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Why the vast majority of vegetarians return to eating meat within a few years. Is eating meat, in fact, “in our genes”?
For the vast majority of vegetarians, abstaining from meat is only a phase rather than a permanent life choice.
According to Psychology Today, roughly 75% of vegetarians eventually return to eating meat with 9 years being the average length of time of abstinence. (1)
The most common reason former vegetarians cited as the reason they returned to meat was declining health.
One vegetarian turned omnivore put it very succinctly:
I’ll take a dead cow over anemia any time.
Other former vegetarians cited persistent physical weakness despite eating a whole foods plant-based diet while others returned to meat at the recommendation of their doctor.
Another big reason that vegetarians returned to meat was due to irresistible cravings. This occurred even among long-term vegetarians.
Respondents talked about their protein cravings or how the smell of cooking bacon drove them crazy.
One survey participant wrote:
I just felt hungry all the time and that hunger would not be satisfied unless I ate meat.
Another put it more humorously:
Starving college student + First night back home with the folks + Fifty or so blazin’ buffalo wings waiting in the kitchen = Surrender.
Even the hugely popular Netflix documentary What The Health was unable to name a single vegan population group that was successful long term!
Sustainable Meat Proves Enticing
About half of vegetarians originally gave up meat for ethical reasons.
Pictures of confined animals standing on concrete in their own excrement and the stench of factory farms on country roads from 5 miles away are no doubt good reasons to turn away from meat.
Some former vegetarians, however, have recognized and embraced the grassfed movement, finding their way back to sustainable and humanely raised, cruelty-free meats as a real ethical alternative.
Some of these converts view buying grassfed beef and other sustainably raised animal foods as a new form of activism similar to their boycott of factory farmed meats when they were vegetarians.
Berlin Reed, a long-term vegetarian with the tattoo “vegan” on his neck is one of these. (2)
Now known as “the ethical butcher”, he believes that promoting customer contact with butchers which has been lost in recent decades with the rise of factory farming is the key to an improved and sustainable meat system.
Is Meat Consumption “In Our Genes”?
The article in Psychology Today ends on a baffled note with the author wondering if meat eating could potentially be in our genes? (3)
I submit that the results of this survey are not surprising and are, in fact, a testament to the research of Dr. Weston A. Price.
Dr. Price, traveled the world early in the last century living amongst and studying 14 isolated cultures.
During this adventure, he documented these isolated people groups consuming their ancestral diet in great detail.
Amazing pictures and the data from his analysis of these foods can be found in his masterpiece Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Dr. Price concluded that while the diets of these natives varied widely, nutrient-dense animal foods high in the fat-soluble true vitamin A, D, and K2 (also known as Activator X) were the common denominators.
Consumption of these animal foods was revered in these communities as they bestowed vibrant health, easy fertility, healthy children, and high resistance to chronic and infectious diseases.
Vegetarian Cultures Compared to Omnivores
This discovery was actually a disappointment to Dr. Price.
He had expected to find the vegetarian cultures to be the healthiest cultures of all. This was due to the vegetarians of his day in the 1920s and 1930s being healthier than Americans eating a processed diet.
However, the ancestral vegetarian cultures he examined displayed far more degeneration and tooth decay than the omnivore cultures.
Dr. Price’s observation that vegetarians suffered from more cavities has been confirmed by peer-reviewed study in recent years.
Besides issues with caries, vegetarians also suffer from a high risk of fractures compared to the general population.
Dr. Price’s scientific integrity demanded recognition of the fact that the health of the indigenous omnivores far exceeded that of the vegetarian societies.
Those consuming a wide variety of marine seafood exhibited the most vibrancy of all.
Therefore, in the famous words of Pink Floyd, “Eat yer meat!”
And….crickets and other mass-produced bugs don’t count as a sustainable meat option despite what mainstream media claims! (4)
Ancestrally-inspired meat eaters hate factory farms whether it be for animals or insects!
(1, 3) Psychology Today
(2) Beating a Humane Retreat Back to Meat
(4) The Risks of Eating Commercially-farmed Insects
Sera Ant via Facebook
I’m vegan, and allergic to everything I could never eat meat though, just thinking about a slab of flesh in front of me makes me want to hurl… I get sick enough from soy, and wheat among other random things I don’t think I could keep a dead animal down…
Erica
Hi Sera Ant,
The following statements in parathesis are from the article “Copper-Zinc Imbalance: Unrecognized Consequence of Plant-Based Diets and a Contributor to Chronic Fatigue.”
I think that you may need to go on the GAPS diet due to the allergies. Since you seem to not really tolerate meat, I wonder if you have a copper-zinc imbalance: “I feel that digestive recovery is the beginning, whether a person is coming from the standard American diet or some version of a light or fat-restricted diet. As in my case, the particular nutritional dilemmas a person has gotten into can tell a lot about the struggles developing in his or her body. Gittleman, who had studied the work of Paul Eck, develops his point made above: “Many people switch to a lighter diet because red meats and other types of animal protein feel ‘heavy’ in their system. Ironically, this feeling can develop from copper excess, or zinc deficiency, or adrenal insufficiency. Individuals with copper-zinc imbalance have trouble digesting and absorbing fat and protein in particular, so they often opt for diets that avoid foods rich in these nutrients.”
Being vegan for a number of years without getting adequate zinc in the diet can be very dangerous, especially in the modern world. Without adequate zinc, large amounts of copper can be stored into the tissues and can cause a lot of problems: “Disruption of the copper-zinc ratio is an overlooked contributor to intractable fatigue that follows excessive reliance on a plant-based diet. The result is toxic accumulation of copper in tissues and critical depletion of zinc through excretion.”
Here is the article for you regarding this issue:
http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-diseases/metabolic-disorders/591-copper-zinc-imbalance
mezzovoice
I am not surprised that you get sick from soy. It is not something one should eat in any quantity, unless fermented. But “I can’t keep a dead animal down” is vegan-speak. I never think of meat as “dead animal” just as I never think of broccoli puree as “dead vegetable”. Both were alive before they end up on your plate. Rather than taking this depressive look on food we should be grateful that the world/God/the Universe, take you pick, provides us with things to eat to keep us healthful and happy. Not using these resources means refusing the gift of nature and denying your body the things it needs. Respect animals, by all means, But don’t forget that, by nature, you are nothing but another animal and deserve that same respect
Emily @ Butter Believer
I LOVE this.
“Dead vegetables.” Ha! What a great response to one of the more popular, illogical “vegan-speak” catchphrases. Well-said.
Sera Ant
I never felt good before I was vegan…
Krissy
I too was vegetarian /nearly vegan for nearly 9 years. I began eating meat with my pregnancy in which right away I began severely wanting meat. Even vegan friends of mine talk about having to eat cheese or sushi in their pregnancies. Years earlier my body was craving “something”…..I tried adding in eggs for a year. Unfortunately in the early years I also consumed a lot of soy. I was always chiefly concerned and opposed to “factory” farming. We consume grass fed, organically raised meats, I still wil not eat beef; however, we lots of bison instead. I do eat some raw cheese; I do not drink cow milk either. I still think milk cow milk is basically for baby cows. Great post!!!!
Linda
Very good post, Sarah. Last weekend I went to a baby shower for a relative who is vegetarian. I very badly wanted to find a way to tell her about eating well for her baby and herself. I found a post you wrote (don’t remember when) about the sacred foods cultures ate. It was excellent. I hope you don’t mind but I copied some of the main points and wrote the name of your blog at the end so she can look you up. She started reading the note and then gave me a puzzled look. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her since so I don’t know if she thinks I’m as loony as the rest of the family does. I couldn’t help thinking she will be a new mother bringing a brand new baby into the world. We all want our babies to be as healthy as they can be but we don’t really know how to do that anymore. I should mention she does eat seafood so I guess she’s not a strict vegetarian.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Hi Linda, feel free to use that info any way you can to get the word out especially to women of childbearing age who are pregnant or are planning to get pregnant. It is so much easier and better to prevent problems in your child than attempting to backpedal later and fix the problems that occur from the mother not eating a nutrient dense, traditional diet during pregnancy and feeding this type of diet to her child during his/her growing years.
Brandi
I have been a vegetarian since I was 15 (14 years). I have four children between the ages of 18 mths and 6 years old. I did not eat any meat throughout my pregnancies, and my children are all very healthy and rarely get sick. I too find it offensive to say that we are hurting our children by eating this way. Many vegetarians get rid of the meat, but think it is ok to eat a bunch of processed foods & “fake” meats. That tends to give vegetarians a bad rep. We eat whole fresh foods, vegetables, fruits, beans/legumes and some grains which we soak/sprout ourselves, and nuts & seeds. I workout intensely 5 to 6 days a week, and never feel like I am lacking energy to make it through my workouts or my day. The only supplement I need is Vitamin B12 and since the DRA is pretty low, I don’t feel bad about having to take a single vitamin daily. If these vegetarians are switching back to meat due to lack of energy or health, they are not consuming a good variety of foods to ensure they get everthing they need.
Angela
Just want to mention that I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 20 years and never ate a bite of meat my entire pregnancy. My son was born 100% healthy and was almost 9 pounds. I nursed him for 13 months and never lacked milk for him. He is very bright and healthy. To say that vegetarians are possibly hurting their children during pregnancy is offensive to me. There are many people who eat meat because they don’t give any thought to their diets at all, which seems much more dangerous to me. I doubt you will find too many vegetarians that don’t think daily about what they are eating.
Kari
My friend was vegetarian & just recently went back to eating meat.But the thing is she doesnt even eat good! She says shes against factory farms,but she eats it & fast food!! And me the meat eater is eating grass feed beef & not supporting factory farms. Idk seems a bit backwards to me.
Caroline
My mom has been a vegetarian since she was 12 (she is 62 now) for no reason other than she doesn’t like meat. It grosses her out. But…she doesn’t mind soup made with real stock, wears leather, and would cook meat for the family she just wouldn’t eat it. She subsists almost entirely on hard cheese, nuts, and fruit with an omelet thrown in every once in a while and a weekly pizza night. Not the optimal diet for sure, but at least it’s not filled with gross soy-based fake meats and whatnot. Those gross her out even more than real meat thank goodness!
I too used to be a vegetarian…but I recovered. 😉
Brenda
I see story after story about people who had to go back to eating meat to feel better and get energy back. I know for myself if I go without eating meat for even one lunch or dinner that I feel unsatisfied, I get hungry so much faster, and just feel anxious. I saw a vegetarian say that people miss eating meat because “people are addicted to meat”………..like it is sugar or a drug. I had to laugh at that one. Our bodies crave meat for it’s nutrients, not because it is an additive substance.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Excellent point Brenda. There are good cravings and bad cravings. I sometimes get cravings for fish eggs and I can tell you they are NOT addictive! LOL I think I sometimes get these cravings because there is some nutrient in them that I desperately need.
Even a sugar craving can be good as it tells you that your gut is imbalanced and that you need more fat in your diet. Cravings are information we need to listen to and when we ignore them we do so at our peril.
Annie Yanuzo Conant via Facebook
I personally will probably never return to meat eating (vegetarian for 12 yrs, now vegan), but I fully support and even encourage others to eat whole food diets that include organic dairy/eggs and grass fed meat. The only ‘meat’ that I ever miss is pepperoni, hahaha.
Kristen Sanders via Facebook
some of the healthiest people in the world eat tons of seafood. As long as you’re not buying farmed fish and you pay attention to where it’s coming from, seafood is good for you… certain types of fish in particular. Especially fish broths
Lisa
I learn so much here! Thanks, Sarah, for all the informative posts. ~Lisa