I enjoy reading however, I find that reading often takes a back seat to life. I had a beautiful system that gave me some great quiet time for reading in the gym of all places. I would spend 30 minutes a day on the elliptical machine and plow through my monthly obsession (book I was reading). Now I am spending thirty minutes a day on a row machine so the ergonomics are such that I am unable to read. I have been trying to carve out some other time to read because, I really enjoy reading. I will let you know how that goes. One of the last books I read on the elliptical was, Some we love, Some we Hate and Some we Eat, by Hal Herzog. The book was study dealing with the complicated relationships between species specifically Homo sapiens and all other animals.
Hal Herzog is a professor of psychology and an expert on the psychology of human-animal relations. The book outlines how people interact with animals and gives some scientific insight into animals. After reading this book I quit eating animal based meat.
After seeing the evidence for sentient life in the animals that humans slaughter and eat I could not in good conscience eat any more animal based meat. Many of the animals that are slaughtered and consumed experience pleasure, pain and joy. The animals also have robust social structures and family units. The evidence about animals compels me to believe that at the very least they deserve the right to live or not be slaughtered.
So the ethics compelled me to abandon eating animal based meats. I do a lot of the cooking for the family and now I had to find plant based alternatives to animal based meats and that was not as difficult or expensive as I had anticipated it would be. Making the change to a vegetarian lifestyle has been pretty painless actually and I have not felt as lethargic after big meals. I was often lethargic and almost sick when I ate animal based meats to the point of satiation.
The Corrigan Encore 
Deserve the right to live … what does that mean, vis-a-vis animals raised for consumption? I think it is important to consider the ethical treatment of animals, but millions of them live solely because of that demand. What does life mean in that scenario, which is often reality, for better or for worse?
To not be slaughtered. If we rid animal consumption, then only the random animal is killed by accident at our hands. The vast majority will die of starvation, violent death by predators, or disease.
Again, I’m not discounting the reality of human ethics toward animals. But what does sentience mean? From the standpoint of human sentience, how many would prefer being torn to bits by a predator or slow death by disease over a quick death?
I’ve recently been consuming more animal meat – in fact, almost exclusively. I am more clear-headed and have more energy with almost no sugar sources. Animal meat is typically calorie dense, with both fat and protein in large amounts. Was your lethargy post-prandial from an exclusively meat source, or was it amended liberally with processed carbs both simple and complex? If my experience is any indication, I bet it was the latter.
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Ok so right to live means that the animal just because they are alive and sentient has an inherent right not to be killed.
Sentience means the ability to experience feelings and I see this in most of the animals that are slaughtered.
I did not cut meat out for health benefits it has only been because of ethical ones concerning life and respect of life.
My lethargy did come after eating meals that consisted of both meat and bread however, now with a vegetarian lifestyle I am not experiencing the same lethargy. I know that red meat requires quite a bit of energy to digest and can make you tired. Animal based products are the only source of cholesterol. Again I made the switch away from animal based meat for purely ethical reasons. Seeing the social structures and robust feelings and emotions that animals develop makes it impossible for me to slaughter and destroy this life, but the health benefits are an extra.
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Thanks! Death is brought by various means – various killers. No one escapes. Is there a moral case for never killing?
As for sentience: in the case of animals raised for consumption, is their “killer” better or worse than nature? Starvation, torn alive by a predator, or a microbe?
I think I understand the desire to avoid the slaughter and destruction, but it’s going to happen one way or another. Is there ever an ethical justification for humans to do so?
What if an animal is injured and in pain? How far would you go to avoid killing, which might be the most merciful thing?
If “red meat requires quite a bit of energy to digest and can make you tired,” why am I less tired than before while eating more meat? I cannot make the case that eating meat is the best diet; but in my case, it’s not following the course you claim. Doesn’t it make sense that other factors are at play? More on this in a bit.
“Animal based products are the only source of cholesterol.” Without cholesterol in all our cells we would die. To be clear, we break down cholesterol we ingest and make our own, so what is inherently unhealthy about cholesterol?
It’s true that too much cholesterol in the wrong places is bad, but a big factor for that in western culture is the growth in diabetes cases, not animal consumption per se. Do medical experts ever attribute meat as a core factor for type II diabetes? Not that I am aware. It’s typically sugar and processed foods. The latter can definitely include animal-based products; but, to blame the meat would be wrong – it’s the processing and additives, including sugar.
Hyperinsulinemia is typically brought on by overconsumption of sugars. It is a major factor in atherosclerosis because of the way it leads to overgrowth in the endothelium, which leads to fatty deposits in arteries, etc.
Do the Inuit, who still follow the old ways (and avoid processed foods) keel over from massive consumption of cholesterol-rich blubber? You can make a case for the cold environment as a factor; but again, this calls into question if there is an inherent unhealthiness to eating cholesterol.
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