Vegan isn't just about meat, it also proscribes eggs and milk. There are a lot of foods that are better if you have some decent egg and milk analogs.
But mainly, people eat vegan for ethical or health reasons. So maybe they still really like meat-like textures and flavors, but have strong reasons for not eating actual meat.
Almost as if evolution had bred them into meat-eating animals!
Nah, that's crazy talk.
Vegans who are vegans for health reasons - dumb dumb dumb. A cursory biological examination of the human body demonstrates that we are omnivores. That means the human body has adapted over tens of millions of years to eat both plants and animals.
Additionally, many vegans will go heavy on soy and wheat based foods. There are many health issues surrounding soy (citations my other comment in this thread), and wheat products are not particularly healthy.
The arguments for veganism for health reasons is largely unsupported by any sort of actual science.
I don't think humans have been around that long and that our ancestors were probably not meat eaters, since most other apes don't eat meat.
The consensus is that red meat is unhealthy and there are healthier alternatives to get similar nutrients. Instead of eating other meat as well, soy provides a similar amount of protein without the saturated fat or cholesterol.
There's also the impact the meat industry has on the environment and I think the reason for someone being vegan isn't just necessarily one thing but can be several reasons for their decision.
Actually if you have an even basic understanding of biology and how factory farming works in the United States you'd know that this isn't totally true. A large majority of meat sold in supermarkets, fast food and chain restaurants in the US use meat that is non organic and absolutely full of antibiotics. In addition, between bovine growth hormone, mad cow disease, pink slime, the link between cardiovascular health and red meat, etc, are you actually going to make the argument that eating a vegan diet has no health benefits?
>Additionally, many vegans will go heavy on soy and wheat based foods.
Funny, as a vegetarian I (and all others I know) eat a very balanced diet that doesn't include an excessive of anything. But since you're happy to throw around generalizations, many carnivores will go heavy on fried chicken and big macs. There are many health issues surrounding obesity, heart disease, and diabetes linked to these.
Different arguments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism#Health_considera...
She would love to eat fake meat if it tasted as good as the real thing. I would try it too - just to reduce my iron and acidic intake from all the meat I currently eat. There's a market for this. Not just about "vegans".
Assuming we keep advancing technologically, there will come a time when "fake" meat is indistinguishable from real meat, at least as healthy, cheaper and more environmentally friendly to produce. When this happens, that is when people will start eating it en masse.
When enough people have started eating it and given enough time, politics will step in to ban farming animals for food. This will take quite a while because there will be a hard core of people who want to keep farming and eating animals. I imagine this part alone will take a couple of generations.
Why wouldn't you?
I like the taste of meat but don't want to be a party to torturing animals. Not sure how eating whatever tastes good and fits with my morals is a cop out.