
Ask HN: Why do we kill and eat other living beings? - happy-go-lucky
I&#x27;ve been to places where they take wandering lizards into their hands and leave them in a safe haven.<p>Do we really have such a scarcity of food?<p>Fellow HN&#x27;rs, it&#x27;s my genuine question please.
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QuantumAphid
Because human physiology evolved in an environment in which critical nutrients
were sourced predominantly (^exclusively animal in list below) in the flesh of
animals.

Examples of key animal-based nutrients: Vitamins: A, B6, B12^, D3^, F, K2^;
Amino Acids: Creatine, Carnitine, Carnosine, Taurine; Heme Iron; CoQ10; CLA;
Cholesterol

This list does not include nutrients/vitamins which often lead to deficiencies
when sourced in plants, due to very low bioavailability or antinutrients which
block the absorption of the nutrients.

So, why do we kill and eat other living beings? Because we evolved this way
and it is part of our natural diet.

~~~
moreranchplease
Vitamin A: widely available in plants not sure why this is listed.

B6: also widely available in plants

B12: Should be supplemented, most people get this from fortified foods.

B12 deficiency is common across both vegans and those who eat animals.

D3: main source is the sun. again, deficiency is common across both vegans and
those who eat animals.

F: This is common outside of the animal kingdom

K2: Found in soy

Amino acids: also found in most non animal foods.

Creatine: For most people your body produces enough of this to function. This
can be supplemented.

Carnitine: your body uses the amino acids lysine and methionine to create
carnitine.

Taurine: not essential

Heme iron: not essential and actually may be detrimental

CoQ10: commonly found in vegan diets

CLA: True, not found outside animals. CLA is controversial as there isn’t
clear evidence on wether it is good or bad. It is not essential however.

Cholesterol: Your body makes it.

The most common deficiency among vegans is B12 I believe.

There are millions of people thriving on a vegan diet. They consistently test
with better biomarkers than non vegans. Many of your favorite celebrities are
vegan, many athletes as well. The largest associations for both the U.S and
E.U recognize vegan diets as safe and adequate for a healthy life.

Yes we evolved to be able to eat many things and thrive. That doesn’t mean we
need to.

~~~
pickdenis
I lived the first 18 years of my life as a healthy child that ate no meat. I
now eat meat. Why? It's tasty and everyone else does it. Should we stop mass
murdering sentient beings? Probably[1]. Is hunting and killing on an
individual basis okay? I think that should be left to every individual to
decide for themselves. If you don't want to kill animals, then don't. But
don't stop me, a fellow animal, from doing it.

[1]: Sadly, our economic system does not agree.

~~~
QuantumAphid
Perhaps you did not eat meat, but you almost certainly ate animal products of
some form (eggs, butter, milk, cheese, yogurt, human breast milk or formula
when you were an infant, etc.) which is all the animal-based foods you need to
obtain the animal nutrients your body needs.

All human diets come at the expense of other animals and creatures. This is a
natural part of life and shall always be so. It is false to beleive that there
is a choice to make between slaughtering animals for food and peaceful
coexistence with nature/animals. That's not an objective accounting and not
reality-based.

For plant-based agriculture, first you take a plot of land away from the
wilderness and native animals. Then you clear the land, purging its native
plants (which are inedible and toxic to humans) and ground-cover, insects and
any pest animals (e.g., birds, woodchucks, racoon, fox, rabbits, mice, to name
just a few). Then you plant monoculture agriculture crop, which over time
depletes the natural soil, worms and microbes of natural nutrients and
requires increasing amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Animal
pests continue to be killed as the crops mature, and then also by harvesting
machinery at the end of the season.

A dramatized question: Would you rather humanely shoot a single steer (or
goat/sheep or similar ruminant) which you could then consume over the course
of a year, assuming you make use of the entire animal? Or would you choose to
avoid meat, but in the process of eating an all-plant-based diet kill dozens
or more wild animals and countless smaller pests and insects while disrupting
local flora/fauna/ecosystems and depleting the soil?

------
ksaj
Plants and fungi are living beings. We eat them for complementary reasons -
what nutrition we don't get from one, we get from the others. I suspect you
wish to engage in a veganist conversation, but until the "rules" are
considered and applied with equal determination for fungi life forms, I have
no interest in the debate that is most likely to emerge from this composed
type of questioning.

Verbal cherry picking is annoying to all except those in the echo chamber.
Nobody has ever said they eat hamburgers only because carrots are so hard to
come by. Scarcity is a clever ruse, but doesn't work here.

~~~
moreranchplease
Fungi aren't animals. They also don't have a central nervous system and they
don't feel pain. also in most cases not killing the organism by eating a
mushroom.

~~~
ksaj
From below: A fungus is able to search through a maze and apparently remember
the route. Is it sentient?

~~~
moreranchplease
It can react to its environment. That's not the argument. The "rules" are it
isn't an animal.

~~~
ksaj
If you are sticking to the argument so cleanly, then perhaps you can stick to
my answer, which is at the beginning and not the end of the response you are
speaking of.

As I predicted, the purpose of this post was vegan debate, and my answer has
been completely ignored.

~~~
moreranchplease
Fungi aren't animals. Vegans don't eat animal products. Your answer was
ignored because it is not relevant.

If there's a diet you'd like to discuss that involves not eating fungi then go
ahead and make a post for it.

~~~
ksaj
My answer wasn't irrelevant. Go back and re-read it.

It is clear the question asked is a ruse to goad people into a vegan debate.

If you take OP as being 2 questions, then the first answer is at the
beginning, and the answer to the goading question of food scarcity is the end.

But the answer is clearly not what OP was after. Only vegan preaching was
intended.

------
mimixco
Because of biology. Also because the planet could not sustain its current
population on plants alone. Finally, because they're delicious.

The idea that animals should be spared from the dinner table is a quasi-
religious viewpoint not shared by most people.

------
rpiguy
Because they taste good.

