or why they do the things they do. We assume they're lower forms of consciousness because we have roads and cities and iPads, but we don't really *know* that.

People are just raised from young to eat it and that's that. Every vegan,vegetarian and pescatarian have different reasons for not eating meat.

Meat is gross if you think about it.

You're obviously just cranky and unreasonable. Don't eat meat if you don't want to but stop treating everyone else like they're shitheads.

Meat=Food
Food=Nutrition
Nutrition=Being alive

Sure you say there are supplements, but why go the roundabout way of eating nutrition when you get it straight from meat? And meat is delicious!

And you say that killing animals is bad. How much worse is it for prey to die at a slaughter house than being chased across a big field just to become their predator's meal. I personally would have it quick and painless rather than being gunned down by a lion.

These reasons you give are silly and if you find it horrible that people eat meat that is your petty opinion, you're not going to convert people by calling them disgusting

its your choice, you dont need to justify it
there are enough people who wont stop eating meat no matter what that will keep the meat industry alive no matter what, so i dont think anybody is a terrible person for consuming meat
the animals are lower lifeforms is a bullshit reason though, considering cows are about as smart as dogs, pigs and rabbits are far smarter and other farm animals are social and not as dumb as you would assume (especially goats).

I think it's normal to question eating meat but ultimately it is your decision on whether you continue to eat it or not. Whether you decide to continue eating meat, stop altogether or only stop some, or reduce your meat intake, it's all normal.

You don't need to justify it to anyone other than yourself. But if you want to continue eating meat, expect conflict with vegetarians. They feel that vegetarianism is right (certainly for them at least) so they will want to question you and tell you that your reasoning is flawed in some way. I don't think either one is right or wrong but being vegetarian may be more ethical.

If you don't want to need to defend yourself with vegetarians, learn something to say to change the subject or something, 'I don't want to talk about that' or something to that effect because however much vegetarians and meat-eaters talk, they will never come to the same conclusion. There is even conflict among vegetarians and vegans and vegans with other vegans.

Do what is right for you.

No. You shouldn't have to justify eating meat. Just eat it and be happy. :)

So now i'm supposed to justify what I eat?
You eat whatever you want to eat, I eat whatever the hell I want to eat.

I don't think you need to justify why you eat meat, it is your choice and there is nothing that can stop you, just like any other lifestyle you may have(although i often find myself justifying why I am vegetarian) -have been all my life and very healthy/fit, I get protein from other foods such as quinoa for muscle build up so I don't think meat eating is necessarily better for you than going without it. Also I would like to point out that even if meat eating is natural, factory farming of animals in mass quantities, and transportation methods of animals are not, so if you do feel guilty about eating meat, you should find organic meat (look it up, it's probably healthier for you)

No.

Here's my entire argument:

Our ancestors ate meats, fruits, and veggies. Humans are not meant to eat grains. The only type of animal that can live off of grains is a bird. There is no good reason to stop eating meats, and any reason created is a figment of modern man's imagination.

The End.

I give you credit however for not wanting to convert anyone. Mainly because I know some vegetarians who often barge into meat conversations to start preaching about how their way of life is better bla bla bla. and to me it's no different than telling someone "Chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla" and then going on about how "wrong" it is to eat vanilla ice cream and how much better they are than everyone else who doesn't agree with them.

However my own suggestion on this is... if you really truly want to avoid all animal death, don't just switch to vegetarian stuff only. Actually research what goes into every thing you eat or use - and find out whether or not animals are killed in the production.

A lot of vegetarians don't realize this but... say you buy veggies in the grocery store. No animals killed for this, right? Wrong. Sure they don't normally kill food-animals to grow your veggies, but animals DO burrow and live under the fields. Those animals get killed when the crop is harvested; the machines don't spare them. Obviously the harvest is cleaned before it's put out on the shelves cos no one wants to see a dead rabbit in the carrots, or dead mice... but not seeing the death doesn't mean it didn't happen.

On top of that a lot of household products (especially hygiene products) are made from animal components.

I'm not saying don't use them but... it's best to be ACCURATELY informed of all the facts, not just what you can see.

Animals die whether you eat meat or not.
That's how I justify it.
Eating vegetables also kills animals, it kills the animals who used to (or perhaps were, until they were killed) live on the fields used to grow crops. These animals are murdered to protect the crops and be sure none of the little field creatures eat them.
Perhaps little creatures like field mice and other small critters that live on fields aren't as "big" as cows, pigs or chicken but does that mean their life should be valued any less?
Not only this, the chemicals used to make sure enough crops are grown to feed the world (it's estimated that, if these chemicals weren't used, only half of the world be able to be fed) damage animals as well. Especially the smaller mammals or the fish in the lakes that get contaminated.

Who gives a shit what other people think?

Bacon.... Yummy

If you are looking for justifications, then don't debate the comments people give. It jist shows signs of a weak, pessimistic mind.

Shit, you really got me there, OP. Shock value was EXACTLY what I was going for, you fucking schmuck. Lol

If you don't feel right eating it then don't.

You shouldn't stop doing something based on what other people think you lose your identity if you do.