Do you ever feel guilt when eating meat?

Interesting responses. I think people are much more aware of both animal welfare and the environmental impact of eating meat and dairy. On that topic, heartening to see dairy being highlighted as equally as cruel as other forms of animal rearing.
I was veggie for about 35 years before going vegan and the change was surprisingly difficult for me as someone who enjoyed cheeses.
 
The Ruthsayer said:
Interesting responses. I think people are much more aware of both animal welfare and the environmental impact of eating meat and dairy. On that topic, heartening to see dairy being highlighted as equally as cruel as other forms of animal rearing.
I was veggie for about 35 years before going vegan and the change was surprisingly difficult for me as someone who enjoyed cheeses.
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I was veggie through my 30s and lapsed for a while before finally stopping meat eating again. During that in-between period if it ever came up in conversation, I was open and said although I ate meat, when you look at the whole picture and the veggie options open to me, I couldn't really justify my meat eating. That's where I am now with going vegan. It's against what I believe in but I like cow's milk too much. I'm fond of cheese and eggs too but could live without them. Just wish I could stomach our lass's oat milk but .....bleurgh!
 
Brian Marwood said:
That an animal has been killed just for your food. A mother sheep is mourning her lamb being taken away at young age for your Sunday Dinner eating pleasure. It feels barbaric at times when we probably don't even need to eat meat these days.

I do sometimes but never made it yet as a vegetarian despite several attempts.
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I do a little bit too occasionally
 
SuperStu said:
As I said on the Andrew Tate thread last week, I think we need to move on from the culture of you either go 100% vegan 100% of the time or you don't and therefore eat meat every day. If we all just cut back a bit wherever we feel we can, that's gotta be a good thing.

As above the Richmond vegan sausages are good. Also think Linda McCartney sausages are nice. A lot of the vegan burgers I think are fine. Milks very easy to replace but we all went well over that already. I really think cheese is the hardest thing to get decent substitutes for.
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100% and the only reason I’m not vegan. I usually have oat milk now. I just cannot get away with vegan cheese, which is selfish, but in my defence it is offensive to the taste buds.
 
Yes I feel terrible. Especially when seeing wagon loads of animals and I know where they are going-
I am just too weak to stop eating meat
 
HarryVegas said:
I was veggie through my 30s and lapsed for a while before finally stopping meat eating again. During that in-between period if it ever came up in conversation, I was open and said although I ate meat, when you look at the whole picture and the veggie options open to me, I couldn't really justify my meat eating. That's where I am now with going vegan. It's against what I believe in but I like cow's milk too much. I'm fond of cheese and eggs too but could live without them. Just wish I could stomach our lass's oat milk but .....bleurgh!
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I think it’s fine in coffee/cappuccino or on cereal, not so good in tea but I usually drink black tea now as I do intermittent fasting.
 
I’ve been vegetarian since the mad cow disease outbreak in the 80’s. It’s far easier to be veggie now than back then, there are so many good products available. I’m lucky that the city I live in is very veggie/vegan friendly when it comes to places to eat.

As others have said…veganism would be easy if it wasn’t for cheese!
 
No and not in the slightest. I do eat meals without meat and quite frequently too

Having got into the final couple of years of my 70s I cannot see me changing very much now

I guess my generation will be disappearing soon and bread and dripping, black pudding and fish and chips will go with it

Enjoy your tofu and soya bean etc. if it makes you happy but please don't force your opinions on me
 
Nano said:
No, I don't feel guilty. The animals wouldn't even exist if we didn't eat them. If I felt guilty about eating animals I'd probably have to feel guilty about drinking milk, wearing leather, eating honey, all the land cleared for farming which kills millions of animals, using fossil fuels, building houses, zoos, buying cheap clothes, international shipping, flying, generating energy etc.

It's easier to link a steak to the face of a cow etc but in reality everything we do as humans as the dominant species means destroying animals and their habitats or just damaging environments. If I'm not going to feel guilty about all of them then I'm not going to feel guilty about only one of them.

I'll do my best to minimise my impact where there are reasonable choices. I'll buy free-range, recycle, buy 2nd hand, go electric etc and I'll support the change of the system that is required but in reality anything that really makes a difference requires industries/states to change so until they do I will just play along with the system we are in.

I've yet to have a good meat substitute. I know people have said above that things like the Richmond vegan sausages are good but they aren't. They are not bad compared to a regular Richmond but they are dreadful so that's a low bar. They are not even slightly close to a good proper sausage. Meat substitutes are competing with the value range of meats, not the butchers. Until they are better then I'd rather eat meat or veg than fake rubbish meat.
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Depends how you have it I think. A Beyond Meat burger laced with sweet chilli sauce and jalapeños in a restaurant is fine, you can barely tell it apart from a normal hamburger when its flavour is dominated by something else.
 
Rishworthian said:
No and not in the slightest. I do eat meals without meat and quite frequently too

Having got into the final couple of years of my 70s I cannot see me changing very much now

I guess my generation will be disappearing soon and bread and dripping, black pudding and fish and chips will go with it

Enjoy your tofu and soya bean etc. if it makes you happy but please don't force your opinions on me
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I’m not sure anyone is mate - chill!
 
Never - complete circle of life.

The vegan and vegetarian narrative that the body is better without meat just simply isn't true and there are endless journals, case studies and papers to support this.
 
FatFrank said:
Never - complete circle of life.

The vegan and vegetarian narrative that the body is better without meat just simply isn't true and there are endless journals, case studies and papers to support this.
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The OP wasn’t about the “body” though.
 
atypical_boro said:
Depends how you have it I think. A Beyond Meat burger laced with sweet chilli sauce and jalapeños in a restaurant is fine, you can barely tell it apart from a normal hamburger when its flavour is dominated by something else.
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Yes, I agree that the best things I have tried have been the things in something else so you are really just replacing texture with texture. Where the meat is the main component so flavour and texture matter like a sausage, a steak etc then that is where they struggle to meet expectations.
 
Rishworthian said:
No and not in the slightest. I do eat meals without meat and quite frequently too

Having got into the final couple of years of my 70s I cannot see me changing very much now

I guess my generation will be disappearing soon and bread and dripping, black pudding and fish and chips will go with it

Enjoy your tofu and soya bean etc. if it makes you happy but please don't force your opinions on me
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Sorry, but your last paragraph made me laugh. I don't see anyone here doing that. In fact the only sarcasm I detect is in your own 'enjoy your tofu and soya bean etc' comment.
 
Nano said:
Yes, I agree that the best things I have tried have been the things in something else so you are really just replacing texture with texture. Where the meat is the main component so flavour and texture matter like a sausage, a steak etc then that is where they struggle to meet expectations.
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I can understand that, but I do actually quite like the Richmond sausages. They don’t taste exactly like meat, but they do taste ok (just generally speaking) in my opinion.
 
atypical_boro said:
I can understand that, but I do actually quite like the Richmond sausages. They don’t taste exactly like meat, but they do taste ok (just generally speaking) in my opinion.
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To be fair, that sentence equally applies to the vegan and non-vegan versions.
 
The OP absolutely strikes a chord with me, I'd describe myself as a conflicted carnivore.

I try to eat less meat, but I don't think I have the self discipline to go fuller veggie, never mind vegan.

I do think that in a few hundred years we will be a meat free world and kids will be repulsed by our meat eating diet when taught about it in schools.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
The OP absolutely strikes a chord with me, I'd describe myself as a conflicted carnivore.

I try to eat less meat, but I don't think I have the self discipline to go fuller veggie, never mind vegan.

I do think that in a few hundred years we will be a meat free world and kids will be repulsed by our meat eating diet when taught about it in schools.
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I was exactly the same; then one day I just gave it up (temporarily) and have never missed it enough to end this temporary experiment. Don’t think I ever will now.

The only thing I missed (to begin with) was chorizo and the like. But now I just don’t even think about it.
 
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