Brave post, Wybiral. I've seen a lot of threads like this, full of misinformation and fear. In my experience, no amount of logic will convince most meat-eaters of the unhealthiness of their diet. Our culture is swamped in myth (meat protein is needed, humans are made to eat meat, etc), and most people simply cannot challenge the depths of that. Further, intentionally changing diet past the age of 6 requires changing habits most people are unwilling to change - too much work (or so they believe). But it's good to discuss - opens a few minds.

Humans are physiologically adapted to a vegan diet - fruit, nuts, vegetables. That is what makes them thrive physically. Incisors? You've got to be kidding - they are dull like all herbivores' teeth are. They are meant to pierce fruit. Try eating a full rat with just your teeth and then tell me how adapted to meat-eating you are. You'll never finish the rat. You'll teeth on it for a bit, decide you can't eat it (and it tastes like shit), and you'll get hungry and go pick a piece of fruit. Cholesterol? A dog can eat meat and not get cholesterol poisoning - their digestive system is adapted to it. Humans eat meat and the cholesterol rises, eventually killing them. Humans also have a long digestive tract, as do all herbivores. Natural meat-eaters like dogs and cats have short digestive tracts. That's why you rarely see a constipated vegan, or a vegan with appendicitis. Blood acidity is another. When humans eat a high protein diet, their blood acidity rises, it leeches calcium from their bones. The result: osteoporosis (as well as diabetes). (If you think osteoporosis is caused by a lack of calcium in the diet, you've been duped by the meat industry's propaganda. Osteoporosis is directly related to a high protein diet, and does not correlate with lack of calcium in the diet. Eskimos are a good example - very high calcium, very high protein diet - very high osteoporosis rates.) There are so many diseases directly and scientifically related to injesting animal products it takes a book to even cover the major ones...

If you would genuinely like more information on diet, and would like to see through some of the myths you were taught to believe, check out John Robbins books... Diet For a New America and Food Revolution. You'll get quite an eyeful, and will know how to eat a lot healthier (even if you continue eating meat).

Humans are animals - just another species. Some species are adapted to meat-eating, some are not. Further, if some humans continue to eat meat their bodies will start to adapt - their intestines will shorten, etc. If they did so in the wild, they might get sharp claws and teeth, but with the current meat-eaters diet, the most they could hope for is to grow a fork. If that is what you want to become in a few millions years, a species adapted to eating meat and ingesting ridiculous chemicals posing as food, then keep eating what you are. You will change (you are changing), in more ways than one. There is a reason the human body naturally takes a fuel of fruits and vegetables. As it adapts, you'll end up with a different body, so you won't be what we call "human". In fact, you may just die off. Extinction is a form of adaptation. The human species may not bend in that direction without failure, as cancer and other diseases is demonstrating.

Why may it not bend? In my view, it has to do with evolution, and part of evolution is the growth of awareness and compassion. Humans feel pain, and can be aware of the pain they cause in others. That is why they feel 'guilty' when they mistreat animals, and why killing animals is repugnant to most people (even most meat-eaters don't like to do it or think about it being done). It is unnatural. A lion is a relatively primitive species, and primitiveness is reflected in its diet and its awareness of what it does. Humans are a more evolved species, and as their awareness grows, they seek to 'tread lightly'. On an individual level, you can tell a lot about a person's 'personal evolution' by looking at their diet, and at what they kill and how they kill it (or hire others to kill it). For an evolved human, animals are friends not food.

A life free of brutality is what most humans desire, but if you think humans can achieve that while being brutal to the animals and planet around them, guess again. What goes around, comes around.

So it is a choice. Further, the human body is an amazing device. You can eat all kinds of garbage and it will keep running as best it can - amazingly well in fact. Just look at what people eat. But the ride won't be as comfortable, and it will fail sooner. Personally, I prefer to put in the manufacturer-recommended fuel, and I've gotten EXCELLENT health results doing so. Plus, I can look a cow in the eye again, and know that I can call myself its friend. That is the natural role of humans on earth - we are the gardeners and healers. We have the intelligence to help lower species - to assist the system, to facilitate life. And that is when we feel great about ourselves.

Is is hard to be vegan? Not at all. There are far more fruits and vegetables than there are meats in the grocery store. It is just a matter of changing old habits. Try that spaghetti and meatballs as spaghetti and zuchini (or whatever). No meat-eater has left my table complaining of hunger, I assure you of that. Usually they love what I make. And I don't have to weigh my foods to have a balanced diet. They key is diversity - just eat lots of different foods, not just the same food over and over, and listen to your (whole) body. Raw and organic is optimum.

Will you be ridiculed and sometimes attacked by the meat-eaters around you? Probably. Meat-eaters are very threatened by vegans. They don't like to be reminded how they are injuring themselves and others - and deep down, no matter how they deny it, they know it. That is why most will not read the books above that I suggested, and why virtually all of them will not finish reading them. They don't want to hear the facts, or consider an(other) 'inconvenient truth'.

But it is only inconvenient in the short term - the benefits are considerable. I even enjoy my food more now, taste and all. I eat like a king! Meat and dairy (drinking a cow's milk is natural for a calf, not a human) is truly repulsive once you're out of the habit.

A philosophy statement I like...
Vegan Values -- Stanley Sapon

How to Win an Argument With a Meat Eater...
How To Win An Argument With a Meat-Eater