A vegetarian diet would reduce premature deaths. “We would see a global mortality reduction of 6-10%, thanks to a lessening of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some cancers.”
Dutch scientists predict that if everyone stopped eating meat, 2.7 billion hectares of the land used for cattle grazing would become available, as well as 100 million hectares of land currently used to grow feed-crops for livestock.
Promoting biodiversity
In a more vegetarian world, the diversity of life on Earth would probably also improve. In fact, the use of land for livestock farming, either for direct grazing or for producing animal feed, is one of the main causes of loss of habitat and a threat to biodiversity.
As of January 2021, about 1% of the world's population is vegan, which amounts to roughly 79 million people. Since veganism is on the rise, this percentage is likely to grow steadily over the next few years. The prediction is that by 2031, one in ten people will be vegan.
“Changing your diet to avoid animal products reduces your emissions for a typical global consumer by 28 percent, land use by 75% and water pollution by around 60%,” says Poore. “Diet change is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the environment.”
In Leviticus 11, the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and sets out which animals can be eaten and which cannot: “You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.
Not only can humans obtain all the necessary protein and nutrients from a no meat diet, but there are a plethora of health benefits associated with offsetting meat intake with plant-based foods.
The first major evolutionary change in the human diet was the incorporation of meat and marrow from large animals, which occurred by at least 2.6 million years ago.
A new study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution , suggests that early humans first cooked food around 780,000 years ago. Before now, the earliest evidence of cooked food was around 170,000 years ago, with early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals using fire to cook vegetables and meat.
The psychology behind eating meat
Yet, many of us continue to eat meat regardless. Benjamin Buttlar, a social psychologist from the University of Trier, Germany, attributes this to habit, culture and perceived needs. "I think a lot of people just enjoy the taste. And the other thing is the identity part of eating.
Our Digestive System Doesn't Like Meat
Carnivores have short intestinal tracts that allow meat to pass quickly through their digestive system. Humans' intestinal tracts are much longer, like those of plant-eaters. This gives the body more time to break down fiber and absorb the nutrients from plant-based foods.
Archaeological and palaeo-ontological evidence indicate that hominins increased meat consumption and developed the necessary fabricated stone tools while their brains and their bodies evolved for a novel foraging niche and hunting range, at least 3 million years ago.
Previous estimates based on animal studies were too small and thus inflated how much animal protein our ancient ancestors ate, she said. Instead, the first farmers, who lived around 12,000 years ago, likely ate no more than 40 to 50 percent of their protein from animal sources.
It's not a coincidence that the earliest evidence of widespread human meat-eating coincides in the archaeological record with Homo habilis, the “handyman” of early humans.
But we are uniquely capable of choosing between cruelty and kindness, so we should never willfully inflict pain on any being—human or nonhuman. Humans have the ability to reason and make compassionate choices, so we must end the use of animals for food in favor of a humane, vegan way of eating.
More Meat, Less Money
According to an Oxford University study, meatless diets also reduce food costs by as much as 34%.
Well … Although many humans choose to eat both plants and meat, earning us the dubious title of “omnivore,” we're anatomically herbivorous. The good news is that if you want to eat like our ancestors, you still can: Nuts, vegetables, fruit, and legumes are the basis of a healthy vegan lifestyle.
Jesus ate fish and is seen as completely without sin, suggesting that eating fish is not a sin. The Bible does not explicitly state that Jesus ate any meat other than fish, and Webb cites the fact that no lamb is mentioned at the Last Supper as evidence that he did not.
What did Jesus eat on a typical day? The short answer: a lot of bread. Bread was a staple in the typical daily diet in the first-century Greco-Roman world, supplemented with limited amounts of local fruits and vegetables, oil, and salt. Bread in first-century Galilee would have been made with wheat or barley flour.
There is no direct statement on the subject by Jesus in the New Testament. The story of Jesus feeding fish to people would support the view that Jesus may have been a pescatarian. Paul seems to have been more open to meat eating, but even Paul was open to vegetarianism.
One of the earliest followers of what we now consider a vegan diet was Arab philosopher and poet Al-Maʿarri who abstained from animal products for his health and beliefs on the transmigration of souls and animal welfare.
That means, according to this study, the dietary emissions for meat-eaters are 50 to 54 per cent higher than they are for vegetarians and 99 to 102 per cent higher than for vegans. This also means that everyone can help halt climate change just by eating great-tasting plant-based foods.
If that's the difference a vegan makes in one day, imagine the number of animals that are saved every month, every year, or over the course of a lifetime simply by choosing a vegan diet. That's around 30 animals a month, 365 animals a year, and thousands of animals in a single human lifetime.
Our cultural ability to cook makes meat easier to break down and has famously been put forth as the cause of a suite of physical changes in the Homo genus, from smaller teeth, to smaller guts, to reduced jaw muscles. But as steak tartare proves, humans can eat raw meat as long as it's cut into bite-size pieces.