There are many good reasons to choose a vegetarian diet. One leading reason to stop eating meat is because doing so can save you a lot of money. However, people who do eat meat can provide you with a lot of good reasons that you shouldn’t go vegetarian. Many people justify their own desire to eat meat by keeping these reasons at the ready, giving themselves peace of mind. The problem is that a lot of these reasons to eat meat are actually myths. And people who choose to believe in them are spending more money at the grocery store or farmers’ market than they should be.
Meat-Eater Myth #1: Eating meat is more convenient than eating a vegetarian diet. One of the leading reasons that a lot of people will eat meat is because it’s convenient for them. Stopping off at a fast food joint for a one dollar burger is a lot more convenient than getting together ingredients and making a meal at home, right? Wrong. Nearly every fast food joint or restaurant now intentionally offers vegetarian alternatives. They certainly have the vegetables to make a special request. Take a look and you’ll see that the vegetarian options on menus are generally lower in cost than the meat options. While it may be tough to find high-quality organic vegan dishes in your area at a low cost, it’s not inconvenient to find affordable vegetarian choices.
Meat-Eater Myth #2: You need animal protein in your diet. Athletes, pregnant women and parents often justify the desire to eat meat by saying that they need animal protein in order to be healthy human beings. In his recent book called Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer dispels this myth, citing statistics that indicate that the average vegetarian diet is higher in protein and healthier in other nutrients than the average meat-eater’s diet. You may be spending more on animal protein than you would spend on a vegetarian diet due to this myth. More importantly, a vegetarian diet is arguably healthier which reduces your long-term medical care costs and saves you a whole lot of money over time compared to the ongoing costs of a meat-based diet.
Meat-Eater Myth #3: Meat is necessary to get enough iron in the diet. Do you buy red meat because you know that it offers iron for your diet? Did you know that you could get healthy amounts of iron from much lower-cost sources including whole grains and dried beans and fruit?
Meat-Eater Myth #4: Expensive meat is better for you. Perhaps you’ve heard arguments for vegetarianism that talk about animal cruelty and the health problems associated with factory farming and so on and so forth. As a result, you’ve bought into the idea that it’s worth it to pay a lot more for organic, range-free, cage-free animals. You’re willing to spend more for “good” meat. The problem is that the labels on those foods are iffy and there’s a good chance that this more expensive meat isn’t any less cruel or any healthier for you than some of the cheaper stuff.
Meat-Eater Myth #5: Giving up meat won’t save any money. A large number of people mistakenly believe that they would need mass quantities of other foods to replace the meat that they would give up and that this would end up costing them just as much. This isn’t true. If you eat a varied diet filled with in-season fresh foods then you can significantly lower the cost of your grocery bill.
If you don’t want to eat a vegetarian diet then by all means make that choice. However, don’t allow myths to justify your decision. Meat-based diets DO tend to cost more than vegetarian diets. They may also have long-term impacts on healthy and the environment that could cost us money down the road. If you choose to eat meat, be aware that you are paying a price.
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I have been vege for about 9 years now and I feel fine
….. I exercise hard 6 days a week most weeks and live a normal active life all without meat, my health is absolutely fine…. Oh and as you say, I spend less too!
It can be hard to keep the carbs down in a vege diet at times but that is what exercise is for, right.
I don’t know that I’ve ever believed that more expensive meat is better for you. Regardless, I’ve had vege meals that cost me more than meat meals. And, I’ve had the opposite be true too. If you’re hungry, I’ll eat. Meat or otherwise. That said, my diet is about 50/50 meat / vege right now and I’m trying to get it to about 30/70 by the end of the year.
A few years ago, I was working with a friend who was vegetarian. We went to the company “cafeteria” for lunch and it turned out about all they had were sandwiches (and wraps).
I order a turkey wrap and had it built my way. My friend ordered a vegetarian wrap to which the perplexed counter help said “we can’t make one of those.”
I asked “can you make a turkey wrap and leave off the turkey?” The counter help agreed and we had a good lunch…
Fact: Meat is delicious.
i went vegetarian for a while, but i eventually went back to eating meat.
why? cause it’s delicious.
Who really eats meat only because they believe its cheap and nutritious? I eat meat because its delicious! I think you’ve misjudged the meat eating crowd. People don’t go to a steak house because they think its good for them or they think its affordable.
Blogs typically don’t make me this angry. But I prefer to be civil.
Thanks for getting my ire up.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if this blog entry had any sort reference to its sources, instead of just arbitrary conclusions with no reasoning behind them?
MEAT IS DELICIOUS. END OF STORY.
A great article and it is the truth. It is easy to get all the nutrients you need from a vegetarian diet. Quinoa has as much protein as meat does plus fiber.
Even eating meat a healthy way can make meals last longer. Just a pound of meat mixed beans for burritos will last longer or in a pot of chili. Meat doesnt have to be part of every meal and especially the main part of every meal.
I tried being a vege for all of 2 days.. first day was like um.. tasteless crap.. second day I was ready to kill people… being vege is not for everyone.
Wow, just lame on the diet end, lame on the finance end…
I eat healthy, grass fed meat because that’s why my ancestors evolved on and I am too stupid to know better than hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.
@Sam, quinoa also has 2 times the carbohydrates that it does protein… Same with beans… For many, many people eating more carbohydrate than protein is a recipe for weight gain and sickness…
Evidence that our ancestors thrived on meat = ample… Evidence you can thrive without it = to be determined.
Here is a good video on meat: http://meat.org
Interesting thots and observations. I address this after being a vegetarian for over 50 years. Mostly Vegan. Our 4 children, ages 32-41 have never eaten meat, are healthy and raising their children as vegetarians. I agree with the writer: Don’t allow finances to motivate you to include meat in your diet. For years, when our children were at home, we made our long road trips on funds saved from our food budget, AND we ate very well both at home AND on the road. Just a bit of creativity, research, and experimenting will give you a great tasty and healthy diet.( sans meat)
Personally, I’m a meat eater myself. But that’s been reducing and reducing over time. I tend to buy really cheap meat however. Most meat in today’s market have SKYROCKETED. The prices are absolutely staggering!
I wouldn’t be surprised if I cut the majority of meat out of my diet, with the occasional piece being the occasional cheat.
I’m not a strict vegan, but cutting down on meat, gradually. What I have observed over the last 5 years that I’m having more control over my weight by cutting down on meat consumption. Costwise I don’t see much difference, as sometimes you really need to spend good amount for buying quality tropical vegetables, for variety.
JohnnyH wrote: “I eat healthy, grass fed meat because that’s why my ancestors evolved on and I am too stupid to know better than hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.
…
Evidence that our ancestors thrived on meat = ample… Evidence you can thrive without it = to be determined.”
Evolutionary arguments are problematic because I don’t think our ancestors sat in front of a screen 8-12 hours a day. We don’t live like our ancestors, so who’s to say we can eat like them. Processed foods are clearly problematic though.
Suffice it to say, I doubt you eat a diet anywhere close to what our evolutionary ‘ancestors’ ate. There are many societies and communities that do not eat meat (or eat less meat) and they do just fine. QED.
This article is more dogma than financial advice. I’ve subscribed to this RSS feed for a long time, but after this article I have removed that subscription.
MEAT TASTES GOOD!
Time to head to the local butcher shop for my 24 oz porterhouse — Mmmmmm….
It’s no secret that Americans eat far, far, far too much meat. Even meat advocates admit you shouldn’t eat meat with every (or even most) meals. To say that our ancestors evolved on “grass-fed meat” is grossly inaccurate. The notion of early humans as heroic hunters is quite simply incorrect. Until very recently, humans have been decidedly poor hunters. Except in certain limited environments where meat happened to be the most plentiful source of calories, early humans did not eat much meat. To say that most early humans ate meat at most 2 or 3 times per month would not be an exaggeration. Early humans thrived on nuts, roots, fruits, vegetables, and anything else they could scrounge up. They spent relatively little time and effort hunting and ate little meat, as our modern digestive system can attest.
@sync, I only eat foods that humans evolved on, it can be done… Just because I use a computer doesn’t mean I can’t try to emulate the lifestyle humans evolved on.
@Kyle. BS… you’re babbling, with no evidence at all. Homo sapien sapiens have always been dominant hunters and tool users… Anywhere with a winter, meat was essential to human survival… Your assumption of a plentiful garden with lots of food to eat is valid only around the equator.
I’m assuming all land mass with seasonality is this “limited environment” you’re talking about?
In the continental winter of what is now the Dakotas, how much “nuts, roots, fruits, vegetables” do you think the natives had access too? They were utterly dependent on animal fats and protein. This paper claims the plains hunter tribes where the tallest and most physically impressive on the planet 100 years ago.
http://eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/papers/70PrinceSteckel378.pdf
The idea that most human groups evolved with little meat consumption is completely backwards.
http://www.animalethics.org.uk/i-ch7-6-meat-consumption.html
According to these 2002 stats, the US is behind NZ, Luxemborg, Denmark and others in meat consumption… not countries known for dishealth.
I have never tasted in meat in my whole life.Being vegetarian runs in the family.My 3 year old started eating meat when visiting my ex but by the time he was 4.5 yr old he don’t even want to see the meat.I will be very open for y kids but its unlikely that they will be non vegetarian.
Those of you who say meat is delicious are at least honest. Honest that your stomach and sense gratification comes before the enviornment, compassion and health.
For those of you who say you eat meat because it’s delicious, congratulations on choosing a selfish taste sensation over the lives of innocents. Go watch Earthlings or read up on the agricultural industry and get educated.
we’re not made to eat meat but since our ancestors did for thousands of years, we’ve accustomed to it. meat is tasty.
It’s all in what you “want” to believe, research it to death, if you must. What the commercial establishment passes off as meat today has no nutritional resemblance to what people ate a mere 50 years ago. Crammed with chemicals, antibiotics, etc, it doesn’t even taste like meat. Environmental concerns are caused by the current animal practices. Ruminant animals (cows, etc) are supposed to eat GRASSES, not be stuffed full of GMO corn or whatever is the cheapest, fastest way to get them to the store. Beans are a nice source, if you prepare them so you can actually digest what they have to offer, almost all grains/beans must be soaked to remove potential toxins in the skins. You will find what you look for and ignore what doesn’t fit the idea, somewhat like this article, scratches the surface to fit the authors bent. As an aside, as far as what Doctors may say, they get a whopping 3 hours of nutritional instruction on their way through medical school.
well… would you eat human brain if it was absolutely delicious? Why would you kill an animal just for its taste then? Would you rape a child if someone tells you it’s great? Why do you cause animals’ suffering then?
While meat is amazingly delicious (especially wild game), I decided to cut back on it to eat more plant protein, making an effort to eat less of animal protein.
It does save a bit of money to eat more veggies and no one can doubt the health benefits.
Still, meat is very good, so good!
@Galina
What kind of argument is that?!
Would you eat human brain if someone told you it was healthy? Would you rape a child just because someone told you it’d prolong your life expectancy AND be cheap?
I wish people would stop writing these articles and just accept the fact that there is ZERO objectivity to these arguments. It’s clearly just personal preference and people are trying to use science, history and in this case finances to back their decisions based on morality.
There are extremely healthy people on both sides of the spectrum. Get over it and stop trying to force people to be like you.
An article full of linked keywords, spelling errors, and no references… and people are defending it? Since misguided health-nuttiness has become such a craze, it’s no surprise I know several people adamant about staying away from meats. Especially red meats. Most of them are less healthy than barbaric me. No joke or exaggeration.
As for the animal rights activists… you’re generally the same ones obsessed with their pets. Yes, you are. I know you are. I’ve seen it so many times. You associate cows with your dog and therefore rally for their cause. Yes, your dog… you know, the animal you “own” which is part of a species that humankind and, in fact, you yourself, have dominated, subjugated, and enslaved all so that you have something cute, fluffy, brainlessly loyal, and too dumb to realize what a jackass you are to it to look at and cuddle? Please.
Go ahead. Go make your dog–which would be happiest as a free animal subject to no human, but can not because we’ve forced them to become reliant on us–do some cute little degrading backflip to earn that dehydrated tofurkey treat when it’s really just dying for a nice hunk of real animal meat, then turn around and say we’re so cruel to cows and therefore must stop eating steak.
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