"Eating Meat Is Natural To Us."

Throughout my years as a vegetarian / animal welfare advocate, I've come up against nearly every "explanation" you could ever think of for why people eat meat. People will vigorously defend their meat consumption regardless of the facts presented to them. In fact, this whole article centers around the one explanation I'm often handed that has absolutely no merit whatsoever.  You might hear it in a variety of ways, but it all means the same thing from a meat eater's perspective.

"Eating meat is natural for humans."
"We're carnivores by nature"
"Animals are meant for us to eat."
"Humans have always eaten meat."

All of these statements mean exactly the same thing when you're trying to discuss whether humans are meant to eat animals with someone who clearly eats meat. This is usually what you're hit with when the person you're discussing this topic with wants to end the conversation because they truly believe that this response is the be all end all of this discussion. Unfortunately for them, there's so many reasons why these statements are not factual. Let's dive into this!

The argument that humans are meant to eat meat is rooted in ignorance. There is absolutely no proof that humans are "meant" to eat meat and in fact, there's actually some pretty significant evidence that points in the other direction. We can look back in history on various cultures and we will find some of them consumed no meat whatsoever and managed to thrive while living long, healthy lives. There simply isn't factual evidence that we are meant to consume animals. Let's look at one of the biggest facts that disprove this statement.

When you think of something that comes naturally to us, you think of something that we instinctively as human beings participate in.  Eating, the need for water, breathing, reproduction, forming relationships etc., these are all things that come naturally to us and are programmed in our existence. The argument that eating meat comes naturally to us is completely unfounded and can easily be disproved. I would like to ask these people if when they see an animal like a cow or pig that is traditionally slaughtered for meat, do they feel an overwhelming urge to capture and eat that animal in its raw state? Do we as humans have a salacious natural urge to chase, kill, and consume an animal? The answer to that question is quite simple, no.

You see, what a meat eater might be able to argue is that when they see these animals, they might think about the meat that is produced from said animal, but they are not in fact instinctively interested in consuming the animal from a live state. For us as human beings to consume meat, we must first manipulate it to ensure it is safe for us to consume. We cannot just chase down a pig and begin consuming it while it screams to escape us. We cannot slather barbecue sauce on a chicken that is still alive and expect to be able to begin consuming it. The reason for this is because it would make us incredibly ill and could pose life-threatening problems. Consuming raw meat is reputably one of the easiest ways to get a slew of food related illnesses like salmonella for example. So if it comes so naturally to us, why is it that we must take precautions before eating it?

You see, a true carnivore will instinctively consume an animal without regard for the same precautions we as humans need to take. Animals like lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs are natural carnivores. They instinctively hunt for and consume animals in their purest form. They needn't worry about the dangers of consuming raw meat that we must be worried about. Using this logic, can we honestly say that human beings are "natural carnivores"? Can we even argue that we are "natural omnivores"? We can consume most varieties of fruits, vegetables, and plants in their raw state without doing damage to our bodies. Our bodies can break down these plant based food sources and digest them thoroughly while our bodies would indeed be in trouble if we pummelled an entire raw steak in to our systems. Why do you think this is? 

This need to manipulate animals to make them safe for consumption kind of disproves the natural or instinctive aspects of meat consumption. Something that comes natural to a mammal should be as simple as catch and consume but as I've already proven, consuming animals comes at a cost. Consuming meat is unsafe for us unless we cook it to a safe internal temperature to kill off bacteria that could make us incredibly sick. There is nothing natural about the need to manipulate our food to make it safe for us to eat.

Meat eater's don't want to hear what we have to say when it comes to using the "it comes naturally to us" explanation but I hope this post reassures you all that there is in fact nothing natural to us about consuming meat. I implore any of those people who want to use this argument on me to demonstrate their ability to catch and eat an animal live without falling seriously ill. As I'm sure they won't be doing that to prove their point, I think this case is closed.

HAPPY VEG