Interview with the Carnivore

Jimmy Moore posted this week about a ludicrous "Interview with a Carnivore" posted by Allena Rose Tapia over at DietDective.com. Check out Jimmy's answers to her questions here: "Moderate Vegetarian" Goes To Extremes In Her Mock Interview With A Carnivore. I'd like to offer my own answers to Tapia's questions, since I think some of these questions are valid and deserve real answers:

Question: What's the one thing that keeps you from being vegetarian?

Answer: Credible research up to this point indicates that humans need a dietary source of amino and fatty acids. Some of these are only available from animal sources.

Question: What about the fact that alot of these tastes can be replicated by meat substitutes?

Answer: They absolutely cannot be replicated by meat substitutes! Are you kidding? You think a juicy steak and a Boca Burger taste anything near alike?
(Also, it's "a lot" not "alot".)

Question: I notice you have children. Do you worry about the environment you're leaving them?

Answer: I don't have children, but the argument about meat-eating being bad for the environment is based on faulty logic. Vegetarians like to tout the "one acre of land can produce 165 lbs of beef or 20,000 potatoes" line, but let's examine that briefly.

Firstly, while you do get more potatoes, potatoes are a vastly inferior source of nutrition to beef. If you doubt this, let's go head-to-head, and I'll eat only beef for a year while you eat only potatoes, and we'll see who's alive at Christmas.

Secondly, this argument rests on the faulty premise that every acre of land in the world is suitable for arable farming. This simply isn't the case - there are many areas where it is impossible to farm, but animals like sheep can graze freely. Until humans evolve a mechanism to derive nutrients from grass, perhaps we could continue to eat the ingenious devices which turn grass into nutritious protein - animals.

Question: Why aren't you worried about it?

Answer: I think there are more pressing concerns, like 8,500 people dying from AIDS every day and a largely ignored genocide ongoing in Darfur.

I am concerned about damage to the environment, however. To that end:
- I recycle whatever I can
- I use a canvas bag to go grocery shopping instead of using environmentally-damaging plastic bags
- I pay a carbon offset charge when I fly (for example, $70 for a round trip flight from Montreal-Orlando for two people)
- I don't smoke or litter
- I don't own or drive a car

Care to rack up your environmental damage next to mine just because you eat veggies instead of delicious meat?

Question: You're familiar with some of the methods by which meat animals are killed and tortured. How do you get past that when you bite into a burger?

Answer: I find the inhumane treatment of animals disgusting and unnecessary. I absolutely favor reforms so animals are raised and slaughtered in the most pain-free way possible. Temple Grandin has made some great progress with slaughterhouse improvements around the country. Buying free-range grass-fed beef, and free-range eggs are just a couple of ways to support more humane farming. Plus, happy cows taste better!

Question: How much do you worry about your health in connection to what you eat?

Answer: I pay very close attention to my health in connection to what I eat. I've noticed that eating a diet full of high-quality protein from meat, fish and eggs, and a few vegetables thrown in has made me healthier and happier than ever before. I also don't have the sallow complexion and the big dark circles you often see under vegetarians' eyes from iron deficiency.

Question: Would you be willing to reduce your meat-eating days to 3 per week, plus one fish day?

Answer: No way. Would you be willing to reduce your eating days to 4 per week?

Comments

[Sweet Tart]

Great post. Smart and to the point. Vegetarians like to believe that they live on higher moral ground than meat eaters. Those meat substitutes that they love so much are some of the most highly processed foods you can buy. It takes a lot of work to make soy taste like meat and it's still not nearly as delicious or healthy.

[Sue]

Who wants to eat meat-substitute processed garbage? That's very health conscious, not! If you want to be a vegetarian why do you need a meat-substitute?? I think I'll stick to real nutrient-dense meat!

[PJ]

Yeah, great points. I used to be a vegetarian through some deluded idea that it was morally better. I probably just contributed to wrecking my health. And guess what, cows still die for the cause. And guess what, I still can't eat grass either. For the people who would like to eat grass, I have no problem with that, but the attempt to make vegan into a religion, and then use any kind of bad science and political pressure to force everybody else to that philosophy, disgusts me far more than the idea of eating grass does.

[Kate Welch]

PJ,
I think you put your finger on exactly what irks me about evangelical vegetarians. I strongly believe that current science supports the view that eating meat is essential to optimum human health. Having said that, this blog is the extent of my outreach efforts. If someone asks me about my diet, I'll explain, but I'm not on a warpath against grass-feeders.

Sue and Sweet Tart,
Thanks for pointing out how processed much of the substitute meats are. Packaged faux-meat seems like a poor substitute for a juicy steak, in terms of nutrients and taste!

[Migraineur]

Thanks - I just had a good time posting my response (even though her post is kind of old). I hope she approves my response, anyway - mine is about how I'm trying to prevent diabetes, and you can't get enough plant protein without also consuming excessive amounts of carbohydrate.

[Euge]

I loved, "we'll see who's alive at Christmas." I can imagine angry vegan potato famines.

I don't know about anyone else, but vegan diets make me spacey and listless. I am convinced that Whole Foods must be a mini-welfare state, sponsoring all the grass-eaters who have lost the energy to work regular jobs. Bless 'em.

[Julien]

You said "I also don't have the sallow complexion and the big dark circles you often see under vegetarians' eyes from iron deficiency"

This is a rather odd statement. You quite reguarly meet vegetarians? And you notice that often their complexion is shallow and their eyes have big dark circles?

Actually, how can you know right away a person is vegetarian (unless you personnally know them)? From those sallow complexions and the big dark circles?

[Iddo]

Good answers.
I'd like to ask those vegetarians had they ever considered what would happen to all those animals raised for slaughter ( to be our lovely meals) if everyone became vegies? they'd all be put to death, having no more commecial value. Poor animals, poor farmers, poor us. I, too, preffer the slaughter to be "nicer".

[Adam]

"Until humans evolve a mechanism to derive nutrients from grass, perhaps we could continue to eat the ingenious devices which turn grass into nutritious protein - animals."

Genius