Humans don't need meat for an optimal diet

"Humans have no known anatomical, physiological, or genetic adaptation to meat consumption."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BMOjVYgYaG8
So it is fallacious to assume that we would need meat for an optimal diet.

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.” — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association)

Have you ever considered this?:

We all claim to care about animals and to regard them as having at least some moral value. We all claim to agree that it’s wrong to inflict “unnecessary” suffering and death on animals and--whatever disagreement we may have about when animal use is necessary—we all agree that the suffering and death of animals cannot be justified by human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. We condemn Michael Vick for dog fighting precisely because we feel strongly that any pleasure that Vick got from this activity could not possibly justify what he did.

So how can we justify the fact that we kill many billions of land animals and fish every year for food? However “humanely” we treat and kill these animals, the amount of animal suffering we cause is staggering. Yet no one maintains that animal foods are necessary for optimal health. Indeed, mounting empirical evidence points to animal foods being detrimental for human health. But however you evaluate that evidence, there can be no serious doubt that we can have excellent health with a vegan diet.

The best justification we have for the unimaginable amount of suffering and death that we impose on animals is that they taste good. We enjoy the taste of animal foods. But how is this any different from Michal Vick claiming that his dog fighting operation was justifiable because he enjoyed watching dogs fight? Vick liked sitting around a pit watching animals fight. We enjoy sitting around the summer barbecue pit roasting the corpses of animals who have had lives and deaths that are as bad, if not worse than, Vick’s dogs. What is the difference between Michael Vick and those of us who eat animal foods?
Quote from an excellent book: http://www.eatlikeyoucarebook.com/

Vegan/strict vegetarian reply to 'Doesn't God want us to eat animals'

Vegans are claiming it is wrong to inflict unnecssary suffering and death, and thus we can't justify consuming animals, since we can live and thrive on a vegan diet.

"Even if you believe that you have a soul and animals don’t, and that we ought to prefer the interests of a human in any situation in which we must choose— that is, in any situation of legitimate conflict— that gets us right back to the fact that when you are deciding what to eat tonight , there is no conflict. There is only a choice. If you choose the animal product, you are participating in suffering and death in the absence of any sort of conflict or compulsion. Your only justification is that you enjoy consuming animal products or that it is more convenient for you to do so.

Think about it this way. Imagine that Michael Vick were to say that dog fighting was okay because dogs don’t have souls. Would you buy that? Imagine that Vick says God wants us to fight dogs because they don’t have souls. Would you buy that? You would respond to Vick that God’s creating us in God’s image means that in situations of conflict between human and nonhumans, we ought to protect the human interest over the animal interest. So in the situation in which a person is in a true emergency situation , such as being in a situation where she is starving to death with no plant foods to eat, it would make sense for a religious person to say that God wants her to kill and eat an animal and that she ought to do so. But saying that God wants us to eat animal foods when we are not in that sort of emergency situation is no different from saying that God wants us to fight dogs. If you would find the latter to be objectionable—outrageous perhaps— you should find the former so as well.

Francione, Gary; Charlton, Anna (2013-06-24). Eat Like You Care: An Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals (Kindle Locations 569-570). Exempla Press. Kindle Edition.
Quote: http://www.eatlikeyoucarebook.com/

There is no ethical justification at all of taking the life of a sentient being: http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-14/news/24986151_1_atlanta-falcons-quarterback-vick-illegal-dog-dog-fights

Vegan answer to: 'If you love animals, then why do you eat their food?"

I posted this reply to a Facebook-poster with this claim.
I hear arguments like that all days, so I am not amused. Anyways, that argument is as illogical as all other arguments that try to justify the consumption of animal products.
If everyone ate a plant-based diet, the food would suffice for everyone, both human and nonhuman animals: http://www.drmcdougall.com/video/expert_testimonies_oppenlander.htm
A person eating animal products is in total consuming more plants, since he/she is eating animals that are eating plenty of plants (e.g. a cow eats more than 10 times more than a human). If animals do have a moral value, we are not morally justified to use them, including not to consume them.

Please consider this:
“The details of the charges claim that Vick sponsored illegal dog fighting, gambled on dog fights and permitted acts of cruelty against animals on his property. The talk shows have been filled with talking heads from the "humane community" condemning dog fighting and calling for Vick to be punished. Nike and Reebok have suspended products endorsed by Vick.

Please let me be very clear from the outset: I think that dog fighting is a terrible thing.

But I must say that the Vick case rather dramatically demonstrates what I call our "moral schizophrenia" about animals.

That is, if one thing is clear, it is that we do not think clearly about our moral obligations to animals.

In this country alone, we kill more than 10 billion land animals annually for food. The animals we eat suffer as much as the dogs that are used in dog fighting.

There is no "need" for us to eat meat, dairy or eggs. Indeed, these foods are increasingly linked to various human diseases and animal agriculture is an environmental disaster for the planet. We impose pain, suffering and death on these billions of sentient nonhumans because we enjoy eating their flesh and the products that we make from them.

There is something bizarre about condemning Michael Vick for using dogs in a hideous form of entertainment when 99 percent of us also use animals that are every bit as sentient as dogs in another hideous form of entertainment that is no more justifiable than fighting dogs: eating animals and animal products."
“
Quote: http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-14/news/24986151_1_atlanta-falcons-quarterback-vick-illegal-dog-dog-fights

What do you think?

How a vegan feels about seeing meat, milk, eggs and other animal products

How a vegan feels about seeing meat, milk, eggs and other animal products:
 I saw a dead chicken on my newsfeed. I was saddened by his death. Not only me, but also his family and friends.
Before his death he was living as a slave, bred up and used, unnecessary exploited, treated as property, a life full of suffering and misery, treated as a commodity. We speak about love, nonviolence and respect; but our plates are filled with unnecessary violence, suffering and exploitation.

Why not look at the situation in the eyes of the victim, the animal that gets abused.
Why not extend our love, compassion and justice to all species.
After all, whether we are consciousness in a human body or in a chicken body or any other body, doesn't change the reality that we are sentient beings with a desire and right to live.

Dog abuse for enjoyment is morally wrong. Unnecessary killing of dogs or
chickens for taste and pleasure is morally no different, since we can get all nutrition through a vegan diet. [More info here: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/what-michael-vick-taught-us/ ]
See the videos at www.vegankit.com - learn about how the animals are, what they go through and their rights.

Take care! I only want to help everyone on this planet.