Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[Aractus]

Now, if you value suffering, then one should not eat meat. Its pretty simple. What happened in the past is irrelevant. The fact that we might always cause some harm is irrelevant. The ethical principle is the same, if you value suffering then one should do ones best to stop causing suffering. Eating meat is cruel, and atheists completely undermine their philosophical integrity with these nonsensical appeals to nature.

I appreciate you posting on topic, and I'll explain why you're wrong.

Firstly, we need meat in our diets. Yes you can substitute it for other animal products like eggs and dairy, which is why dairy can play such an important part in a balanced diet, even a balanced vegetarian diet.

Unfortunately this is not possible with a vegan diet. And you've ignored the fact that ethically we need to be more concerned with our own well being than that of the food we eat.

To eat healthy with a vegan diet you have to plan every single meal, you literally have to spend your whole life planning your meals because if you don't then you won't be getting enough nutrients in your diet - iron, protein, omega-3, calcium, vitamins, etc. Most vegans are deficient in these. And for some people with allergies it will be literally impossible to eat a balanced healthy vegan diet.

Perhaps most importantly, it's actually impossible to get animal protein in a vegan diet. Yes you can get plant protein, but it's not the same. Animal-based protein in meat, milk, eggs, etc. contains all the required amino acids in the right amounts. Plant based protein does not. It's inferior quality protein as it doesn't meet our dietary needs, and plants contain less quantity of protein as well.

B12 isn't found in any non-processed plant-based foods. So a vegan will be deficient in it.

Vegan breast milk is deficient in important nutrients for babies; and feeding babies "vegan formula" can, and does, result in death! If breast milk is unavailable, babies need formula made from cow's milk.

Further reading:

It's a myth that we don't need animal based foods - or that all of them can be "easily" substituted.