/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Carnivore here. Are there any vegetarians or vegans here? Why do you follow this diet?

I do think we should be as humane to animals as possible. Instant deaths without suffering should be used. But I still think we should eat meat.

First there's Vitamin B12. Yes you can get this from supplements, but if I have to choose between having to remember to take a pill every day, or just satisfying my body's natural instincts to eat a cheeseburger once in a while, I'll take the cheeseburger. For people who don't know, B12 is only found in animal sources. Milk and eggs will also provide it. But plant sources won't. B12 supplements are made from micro-organisms. And severe B12 deficiency, over time, will lead to permanent nerve/brain damage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12

Second there's protein. There are only a couple of plant sources of "complete protein" (all nine of the amino acids we need) - quinoa and soybeans. But those things are much lower on protein than meat, and quinoa in particular has tons of carbs, so you have to ingest loads of carbs just to get the protein.

100g of chicken breast gives you 31g of protein, and 0g of carbs.
100g of tofu (from soybeans) gives you 8g of protein, and 1.9g of carbs.
100g of cooked quinoa gives you 4.4g of protein, and 21.3g of carbs.

https://www.google.com/search?q=chicken+breast+nutrition
https://www.google.com/search?q=tofu+nutrition
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/274745.php (I divided the amounts by their 185g portion size and multiplied by 100g)

So I think veganism is a poor diet. You need to do a lot of micromanaging to make sure you get enough of what your body needs. Or you could just go by your body's natural cravings for meat.